S10.E18: Nuchas, HavenLock, Kanga, CertifiKID

[GoldenGirl90]

April 7, 2019

A traditional handheld Argentinian snack; a smart security product that helps keep intruders out of the home; a beverage carrier product that keeps items cold; an online tool that helps offer family activities at a discount.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Too bad on the Argentinian Nuchas, but I'm not sure it's scalable for retail.     I think he has a great business if he keeps expanding within NYC. 

The door locks looked great, but any of the sharks would just want to license it out, and I suspect there would be knockoffs pretty quickly.   Maybe partnering with a huge security company would be a way to go.   I think the school market, and corporate would have been a big money maker, with the right shark, and a better production margin, and inventory.   (This is a historic Shark Tank for me, I actually have met one of the lock guys).    

Does the world really need another way to keep beer cold?  Apparently we do need Kanga.    I guess Mark thinks Kanga is a good product, and he'll be a great partner. 

Edited April 8, 2019 by CrazyInAlabama

[rhys]

The door lock thing was pretty hilarious when that first dude could not break it open! Plus he got all out of breath. I can see (sadly & unfortunately) schools getting all over that product. It does seem kinda pricey right now.

[zillabreeze]

2 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

The door locks looked great, but any of the sharks would just want to license it out, and I suspect there would be knockoffs pretty quickly

So true!  Too bad they didn't have the price point much lower before the show. I love the product, but I have FIVE exterior doors.  That's too spendy, but I'd sure feel good having them.

[theatremouse]

Lori irritated me when she chastized empanada guy for not bringing forks. He wasn't unprepared. It's a hand food. I can understand why she might personally want a fork, but it's not like someone bringing bagels would plan to bring forks. Her exaggerated horror was pretentious.

[basiltherat]

Memo to home invaders:  just break a damn window!  Unfortunately, in this day and age, the schools will need it if the price goes down.  

Barbara would have made a barrel of money with the Nunchuck trucks -- she's the shark for food businesses.

It was so wonderful that someone targeted  Mr. Wonderful ON PURPOSE !! He's really, really good at the exit strategy businesss.

[sasha206]

I like the door stop thing for my front door that I have bolted inside because the wind blows it open.  Cheaper than a storm door!  I thought it was a great idea, esp. for schools so I was surprised they didn't invest.

The Certifikid I was meh on.  I agree with Mark -- I could see it getting stale for subscribers.

[BusyOctober]

The two businesses that got the Sharks’ attention were the two I’d leave on the table.  Empanadas?  Um...yes, please!  Door safety appliance was cool, even if the demo didn’t go as planned.  I think schools and municipal buildings would be all over those, especially if they can be priced less.  (Although, sadly in the case of school classroom doors; that wedge wouldn’t  be enough to keep someone with semi-automatic weapons  from just shooting through the door).

Beer cooler thing was useless to me, but my multiple beer drinking days ended a few decades ago.  I can see that getting a lot of sales, especially when partnered/branded with Budweiser.

The mom market- aimed Groupon thing was blah.  That may be making money for them now, but it will fizzle out, just like Groupon.  Potential problems that made me and my friends (mom’s, singles and couples) stop using Groupon: too little content, or repetitive content,  too many restrictions on when the certificates can be used, places go out of business before certificate expires, business decides not to honor certificates any longer... I know this is a different company, but most experiences I had with Groupon were less than stellar.

[eel2178]

16 hours ago, rhys said:

The door lock thing was pretty hilarious when that first dude could not break it open! Plus he got all out of breath. I can see (sadly & unfortunately) schools getting all over that product. It does seem kinda pricey right now.

It seemed to me that the people who need it most 1) wouldn't be able to afford it, and 2) probably would have cheaper doors so the wood could be demolished even with the lock in place.

