S08.E19: The Sleep Styler, Blendtique, MealEnders, Rareform

[Whimsy]

On ‎3‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 8:50 PM, cooksdelight said:

Sleep Styler lady lied....they aren't $39, they're $45. But I want some. I color my hair so not having to blow it dry and use a curling iron would be ideal. I'm going to order some when they come out on Amazon at a lower price. Conair has a similar product, but it has a wire inside that allows you to bend the roller, so that's not appealing to me.

 

Lol.  Me too!  I went right on the website to order some and it was $57 with shipping so I didn't.

[cooksdelight]

Holy cow!!She must be raising her prices daily!

[lh25]

I went to the Blendique(sp?) site, and my problem is that from what I see, all kits have the same 4 red wines.  I don't do red wine, they might want to think about branching out.

[Tara Ariano]

In case you missed it, here's the Previously.TV post on the episode!

More Like Drunk Tank

The wine flows free and furiously on one segment of Shark Tank, and that's all the excuse we need to delve into the curious relationship of Barbara Corcoran and Kevin O'Leary.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

I lost respect for the eye doctor when she said she and her husband both still had student loans...but she put 100k of her own money into the business...yeah that's why you still have student loans. Also if the B-roll were their actual house in San Diego, that is also why. It's disingenuous to be all "we still have student loans 10 years in!" when she's clearly put plenty of her money elsewhere. She could've chosen to pay off those loans first. If they didn't, then either she's in bad shape financially, or if she's not, then she had the choice of where to put her money and apparently decided continuing to pay off the loans slowly was better for herself long term.

I personally do not disagree with this type of attitude regarding finances (pay off the debt first before anything else), but I don't think that this particular family's financial choices are very different than most doctor (especially dual-doctor) families. Two friends of mine are married with three kids and are both doctors. They still have loans, as they say they will probably be paying it off for a LONG time, but they are also have a pretty decent sized mortgage and paying private school/day care tuition. I personally wouldn't be able to handle such a big mortgage, but I think for them, like most doctors, their expected income stream will consistently be high, and stable, so the need worry about debt long term isn't that big a deal. Also, after four years of toiling away at 45-55K a year while working 60 hour workweeks, I am sure they feel like spending more now is a nice reward.

[theatremouse]

My quibble is not with her choice to not pay off the loans first. It's with how she brought up that they still have the loans in her segment. To me, she had a sort of "and on top of it all!" type tone to it. If she and her husband did the math before taking this path and figured either, hey, we can afford this, let's spend our onhand cash on a VERY nice house and starting a new business that we think will result in beaucoup bucks and even if it doesn't we're in high income specialities so we don't have to worry about long term cash-flow that's a reasonable enough decision. But if that was their thought process, it's super disingenuous to be all "and even after 10 years of practicing we both are still paying off student loans". Well of course they are because they chose to spend their money elsewhere. That's what I meant at the end there. Either she made a totally reasonable choice, in which case she should not be boohooing about the student loans, or if the loans actually are a source of hardship, then she shouldn't have put so much cash into the other things. She's trying to have it both ways.

[KaveDweller]

22 hours ago, chocolatine said:

I've definitely seen her wear that dress in several episodes this season. I wouldn't be surprised if Shark Tank filmed several episodes in one day and maybe crammed the whole season into one week of filming, since none of the Sharks live in LA (except maybe for Robert now that he's married to Kym and she films DWTS in LA) and have many other commitments.

They do film several episodes in a day, and I think they air things out of order too. I'm sure they filled all the episodes with Chris Sacca in a row, but they have staggered them out over the season. I guess they want each regular Shark to have a regular presence, and not seem to vanish for weeks at a time.

10 hours ago, sadiegirl said:

On Dragon's Den (Canadian version), they'll do updates on people who didn't get a deal but are doing great, people who didn't get a deal and are still struggling, people who got a deal but it fell through (for whatever reason) and I feel that makes the show about the business world and how businesses can succeed and fail.  When Shark Tank only updates on people who are thrilled, I feel it's nothing but a promotional machine.

I remember a few seasons ago there were two college-age girls who had a business about nut butter. They made a deal on the show, but then I read on their website the deal fell through. The show did an update on them after that, and never mentioned the deal never happened. 

They've done updates on people who didn't get a deal at all before though. More in earlier seasons than lately.

[roctavia]

The problem with ignoring loans of that magnitude, is that they will continue to grow in volume and they end up paying an obscene amount of money. Unless they got some kind of great deal consolidating or something, they could have an almonst 7% interest rate... Which if they are normal doctor type loans,(Upwards of $250,000 possibly each) they will be accruing $20-50,000 or more per year in interest alone. So waisting 50 grand every year instead of taking that 100,000 and putting it towards making the loans go away, that is not a sound financial move... and if the loans are almost paid off, then why not just finish it and be done with it/ don't bring it up during the presentation?

