From a million-dollar failure to a cheating app that broke up with its own existence,
these Shark Tank companies got tons of press… and then quietly disappeared.
Shelly Ehler brought her business ShowNo Towels to the Sharks in Season 3 and was looking
for a $50,000 investment and a 25% share in her business.
Luckily for her, things went better than expected when Lori Greiner invested $75,000 for the
same share percentage.
"I'm gonna write you a check right now."
"Oh my God."
And Ehler's luck only seemed to continue as later that season it was revealed that Greiner
struck a deal between ShowNo Towels and Disney, which saw the product sold at Disney water
parks.
It was almost like a dream come true, except that things quickly fell through.
Disney did not reorder Ehler's product, which caused a major dry spell in production for
ShowNo Towels.
And without the House of Mouse to back her up, the company closed up shop for a while.
However, Ehler refused to give in to defeat, as she gave her business one more try by selling
on her Facebook page.
Alas, all good things must come to an end.
She announced in August 2020 that she was "throwing in the towel" once more and was
pivoting towards a new career path.
In November 2021, Ehler did pop back onto the ShowNo Towels page to release a few towels
for a limited time.
And while that post didn't have too much action, there was one comment that reminisced about
the good ol' days of her time on "Shark Tank," stating that they recognized her business
from the episode and that her story was touching for their family.
Nikki Pope pitched to the Sharks in Season 2 and her company, ToyGaroo, was a smart concept.
Pope described it as being like a subscription service for children's toys.
Most parents know the struggle of constantly buying their kids toys only for them to get
bored quickly.
So what are you supposed to do with all those toys and all that wasted money?
Well, parents could use ToyGaroo to rent toys online and then return them when their child
no longer wanted to play with them.
"My company is the Netflix for toys."
Pope went in asking for $100,000 in exchange for an equity stake of 10%, and while she
did walk away with more than double her asking price, there was some negotiation to get there.
Kevin O'Leary matched her price ask, but bumped the equity stake up to 35%, while Mark Cuban
and Robert Herjavec did a joint investment together for $200,000 at a 40% stake.
However, O'Leary managed to convince Cuban to cut Herjavec out of the deal by replacing
it with him, as he had more experience dealing with toy retailers.
Cuban accepted, and Pope took the deal.
Unfortunately, things took a turn according to ToyGaroo's software designer and web developer,
Phil Smy.
In an interview with Failory, Smy claimed that the team had a difficult time working
with representatives of the Sharks, and that the cost of sourcing and shipping began to
spiral out of control.
Ultimately, when there wasn't enough money to go around, the team decided to shut the
company down.
Neal Desai pitched an app called CATE in Season 4 of "Shark Tank."
Initially, Desai had purchased the app from a police officer that was too busy to pursue
working on it.
At the time, he paid $17,500 for it but was asking the Sharks for $50,000 with a 5% equity
stake.
CATE was a privacy app that was designed to hide calls and messages from select contacts.
Desai pitched it as being the ultimate tool to help those attempting to get away with
having affairs.
It gives the user a discrete option and would therefore help to avoid any potential fights
with their partners, as they'll be none the wiser about the affair.
"Let's just say, if Tiger had CATE, he might still be married to Elin."
Eventually, Desai received an investment of $70,000 for 35% equity from Kevin O'Leary
and Daymond John — much to the dismay of Barbara Corcoran, who was visibly disappointed
in what the app represents.
However, Gazette Review reported that the deal fell through.
Despite this, the "Shark Tank" exposure led to more than 10,000 people downloading the
app.
Plus, Desai was able to persuade law enforcement and government markets to give CATE a go.
Unfortunately, this didn't last long, and the company has been offline since 2013.
An interesting thing to note is that Desai stated that the app would be testing an iOS
version to release, but right before it shut down, the app was only available for Android.
Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks brought their iPad app Foot Fairy to the show in Season
5.
As a podiatrist, Shapiro noted that most parents simply guess their child's foot size, and
that wearing the wrong size can lead to major problems for the children as they grow older.
It's because of this that she invented an easy-to-use app that allows parents to track
the shoe size of their child in one easy step at home.
To demonstrate this, she brought her daughter out to present to the Sharks by simply placing
her foot on the iPad to determine her foot size.
Mark Cuban offered Shapiro and Brooks an investment of $100,000 for 40% equity, and while it looked
like a done deal, it unfortunately never went through after filming, according to Gazette
Review.
And it's likely that Shapiro and Brooks really needed this investment to work, as only a
few months after the episode aired, Foot Fairy closed down for good.
This is likely due to the fact that there are now various other shoe-sizing apps to
use, making the concept seem less unique.
Plus, it certainly wasn't breaking any "Shark Tank" records.
And what's more, while Shapiro had an interesting connection to the product as a podiatrist,
neither she nor Brooks were app developers, so they had to pay an outside source to do
the technical work.
Season 3 introduced audiences to Megan Cummins, the entrepreneur behind the company You Smell
Soap, a luxury soap brand that had two different scents.
While pitching, Cummins announced that her company was in a "pre-venture stage," meaning
she hadn't made any sales just yet.
However, she did send samples out to stores, with a few coming back to her with interest.
Her pitch was enticing, to say the least.
"Megan, I can smell the blood in the water.