[eel2178]

42 minutes ago, BusyOctober said:

The mom market- aimed Groupon thing was blah.  That may be making money for them now, but it will fizzle out, just like Groupon.  Potential problems that made me and my friends (mom’s, singles and couples) stop using Groupon: too little content, or repetitive content,  too many restrictions on when the certificates can be used, places go out of business before certificate expires, business decides not to honor certificates any longer... I know this is a different company, but most experiences I had with Groupon were less than stellar.

It seemed to me that the only way someplace could stay in business if they were giving discounted tickets to buyers and a commission to the company, would be to  raise their prices for the people who weren't buying through the discount service.

[Moose135]

18 hours ago, rhys said:

The door lock thing was pretty hilarious when that first dude could not break it open! Plus he got all out of breath.

Loved that! I think it was Mark who asked "Who makes the deadbolt?"

[Jal]

Mark is so annoying with his, "you have to say yes right now". Ugh.

Edited April 8, 2019 by Jal

[Moose135]

6 minutes ago, Jal said:

Mark is so annoying with his, "you have to say yes right now". Ugh.

A few of them do that, but yes, Mark seems to do it more often than the others.

[NoThyme]

Not happy knowing that Kevin went into the kids group-on deal to get meta data of the children. DO NOT give out your children's personal information just to get a discount ticket. The only reason they want it is to make money selling the information to others. 

[Moose135]

2 hours ago, NoThyme said:

Not happy knowing that Kevin went into the kids group-on deal to get meta data of the children. DO NOT give out your children's personal information just to get a discount ticket. The only reason they want it is to make money selling the information to others. 

I was wondering about that when he said that.  Would parents need to give permission for their (and their kid's) data to be sold like that?  Or is that something that they probably have buried in 82 pages of fine print "terms and conditions" that nobody ever manages to get through?

[retrograde]

There are a million six-pack-sized beer coolers out there and this one didn't seem special. It was also only sized for standard-sized cans, which cuts out a lot of the market these days. 

[ljenkins782]

21 hours ago, BusyOctober said:

The two businesses that got the Sharks’ attention were the two I’d leave on the table.  Empanadas?  Um...yes, please!  Door safety appliance was cool, even if the demo didn’t go as planned.  I think schools and municipal buildings would be all over those, especially if they can be priced less.  (Although, sadly in the case of school classroom doors; that wedge wouldn’t  be enough to keep someone with semi-automatic weapons  from just shooting through the door).

Well, shooting through the door is dangerous, but it's much worse if the gunman can actually get into the room and target people point blank. At the very least, it would take them longer and would give people a chance to move away from the door.

My question was who was going to buy them for the schools? Aren't most schools underfunded with no money for actual school-related resources like books, supplies, and computers? How could they possibly afford to outfit every door in a school with these things? 

It's a great idea, but it just doesn't seem financially feasible.

Quote

Beer cooler thing was useless to me, but my multiple beer drinking days ended a few decades ago.  I can see that getting a lot of sales, especially when partnered/branded with Budweiser.

The mom market- aimed Groupon thing was blah.  That may be making money for them now, but it will fizzle out, just like Groupon.  Potential problems that made me and my friends (mom’s, singles and couples) stop using Groupon: too little content, or repetitive content,  too many restrictions on when the certificates can be used, places go out of business before certificate expires, business decides not to honor certificates any longer... I know this is a different company, but most experiences I had with Groupon were less than stellar.

I was so shocked when it turned out that they were profitable. It sounded like a retread of that idea from a few weeks ago about giving kids' certificates toward things instead of buying them toys. 

The husband also had some serious crazy eyes when negotiating with Kevin. There was a flicker of something across his face that was actually alarming when he was telling Kevin to take his deal. Yikes.

Quote

Barbara would have made a barrel of money with the Nunchuck trucks -- she's the shark for food businesses.