As an investor, I'd be worried about her financial intelligence (granted, I know we don't have all the details and maybe there is a good reason for it... but it doesn't make sense to me) but maybe she just wanted to fit in a sob story.

Edited March 7, 2017 by roctavia

[needschocolate]

Curler lady - Like others, I found it odd that none of the sharks mentioned "proprietary" or "patent."  I imagine being her patient - "You have a cataract in your left eye and some horrible little crow's feet on both eyes.  I can take care of all of that for you.  Also, your eyesight being as bad as it is, you probably didn't notice how much the hair products and tools you use are damaging your hair, but I have a way you can get the same look without the damage and in only a fraction of the time."

The Wine Guy - I think his product would be more suited to "home parties" - invite all your wine loving friends over to mix and match their own wine, then print out a label and paste it on.  Then, those who really love their "recipe" can order more bottles from the representative.  But I hate wine, so my opinion probably shouldn't matter.

MealEnders - You have finished a normal sized meal, but, while sitting there chatting with friends, you find yourself wanting to nibble some more, so you take of of his "candies" so you don't want to eat more. But, you have to make a conscious decision to eat one. I wondered if they work because, if you eat one, you are making yourself aware that you are full and should stop.  If you can remember to eat one of his candies and had the willpower to do so, then you could also eat something else that is less-than-tasty or brush your teeth, etc or snap a rubber band on your wrist or put a piece of duct tape over your mouth, etc...

Also, he seemed to be marketing the candies only as a way to stop eating at the end of a meal. Wouldn't it be better to promote them as a way to keep from snacking all day? 

The Billboard Bags - never heard of them before.  Thought they were nice..  

[Shellie]

I was wondering why people couldn't just pick up some bottles of wine at the store and then mix and match varieties.

[sasha206]

On 3/4/2017 at 2:25 AM, chocolatine said:

Neither I nor any woman I know spends anywhere close to an hour a day on their hair. And the long hair "beachy waves" style is tired. But I guess this kind of product is right up Lori's alley, so good for the two of them.

 

Yes, the long hair beachy waves style is a tired look for sure!  And the curls she got really didn't look beachy waves -- they looked more like an old fashioned wave you get from a curling iron.   

[HawaiiTVGuy]

On 3/6/2017 at 10:54 AM, theatremouse said:

My quibble is not with her choice to not pay off the loans first. It's with how she brought up that they still have the loans in her segment. To me, she had a sort of "and on top of it all!" type tone to it. If she and her husband did the math before taking this path and figured either, hey, we can afford this, let's spend our onhand cash on a VERY nice house and starting a new business that we think will result in beaucoup bucks and even if it doesn't we're in high income specialities so we don't have to worry about long term cash-flow that's a reasonable enough decision. But if that was their thought process, it's super disingenuous to be all "and even after 10 years of practicing we both are still paying off student loans". Well of course they are because they chose to spend their money elsewhere. That's what I meant at the end there. Either she made a totally reasonable choice, in which case she should not be boohooing about the student loans, or if the loans actually are a source of hardship, then she shouldn't have put so much cash into the other things. She's trying to have it both ways.

I don't disagree with that viewpoint. I am not sure if she threw that in just to be overly dramatic (the whole, I need an investment or we will be on the street kind of thing) or if it was to point out how she quitting her steady income job to be an entrepreneur had some risks.  

[HawaiiTVGuy]

On 3/6/2017 at 4:25 PM, roctavia said:

The problem with ignoring loans of that magnitude, is that they will continue to grow in volume and they end up paying an obscene amount of money. Unless they got some kind of great deal consolidating or something, they could have an almonst 7% interest rate... Which if they are normal doctor type loans,(Upwards of $250,000 possibly each) they will be accruing $20-50,000 or more per year in interest alone. So waisting 50 grand every year instead of taking that 100,000 and putting it towards making the loans go away, that is not a sound financial move... and if the loans are almost paid off, then why not just finish it and be done with it/ don't bring it up during the presentation?

As an investor, I'd be worried about her financial intelligence (granted, I know we don't have all the details and maybe there is a good reason for it... but it doesn't make sense to me) but maybe she just wanted to fit in a sob story.