You've got Barbara, you've got Mark circling…"
"You can also smell the lemons, too."
A few of the Sharks offered Cummins a partnership, but it was Robert Herjavec who sealed the
deal, as he offered Cummins an investment of $55,000 with 20% equity — plus a 50K
guaranteed salary in the first year.
She graciously accepted this offer, but it was right after that things got a little strange.
Per Shark Tank Success, Cummins was unable to reach Herjavec and his team for six months.
Herjavec seemed to have forgotten that You Smell Soap was a startup, and thus had no
sales.
Once he made that discovery, his team got back to Cummins with a revised offer of 50%
of her business.
It should come as no surprise that Cummins opted to reject this new deal.
However, in 2014, Cummins reportedly sold the brand as the profits were no longer lucrative.
"Howdy!
I'm Cactus Jack!
Welcome to Iowa!"
Season 1 brought Cactus Jack Barringer to the Sharks with his company, Body Jac, a fitness
machine designed to make push-ups easier for people who struggled to do them.
Barringer claimed to be a lifelong entrepreneur, having never worked a job in his life.
He went in asking for $180,000 and 30% equity for Body Jac, and while he got his dollar
amount investment, it was at an equity percentage of 50.
This was also made with the caveat that he would have to use the Body Jac to lose a significant
amount of weight within an allocated timeline in order to prove that his product actually
worked.
"I'm in for 90.
Barbara's in for 90.
We own 50 percent of the company.
You have to lose 30 pounds.
Do we have a deal?"
However, things between Barringer and the Sharks eventually turned sour, especially
with Barbara Corcoran, who publicly stated in 2012 that making this deal was a big mistake
on her part.
Body Jac officially cut ties with the Sharks in 2013, with Barringer determined to push
on with his product.
And he was able to do so for a few years, with his company lasting until 2015 at the
latest.
Unfortunately for him, Body Jac didn't have enough longevity, with the company officially
closing its doors sometime after that year.
It's clear that Body Jac was something special — at least for a little while.
Season 8 of "Shark Tank" introduced Doug Foreman's kitchen utensil for spraying butter, Biem.
He was offered an investment of $500,000 from Lori Greiner with an equity of 14%.
Unfortunately, Greiner was forced to back out of the deal early, as the Better Business
Bureau got involved with Biem.
It was revealed that Foreman did not have a working prototype when he went on "Shark
Tank," something that he alluded to having — and if there's one thing you don't want
to do, it's mislead a Shark.
By the time Foreman made it to the due diligence stage of their deal, he still didn't have
a prototype.
And if that wasn't enough to make Greiner back out of their deal, the Better Business
Bureau investigated Biem's parent company, Brevda, Inc., after calls about business management
were brought to their attention.
"Now, he's getting complaints instead of bites on his product."
Thirty-three different customers reported that their products' shipping was delayed
by several months and once they finally received their package, the products didn't work.
Once the Bureau completed its investigation, the parent company was forced to issue a statement
that they would make a better product to combat the faulty one.
However, that didn't last long, as the company apparently went under in 2019.
And as for Biem, the website is still up and promoting its time on "Shark Tank," however
the butter spray products are indefinitely sold out, and the company's social media pages
haven't posted since 2019.
Looks like this is one Shark Tank deal that was spread too thin.
Charles Michael Yim pitched his Breathometer in Season 5 of "Shark Tank."
The Breathometer was a portable device that connected to an app on your smartphone and
was used to measure the blood alcohol levels in a person.
Yim had such a successful pitch that he was able to get all of the Sharks interested in
investing, resulting in him getting an investment of $1 million and 30% equity from all five
Sharks.
This valued Yim's company at $3.3 million after his time on the show.
Mark Cuban would later call the Breathometer the worst "Shark Tank" investment he ever
made, claiming that Yim would often take lavish trips rather than work.
"Two weeks later and he'd been in Vegas partying, you know, and then he'd be on Nectar Island
with Richard Branson.
And I'd text him like, 'What the f—are you doing?
You're supposed to be working.'"
However, Yim claims that Cuban's statements are completely off base, arguing that he never
used company money on personal travel.
Things continued to go badly for Yim as the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint
against the Breathometer, claiming that it "lacked [any] scientific evidence to back
up their advertising claims."
In January 2017, the company reached a settlement with the FTC, forcing them to provide a refund
for every customer that bought a Breathometer device.
Jeff Stroope pitched his easy-to-use fire hose connector to the Sharks in Season 2.
He was offered an investment of $1.25 million, but there was a major catch: Mark Cuban wanted
100% equity.
Cuban was willing to give Stroope 7.5% royalty fees and three years of employment in exchange,
which Stroope accepted.
Unfortunately, he would come to regret his decision in time.
In a statement posted to Facebook, Stroope claimed the deal began to change the moment
the cameras were off, stating that Cuban decided that he no longer wanted to go through with
their agreement.
For Stroope, he believes that Cuban's "ego" ultimately got the better of him, arguing
that the Shark no longer wanted to front the money.
And while Stroope claims to hold no ill-will towards Cuban and "Shark Tank," he shared
his disappointment that by the time his episode aired, he would not be able to enjoy the exposure
that would come along with it, as his company could no longer afford to carry on.
HyConn's website is still up, but the purchase link sends visitors to an unavailable Shopify
page.