- A man from Pittsburgh, PA invented a sustainable soil replacement for peat moss; two moms from Castle Rock, CO came up with a tasty and tantrum-free way to clean messy kids with sweet-flavored face wipes; with help from a veteran power lineman, two business partners from N. Twin Falls, ID believe they can change the electric industry with a safer way to connect electrical wires; a man and woman from Boulder, CO present a digital text technology that is poised to change the way eBooks are read.
- In this episode of Shark Tank, several entrepreneurs presented their business ideas to the panel of sharks: Mark, Barbara, Kevin, Lori, and Robert.
The first entrepreneurs, Danielle Stangler and Julia Rossi, pitched their product called "NeatCheeks." NeatCheeks are flavored wipes made with Stevia for cleaning children's faces. They sought a $150,000 investment for a 20% stake in their company. NeatCheeks had already performed well during a 90-day test period in 40 stores, including two Walgreens locations. The wipes were priced at $4, with regular wipes costing $2. Costs will drop to 53 cents at volume production. Danielle and Julia projected sales of $90,000 to $100,000 for the year, despite having only generated $4,000 year-to-date. However, they were still awaiting a patent for their product. Kevin and Mark opted out due to concerns about the lack of patent protection, while Robert disagreed with the potential of the business. Barbara suggested that Danielle and Julia find full-time jobs instead. Lori offered $150,000 for a 30% stake contingent upon obtaining the patent. Barbara also made an offer of $150,000 for 25% equity contingent on creating a cherry-flavored version. Ultimately, Danielle and Julia chose to accept Barbara's offer, much to her satisfaction.
Next up was Bryon Dunn, Mark Melni, and Armand Eckert with their product "Melni Connectors." They presented a simpler connector for industrial electrical cables and sought a $500,000 investment for a 5% stake in their company. The connectors were designed to streamline the process of connecting high tension cables, reducing it from a 10-minute job to less than 15 seconds. They had received a purchase order for $585,000 and the wholesale price of each connector was $40, while the production cost was $15. Despite the potential of their product, Kevin bowed out due to concerns about the valuation. Barbara felt that the value proposition had not been adequately explained. Lori had reservations about the distribution strategy, and Robert was unsure about the target market shift from consumer to industrial. Mark made an offer of $500,000 for 12% equity with the option to invest an additional $1 million at a $15 million valuation. Armand accepted Mark's offer, securing the deal.
The entrepreneurs behind "Beneath the Ink," Alex Milewski and Sherisse Hawkins, presented their service that integrates annotated supplementary information into e-books. They were seeking a $350,000 investment for a 10% stake in their company. The annotation process was currently manual and time-consuming, relying on authors to add the annotations themselves. Although they had been in business for two years and raised $640,000, they had only annotated eight titles, none of which were from notable authors. They lacked a test to demonstrate the incremental sales resulting from the annotations. Kevin decided not to invest, and Mark was concerned about the team's inability to compensate authors for their work. Lori didn't find the business investment worthy, while Barbara failed to see the merit in the idea. Robert backed out due to the team's lack of a revenue model.
The last pitch came from Mont Handley, who presented "PittMoss," an Eco-friendly alternative to peat moss made from recycled newspaper. Mont was seeking a $600,000 investment for a 25% stake in his company. PittMoss offered several advantages over peat moss, including lower cost, reduced water usage, and environmental benefits. Peat moss costs $2.5/cubic foot as compared to $2/cubic foot for pit moss. With $22,000 in sales over seven months and $168,000 in purchase orders, PittMoss had shown promising demand. Mont planned to target commercial growers, followed by farmers and consumers. He had also secured $400,000 in convertible notes from other investors. Current factory can produce 200 tonnes of product a year which is $60K in revenues. He needs to invest $120,000 for a plant at max capacity to produce $1.2 million in revenues. Barbara is out since there are no sales. Lori is out as the product is not sexy. Kevin offers $600,000 for 40%. Mont counters for 30%. Kevin, Mark and RObert offers $600K for 35%.
Update on: SunStaches (Episode 605): Dan Gershon, David Levich & Eric Liberman deal with Daymond, for their novelty sunglasses. sold $4.1 million in 5 months. Got a licensing deal with Marvel. They make the marvel themed sunglasses and pay them a royalty.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content