Again, I am not a fan of debt, but debt doesn't seem to scare them (or other investors) away if the product is right.  IMO the vast majority of businesses are built on debt (loans and/or line of credit) of some form or another, that is why even though a business is "profitable", it doesn't mean they are debt-free.  In the investors mind, even a 7-8% interest rate is worth it, if that money is put into something that brings in 15%+.  I doubt the investors will hold the fact they still have loans against them, because if she used the money to pay off her loans, but needed to take loans out from a bank in order to start the business (not a guarantee as she is as start-up) then she still would have debt.  In fact for investors, the debt being "personal debt" is probably better for them as it isn't tied to the company.  On a personal level for her family, my guess is that if they are on one of those minimal payment plans (30 years?) where they have a very manageable payment schedule, so in other words, the monthly expense of it wouldn't affect the business side at all.  I have a feeling a lot of doctors (and maybe a lot of other professionals) do, let's say their payment plan is $200 a month for 30 years.  That is probably the amount they would spend on one night out for dinner (in a place like NYC), so that is a drop in the bucket of their gross income of 20K a month.  Of course, thinking over the long run, they are losing a lot of money, but again, this allows them to get a jump-start on living comfortably and psychologically they are happy.  This is something I just realized in terms of car buying, I was trying to figure out why people were happy to pay up to 10K more just for higher trims on cars for probably 90% of extras they really don't need or ever use, and then I realized, oh yeah they probably finance, so in their minds, the extra money is a much more manageable 50-100 dollars a month.  

[roctavia]

8 hours ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:

Again, I am not a fan of debt, but debt doesn't seem to scare them (or other investors) away if the product is right.  IMO the vast majority of businesses are built on debt (loans and/or line of credit) of some form or another, that is why even though a business is "profitable", it doesn't mean they are debt-free.  In the investors mind, even a 7-8% interest rate is worth it, if that money is put into something that brings in 15%+.  I doubt the investors will hold the fact they still have loans against them, because if she used the money to pay off her loans, but needed to take loans out from a bank in order to start the business (not a guarantee as she is as start-up) then she still would have debt.  In fact for investors, the debt being "personal debt" is probably better for them as it isn't tied to the company.  On a personal level for her family, my guess is that if they are on one of those minimal payment plans (30 years?) where they have a very manageable payment schedule, so in other words, the monthly expense of it wouldn't affect the business side at all.  I have a feeling a lot of doctors (and maybe a lot of other professionals) do, let's say their payment plan is $200 a month for 30 years.  That is probably the amount they would spend on one night out for dinner (in a place like NYC), so that is a drop in the bucket of their gross income of 20K a month.  Of course, thinking over the long run, they are losing a lot of money, but again, this allows them to get a jump-start on living comfortably and psychologically they are happy.  This is something I just realized in terms of car buying, I was trying to figure out why people were happy to pay up to 10K more just for higher trims on cars for probably 90% of extras they really don't need or ever use, and then I realized, oh yeah they probably finance, so in their minds, the extra money is a much more manageable 50-100 dollars a month.  

I'm sure they have their own reasons for it, and student loan debt is usually a good kind of debt... though a long range payment plan still has payments of like $2000 a month ( of course with some variation, but that's the payment for one person with medical school loans)  

I guess in the long run, whatever make your own financial decisions, but I guess I could have done without her bringing it up as a big boohoo you have to invest! There definitely is an advantage to it being student loans, so there is the option for income based repayment- meaning they won't be on the street if they suddenly lose their income.

[starri]

15 hours ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:

I don't disagree with that viewpoint. I am not sure if she threw that in just to be overly dramatic (the whole, I need an investment or we will be on the street kind of thing) or if it was to point out how she quitting her steady income job to be an entrepreneur had some risks.  

Did she give any indication she was planning on giving up on her practice?  She said something like she was in her office a few days a week and spent the rest of the time on giving the women of America pretty hair.

[basiltherat]

From what I understand, student loan debt is the one debt that cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy.  So that is not necessarily a "good" debt for everyone in general. 

[Jamoche]

When I had student loan debt back in the 80s, the advice was to make paying it off a low priority because the interest rate was so low - just stick to the schedule, don't bother paying ahead. But then when I went to buy a house, they wanted it gone. It wasn't all that high; I went to Texas A&M.

[HawaiiTVGuy]

On 3/10/2017 at 1:28 PM, Jamoche said:

When I had student loan debt back in the 80s, the advice was to make paying it off a low priority because the interest rate was so low - just stick to the schedule, don't bother paying ahead. But then when I went to buy a house, they wanted it gone. It wasn't all that high; I went to Texas A&M.

Did you buy right after the bubble burst?  Right before the bubble, credit unions were more than happy to give us up to 700K in mortgage (around 3K plus per month) even with our student loans.  My wife and I thought they were crazy!  Sorry I just saw you mentioned it was the 80s...I had heard things were really tight back then (along with higher interest rates) probably when banks actually cared about not being burned by delinquent loan customers.

Edited March 17, 2017 by HawaiiTVGuy

[Jamoche]

48 minutes ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:

Did you buy right after the bubble burst?  Right before the bubble, credit unions were more than happy to give us up to 700K in mortgage (around 3K plus per month) even with our student loans.  My wife and I thought they were crazy!  Sorry I just saw you mentioned it was the 80s...I had heard things were really tight back then (along with higher interest rates) probably when banks actually cared about not being burned by delinquent loan customers.

