Food inventions are among the most common pitches on Shark Tank,
but some can't swim with the Sharks.
If Julia Child taught us anything, it is that everything tastes better with butter. One inventor
took this a step further and invented a gadget that makes a regular stick of butter sprayable.
"So which one of you is ready to join us and help us to make the world a butter place?"
Lori Greiner invested a whopping $500,000 in a product that was expected to sell
thousands of units. But it wasn't long before things started to fall apart.
The Better Business Bureau received more than 30 complaints about their
$130 sprayers malfunctioning and return policies not being honored.
Greiner's company released a statement reading,
"Lori Greiner has no affiliation with this company. She did not
make an investment after the 'Shark Tank' episode aired because they did
not have a working prototype during due diligence, so Lori passed on the deal."
Danny Grossfield found inspiration for his hot coffee-in-a-can in Japan, but the Sharks believed
the U.S. ready-to-drink coffee market was too saturated. HotShot is a series of coffees in
special cans with insulated labels to protect your hands from the 140-degree liquid inside.
"You're never going to have to make another cup of coffee or wait in line ever again."
The catch was that the cans needed to be stored in a patented HotBox.
Although the Sharks were all out, Mark Cuban gave the entrepreneur hope by saying he would consider
testing the product in his theaters. But the $6 billion Japanese market didn't translate to
the States after launching on Amazon. Many Amazon consumers believed their cans would
arrive hot and, unaware of the HotBox, put the final nail in the coffee can.
On Shark Tank Season 7, entrepreneurs Adam Gerber and Bob Ntoya had an idea to change
the face of healthy eating for kids. My Fruity Faces was a sheet of edible stickers kids could
stick onto fruit and veggies to create fun characters. Despite the adorable toddlers
that demonstrated the product, the creators failed to land the $200,000 investment they
needed. The Sharks tore their idea to shreds and found quite a few cracks in their business model.
The creators were close to $180,000 in debt and had only $2,000 in sales in the month
leading up to their pitch. The last bit of bait they could throw at the Sharks was a
Nickelodeon licensing deal allowing them to print characters like Spongebob or Dora the Explorer,
but the deal had expired. Mark Cuban enjoyed the product but he didn't want
to try and find out what was wrong with the company. My Fruity Faces shut down in 2018.
Here's a hot tip: when entering the Tank, don't get the Sharks hopped up on caffeine. The Sharks
were hungry for blood, attacking each other and the creator of Wired Waffles. Roger Sullivan
created this fusion to give consumers their daily dose of caffeine inside a delicious treat.
Unfortunately, one waffle had enough caffeine to power a small truck. The Sharks were unimpressed
by the dry, stodgy texture and icky taste of the item, but there were also logistical issues.
"Roger, do you put anything on it to make it taste better?"
Lori noted that the waffles posed a safety hazard, as kids could easily be duped into
eating the product with its dangerously high levels of caffeine. Sullivan admittedly sold
only $1,000 worth of Wired Waffles in the month before the taping. He claimed the waffles were
stale and cold because he had to unwrap them 30 minutes before his pitch, but liability
concerns and low sales figures were red flags for the Sharks. The company folded in 2015.
Millions of women suffer from PMS-related symptoms, including food cravings. This
hankering for sweet stuff was something Tania Green wanted to take control of. She
created a healthy, vegan alternative to sugary snacks made with dates and cocoa,
then infused them with herbs to allegedly combat PMS. PMS Bites ticked all the boxes:
healthy, delicious, and easy to produce. But it wasn't enough for the Sharks.
Even though Green was only seeking $50,000 and was willing to part with 20% of her company,
the Sharks believed the market segment was too small. Barbara Corcoran criticized Tania's energy,
explaining that a salesperson needed more oomph.
"I hear the words, not the music. I am out."
Mark Cuban suggested that she focus more on social media marketing than
landing in-store deals. Tania went on to sell her product in around 15 stores
but never achieved the commercial success she hoped for. The company closed in 2018.
The taste of chocolatey milk at the bottom of a cereal bowl takes us back to the good old days.
However, Cow Wow Cereal Milk only takes us back to Season 5 of Shark Tank. Tiffany Panhilason
and Chris Pouy invented a cereal-flavored milk to promote milk consumption among
kids. Unfortunately, one 8-ounce box of Cow Wow had more calories than a 12-ounce can of 7UP.
"Do you realize how bad you just screwed up?"
The first shark to jump ship was Daymond John, but he's lactose intolerant. Mark
Cuban explained that big cereal and milk producers could take over the industry in a
heartbeat and leave Cow Wow with crumbs. Lori, Steve, and Kevin also disliked the product,
and the Cow Wow team left without a deal. The creators put Cow Wow out to pasture in 2014.
Who can forget the morning Michael Scott burned his foot on the George Foreman grill?
"I like waking up to the smell of bacon. Sue me."
One man's dream to wake to the smell of bacon became another man's mission.
So Matty Sallin brought his bacon-making alarm clock to the Tank hoping the Sharks
would take the bait. His adorable wooden clock seemed like a carnivore's dream,
and it even bore the slogan "Rise and Swine." But there was a flaw in his
plan. Kevin O'Leary got straight to the point, calling Matty out on his lack of projections.
"You've got a pig box that's going to catch fire and kill somebody and I'm
going to be sued into the stone age. I'm out."
Then there was the hygiene factor, since you'd have to leave raw meat on your bedside table
overnight. But Matty's ultimate downfall was that he only had a prototype. The Sharks want
products with a proven sales history and a well-structured business plan. Wake 'N
Bacon never made it into production. Our cardiologists thank you, Sharks.
