First into the Shark Tank was Nate Berkopec and his company The Factionist. Nate is a 19 year old NYU business student who started his business in High School. The Factionist is an environmentally friendly and ethically responsible T-Shirt company. In the last year Nate has sold $3,000 worth of T-Shirts, he was looking for $30,000 for 20% of his company.
Fashion guru Daymond wanted to know what was unique about his business? And how he intended to compete with everyone else with a screen printer? Nate said he planed to get people from developing nations to design the T-Shirts and to pay them a decent wage, along with making the shirts out of bamboo. The Sharks argued that there is nothing preparatory that would keep someone form copying him, and that he didn’t have a strong brand. The Sharks were all out and Nate walked away with out a deal… or so we thought, it was revealed that Barbara contacted him after the show and offered Nate a job, Nate accepted the offer.
Next up was Anthony Calvert and Tina Calvert pitch their business PODillow. PODillow is a tanning pillow with a secret compartment for your valuables. They were looking for $250,000 for 33% of their business. Anthony a veteran San Diego SWAT team was injured, and while he was off work recuperating from his injury he came up with the idea for the PODillow. In their spare time it sold 6000 units in the last two years, at a price of $29.95 and the manufacturing cost around seven dollars. Most of their sales was through mail-order catalogs, they currently have orders from the catalogs that they are not able to fill, their looking for help from the sharks in order to fill those orders and also get the business knowledge from the sharks to grow their business.
PODillow is a cute little product, perfect for the mail-order market, the only issue with their pitch is a common mistake that many entrepreneurs on shark tank make. They value their business way too high, basing their value on future profits and not current profits. Damon Navin said he wanted to invest in would’ve been able to make them a lot of money but because they asked for way too much money in the business of almost $750,000 he was not able to invest. Anthony and Tina walked away with no deal.
Third to try to swim with the Sharks is brother and sister team Kimberly and Matthew Foley and their business Wee Can Shop. Wee Can Shop is a were gift shop designed for children so they can shop for their loved ones. They been in business for 3 ½ years and their sales have grown by 100% each year, to $13,000 in income last year. 100% can be a misnomer, as sales going from $1-$2 is 100% growth.
Their goal for the business was to franchise and open up a second location in a more high profile location. Although the sharks believed the business had failed, Kimberly and Matthew believe that there is still opportunity for their business to grow. They do not get a deal.
Last to pitch to the sharks was Tim Stansbury and Erin Whalen of Grease Monkey Wipes. They were looking for $14,000 for 40% equity in the business. Grease Monkey Wipes is a portable, individually packaged wet wipe, made with non-chemical all natural cleaning ingredients. The weights will easily clean your hands and removed most grease and grime quickly. They did not have a patent because when you file a patent you have to give away your formula, which allows their competitors to copy their formula. The wipes are sold for one dollar apiece and they sold 7400 this year, and shops had already started to reorder.
Robert is a huge gearhead, so this business was right up his alley. Erin pleaded with Robert saying repeatedly “I promise we will make this work”. Both Robert and Barbara were impressed with Tim and Erin’s as entrepreneurs, Robert and Barbara accepted the deal.
