Free Shark Tank Case Study Example

1) Scrub Daddy
The presenter Aaron Krause introduces a product that wants to make everyday cleaning easier. He did an initial demonstration pitching and showing the product then he talked with the Sharks to make a deal. He told how he was selling on QVC, in five supermarkets, and online. He made 100,000 dollars in 4 months but needed more to run an efficient manufacturing plant Initially it was said that the difficult part was not the product but the retail vision as there are so many competing products on the shelves for lower price points. The Sharks showed that it would be expensive to actually put these in retail stores in order for people to buy them.
He asked for a 100,000 investment for 10% equity in his company. This values his company at 1 million dollars. Kevin O’Leary initially placed a crazy 50% bid that did not impress the presenter and then later asked for royalties for 0% equity eventually going for 7.5 cents. A bidding war between war between Daymond Jon and Lori Greiner was initiated starting at 50,000 for 15% then going to 175,000 for 25%. Lori Greiner made an initial offer for 100,000 for 30% but changed it to 150,000 for 25% later. The presenter countered the offer going down to 20% for 200,000. The presenter made the best deal on this as he got both the money he needed for a new factory. In the end the presenter did not change the evaluation of his company. Additionally, he got Lori Greiner on board who is a fantastic marketer on tv and in person.
According to the New York Post the Scrub Daddy was the most successful product in the Shark Tank. It went from only being sold in five stores in a single state to be in every major retail chain including Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond and Amazon. In 2014 the company projected sales of $25-30 million (Greenberg, 2014).
The episode was well done. The presenter managed within two minutes to pitch, and demonstrate the product to the Sharks. The Scrubb Daddy did not impress me for its ability to cut through different surfaces as many other products can show this. The impressive part was firstly the use of form following function to get the smiley face to clean glasses and spoons and secondly the negotiation skills of the presenter.
2) Breathometer
Is a portable smartphone breathalyzer presented by Charles Michael Yim. The presenter is a Silicon Valley veteran. He told about the market opportunity and then did a quick live demonstration and then a personal demonstration with one of the Sharks. He has some traction in that he sold 4000 units in 30 days on Indie Go-Go (a crowd funding site) to make $140,000 in revenue where he sold them for 50 dollars each. Interestingly, he talked about other uses like Halitosis, and Diabetes as potential future products.
He wanted to raise a million dollars to close investment and wanted to get 250,000 for 10% of his company. The value of his company is questionable he is so early to the market. Initially the round started very positive with Mark Cuban going in 500,000 dollars for 20%, Kevin O’Leary and Lori Greiner increased that amount at the same evaluation for 750,000 for 30% and Daymond Johns matched. The interestingly thing is that in the end they got all five Sharks with 500,000 going to Mark Cuban and 500,000 dollars split among the rest of the Sharks (3 million dollar evaluation) at 15% for both. The person got 10x more than what he was asking for but at less value than initially asked. As this is a tech company primarily I think the presenter did not know the value of his own product and evaluated too low and sold too much equity.
The Breathometer mixed both a great sensor with a consumer marketed device. The power of producing applications and plug and play devices with the iphone is still making waves in industry. Since the show the Breathometer went from 140,000 dollars in sales to 10-12 million in projected revenue in 2014 (Greenberg, 2014). It is available in most online stores and is still looking forward to use the technology to detect other chemicals from the breath.
The episode was well done. The presenter knew what he wanted and got a huge push from the value of the five Sharks. Interestingly, the presenter did not heed to his CFO’s advice and went with the deal. It is not clear whether all the Sharks could work together and whether the vision of the company could be maintained with so many ‘cooks in the kitchen.’ However, most companies manage to do alright with Angel investors.
3) Coffee meets Bagel
The presenters the Kang sisters. They showed the life and the background of the three sisters who got degrees in business and design from good schools. Coffee meets Bagel is an online dating site that uses Facebook to find matches between connections. It weeds out the creeps.
The wanted 500,000 dollars in 5% equity (valuation in 10 million) with a traction of 87,000 dollars. However, they see a valuation of 10 million. They did not get any offers from the Sharks but got a suggested offer of 30 million from Mark Cuban. They said that they wanted to be making 800 million in revenue in the near future. In the end they did not get any deal.
There are so many online dating sites and companies are getting knocked off. (This is in the Tinder age). They want to accelerate growth by acquiring users. However, they are raising money, then burning it by lining their own pockets spending on developers and on user acquisition costs.
Personally, I hate dating sites. I want to see this fail. There are so many and whether they work or not is still not understood. Users likely switch between many dating sites. Currently, Coffee meets Bagel is still very new and has only reported 87,000 dollars in revenue ( Kim, 2014).
4) ReadeRest Glasses
The presenter Rick Hopper shows ReadeRest Glasses tackles the problem of losing glasses. The presenter shows what the state-of-the-art which is currently reading glasses. To achieve this he is using a patented magnet system which allows the glasses to stay on the shirt. He marketed the product by using it himself first and observing user feedback.
The presenter wanted 150,000 in exchange for 15% of the company (a million dollar valuation). He has done 65,000 dollars in sales in a short period of time. The 150,000 by Lori Greiner for 65% of the company. The guy who had very little experience in sales and marketing. He did not get what he wanted and lost a lot of equity possibly because of his poor background in sales, marketing and negotiations. He asked originally for too much and made an unreal evaluation for his company.
With the help of Lori Greiner they doing 8.2 million in sales as per 2014 (CNBC, 2014) numbers after putting it in major department stores including Bed Bath and Beyond. I agreed with Robert Herjavec who said this was a gas station knick-knack. This product markets to an older generation that surprisingly manages to sell.

References

Success a long time in making By: Greenberg, Jay.
http://nypost.com/2014/05/15/who-profits-the-most-from-shark-tank-success/-success/
The San Francisco Startup That Wouldn't Bite on $30M 'Shark Tank' Tease (ABC News) By: Kim, Susanna.
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/san-francisco-startup-bite-30m-shark-tank-tease/story?id=28191282
A trip and fall leads to $8 million in sales (CNBC)
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101449760