I'm not sure exactly what that guy wanted. I couldn't really follow the trajectory of his current business(es) and what he was looking to do. His attitude during the pitch made it seemed like he might be tough to work with, I'm not too surprised he didn't walk out with a deal. Barbara was the right choice and her offer sounded good to me, but again, I really didn't understand what he was looking for.

[rhys]

Our front door is steel. I haven't been in a school in awhile. Are classroom doors steel or wood? I can't recall & it's probably not universal anyway. But that wedge deal & a steel door in a classroom would be a good thing, no?

[EtheltoTillie]

This was a first for me—I’d actually tried a product before it was on the show. I’ve had the empanadas from the truck in Times Square when I used to work in that neighborhood. They were tasty. But they’ve been around for years. I don’t understand how a mature company gets on SharkTank. There must be a process where they recruit certain people. 

I thought the kids’ Groupon idea was sure to have customers losing interest fast. 

[JTMacc99]

On 4/9/2019 at 2:06 PM, rhys said:

Our front door is steel. I haven't been in a school in awhile. Are classroom doors steel or wood? I can't recall & it's probably not universal anyway. But that wedge deal & a steel door in a classroom would be a good thing, no?

Schools around here typically have big heavy wood doors. They would definitely work well with the wedge thingy to keep somebody from bursting in.

On 4/9/2019 at 1:30 PM, ljenkins782 said:

My question was who was going to buy them for the schools? Aren't most schools underfunded with no money for actual school-related resources like books, supplies, and computers? How could they possibly afford to outfit every door in a school with these things? 

Yes, but safety items are the kinds of things that people figure out how to put in the budget.

[jcbrown]

I got an email from Goldbelly.com the day after this episode aired letting me know that the Nuchas empanadas ("as seen on Shark Tank!") are available through them (https://www.goldbelly.com/nuchas-empanadas). This makes me think that the Nuchas guy got exactly what he came for: a commercial.

Edited April 10, 2019 by jcbrown
punctuation is important

[retrograde]

15 hours ago, GussieK said:

This was a first for me—I’d actually tried a product before it was on the show. I’ve had the empanadas from the truck in Times Square when I used to work in that neighborhood. They were tasty. But they’ve been around for years. I don’t understand how a mature company gets on SharkTank. There must be a process where they recruit certain people. 

I've also eaten them before. I think they're tasty, but also expensive for the small size and I'm not sure they could get away with the $4/$5 price tag outside of locations like Times Square. You can get a whole bacon, egg and cheese roll for less on every street corner. Maybe that explains why the retail side of Nuchas is stagnating. 

[needschocolate]

Maybe I missed something, but how to you set the door lock thingie after you leave the house?  Everytime they made it pop up, they had to step on it from inside the house.  

[Madding crowd]

I also wondered how you set the wedge when you leave the house-I’m not as worried when I’m home. My husband is the king of bringing drinks everywhere in coolers and there is no way drinks stay cold for 7 hours in those Kangas. If you put a drink cosi on your beer it keeps it cold for about 15 minutes . I can buy the cooler working for an hour or two but 7-no way. Even a cooler packed with ice only last about four or five hours if you are in the hot sun.

I just bought my husband a Yeti cooler and they are supposed to last 24 hours but we haven’t tried it yet. Coupons for kids seems useless-you can usually get cheaper tickets by checking the websites for sale days.

[JTMacc99]

I have some Yeti tumblers.  I made a martini in one. The darn olives froze solid. Yetis are pretty great when it comes to keeping something cold.  

I’m pretty sure the wedges are not meant to be for when you’ve left the house.  They are more like a chain lock or dead bolt. 

[Moose135]

On 4/13/2019 at 11:41 AM, needschocolate said:

Maybe I missed something, but how to you set the door lock thingie after you leave the house?  Everytime they made it pop up, they had to step on it from inside the house.  

You don't lock/unlock it from outside.  It is meant to keep people from entering a building/room you are in, not to secure it when no one is there.

[CrazyInAlabama]

Couldn't you lock it from outside using the phone app?