College was in the 80s, the house was Silicon Valley in 1995 - pre-bubble, pre-DotCom boom.

[Whimsy]

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 7:44 PM, KaveDweller said:

I remember a few seasons ago there were two college-age girls who had a business about nut butter. They made a deal on the show, but then I read on their website the deal fell through. The show did an update on them after that, and never mentioned the deal never happened. 

They sell this nut butter (or at least they did less than a year ago) in local grocery stores here.  I think it was Market Basket.  I bought some but then never used it.

[Thriftykins]

I thought the Sleep Styler looked great.  I ordered some a few days after I saw the episode (around March 7th I think).  Not for me; I'm a dude with short hair.  I ordered them for my best friend, who is a lady with long blonde hair, back home.  I'll be visiting home for a week in mid-June so I really hope they arrive there by then so I can give them to her in person.

 

Sleep Style is the 4th Shark Tank product I've purchased.  Bantam Bagels and Three Jerks Jerky I bought once (they were okay, but too expensive to be a repeat customer).  And I bought a Scrub Daddy on impulse once at the Walmart.

On 3/3/2017 at 8:50 PM, cooksdelight said:

I'm not interested in having a bag that was once a billboard...anyone??

I mean, I don't have any problem with it, but it seems like an odd choice to go out of your way for.  The material is worth recycling for a company that already makes bags, but not as some new business.

[stillfangirling]

The only reason I made this account was to say this, so I hope someone listens. Tbh, I'm only 13 and I promise I'll delete this account after I post this.
1-I'd love to say Shark Tank fanfiction exists, but there's pretty much nothin. I write some, but have only published one of them on ff.net. WE NEED GOOD SHARK TANK FANFICTION YOU GUYS.

2-Now I ship Barbara and Kevin, thank you. CorLeary to the max!

3- Lori and Robert? No. No no no no. Do NOT EVER say that. For crying out loud, there's a whole freaking fandom for Robert and his now wife Kym. Go google Sharkaroo right now. The Sharkaroo fangirl army will murder you.

I hope that didn't come off as too immature,

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 3/4/2017 at 9:46 AM, wings707 said:

The rollers are a great idea and I will buy some for my granddaughter when they hit amazon.  I remember sleeping on sponge rollers and they didn't bother me at all.   However I call BS on the woman for one thing.  She said she had frizzy hair.  The top of her head down to the roller was sleek and shiny.  She had her hair styled, THEN put the rollers in for show and tell.  Minor point because those with straight hair will snap them up. 

I don't think it's a minor point because she said these rollers were what made her frizzy hair look like it did on the show, and that's just not true.

 

On 3/4/2017 at 0:12 PM, seacliffsal said:

So many of these products seemed like retreads.  Eagle eyes posters already mentioned Ayds, billboard purses from the 80s, and sponge curlers (my sister used the empty orange juice concentrate tubes for her rollers).  It's just recycling old ideas at this point it seems.

I'm putting way too much thought into this, but the big orange juice cans were more to straighten hair, not to give tight curls like the ones on the show (barrel curls?).  And you didn't use them just on the ends, like these--you'd have the cans all over your head and they attached to your scalp.  And they were hell to sleep in.

It was a little more comfortable if you'd make a ponytail on the top of your head and use the cans/rollers on the hair sticking out up there, so the rollers weren't all around your head, and sleeping was easier.

That's what I think is the best part of the ones on the show--comfort.  But they don't do what she claimed they do.

 

On 3/5/2017 at 9:54 AM, ClareWalks said:

If I wanted to wreck my taste buds so I wouldn't eat as much, I'd just stick a Warhead on the center of my tongue for a minute. Remember those? They're still around. Super sour candies that basically obliterate your mouth. I used to LOVE them when I was a kid, I tried them once as an adult and the flavor is terrible now. They're cheaper and easier to obtain (Walgreens, Dollar Tree, etc) than whatever that dude was selling.

I occasionally have a parotid (salivary) gland that gets clogged, and a doctor once told me to suck on a sour candy to activate the salivary response, to force the clog to open.  During an incident, I decided that if a sour candy is good, a Warhead would be great.  So I popped that thing in my mouth and it was so intense that my salivary glands went berserk and the clog didn't get forced out but the saliva just kept coming, turning that gland into a gigantic growth that completely obliterated my jawline.  Haven't made that mistake again. 

[Thrifty]

My friend for whom I bought the Sleep Styler says it's awesome, though it doesn't curl her hair.  She says "It doesn't really curl my hair but it does give it a lot of body- that's because my hair is so straight that it's hard to curl without heat but the Sleep Styler makes it really full and bouncy"