The term "cougar" is loaded with innuendo, but Ryan Custer was eager to market his energy drink
to mature women. This energy shot was loaded with extracts from 13 different superfruits
and was said to aid in weight loss, keep your hormones balanced, help with hair and nail health,
and give you a 5-hour energy kick. It wasn't a hit with the sharks though.
Their arguments ranged from the size of the market to the taste of the product. When
Ryan went into the Tank, he'd sold just $60,000 of product in 3 years. Barbara
Corcoran described the taste as chalky, and Kevin O'Leary broke down the numbers,
explaining that around 75% of the market was excluded from the, quote, "cougar" demographic.
"Isn't a cougar typically older? Because she looks younger than you are."
"Well, she's been drinking the Cougar shots for a while."
Ryan left the Tank without a deal and continued to sell his product online. But Amazon reviews like
"This is offensive to women" and "Chalkboard aftertaste. Overwhelming sweetness!" didn't
do him any favors. Cougar Energy quietly bowed out of the market soon after the show aired.
A common thread among failed Shark Tank food inventions is entrepreneurs trying
to reinvent the wheel but breaking it instead. They make wet things dry, sweet things salty,
and drinks chewable. Michael Brandt and Geoffrey Woo wanted us to replace our coffee routines with
a performance-enhancing caffeine gummy. Biohacking, as the inventors describe it,
would help you tap into your true potential and make you more mentally
alert. According to the packaging, two cubes would substitute for one cup of
coffee. And the product came in three flavors: latte, mocha, and pure drip.
The biggest shock came when the Go Cubes creators asked
for a $2 million investment for only 5% equity.
"Okay, but why is this cube worth $40 million?"
At the time, the amount was a Shark Tank record. But the caffeinated cubes didn't
get the Sharks going and they all quickly stepped out. Some
worried about long-term health effects while others were unimpressed with the stiff delivery of
the pitch and the massive valuation. Go Cubes sold online for a while, but the company eventually
rebranded itself as HVMN and found more success selling brain-boosting nutritional supplements.
When a pitch starts with a cringy rap, we know we're in for a wild ride. Jennifer
and Michael had us blushing, laughing, cringing, and crying all in the span of
a few minutes. The pair created the world's first aphrodisiac bar, which was designed to
be a lifestyle supplement and increase one's libido with continual ingestion.
Their secret ingredient was maca root, which Jennifer claimed is called "Peruvian Viagra."
The bars failed to excite the Sharks, and the pair were left high and dry.
The company had only $2,000 in sales by the time of filming,
and they completely shut down shortly after their episode aired.
It's a bad sign for a new food invention when the idea sounds so gross you have to beg your audience
to try it. Pizza cupcakes and burnt cheese snacks are one thing. But beer-flavored ice cream is a
bit harder to swallow. Brewer's Cow Ice Cream was 10 years in the making before Steve Albert,
Larry Blackwell, and Jason Conroy took their tubs into the Tank. The
trio was dealt a bad hand with Daymond John being there that day, as he famously steps away from
any dairy products. The other Sharks loved the flavor but it wasn't enough to win them over.
As Kevin O'Leary and Mark Cuban started to grill them on sales figures, the pitch ran
away from the Brewer's Cow team. They struggled to recite projections, expense figures, and profit
margins. This is an unfortunate case where the business model didn't back up a great product.
"There are certain things in every business you gotta know every morning when you wake up,
and one of them is: what do I need to do in order to break even."
Their episode aired in 2012, and the company folded around 2 years later.
Securing a deal in the Tank isn't the one-way ticket to paradise many might
assume. A shark's handshake isn't binding, and they reserve the right
to back out of a deal if they smell something fishy during due diligence.
PlateTopper had everything Lori Greiner could possibly look for in a product and she smelled
money. It was simple, easy, cheap to manufacture, and solved a problem millions of people have:
food storage. Michael Tseng came into the Tank seeking a $90,000 investment
but was only willing to part with 5% of his company. Greiner was able to squeeze
8% out of Tseng and the entrepreneur left the Tank thinking he'd sealed his fate.
"But wait. There's more."
Lori had difficulty working with Tseng,
and she had some interesting thoughts during an AMA session on Reddit. She wrote,
"Plate Topper guy was stubborn and didn't listen
to anything anyone had to say. Same in the Tank. Can't go forward with that."
Shark Tank Tales noted that Lori tweeted a follow-up remark the day the episode
aired, writing,
"Sorry to say I wound up not liking his tactics much either,
that agony didn't end in the Tank. I'm out!"
The plate topper went out of business, but Prestagon LLC has various other
kitchen and homeware products available on Amazon that seem to be doing well.
Shark Tank provides a platform for entrepreneurs to showcase concepts and products we can't
live without. But occasionally, a product slips through that's only good for a laugh.
"Our product is a never seen before, revolutionary cooking lifestyle convenience product."
The Kookn Kap was one of these head-scratching inventions, but inventors
Juli Deveau and Ozma Khan had their sights set on being as big as the
Snuggie. This Bo-Peep style bonnet was supposed to keep cooking smells out of your hair.
The biggest snag, as Lori pointed out, was that there was no discernable difference between the
Kookn' Kap and a regular shower cap. If you wanted to look silly in the kitchen,
you probably wouldn't spend an extra $12 to do so. Barbara also pointed out that
the caps had a "flammable" warning, despite the ladies saying the product
was flame resistant. Ozma and Juli left empty-handed. They made a last-ditch effort
with online sales but the company closed a few months after their episode aired.