Reality TV show Shark Tank has undeniably ignited the entrepreneurial spirit in a lot of Americans,
giving us hope that the next big business idea could come from
our very own basements! Although we gotta admit, the sharks get too savage sometimes.
Mark: Ack! I’m out. I’m so out.
Okay, point taken, Mr. Cuban. But for those who didn’t reel any sharks in,
not all is lost. Because some of them still emerged as winners after appearing
on the show! Let’s take a look at the 9 Shark Tank Rejects That Made Millions!
What’s up fact-natics! This is Discovery Amuse, serving up your daily dose of the
most outrageous, outlandish and out-of-this-world fun facts!
Watch out for our number one pick because just the mere exposure on the show helped
boost his sales overnight! Yup, the Shark Tank effect is real!
Mark: I’m in. Kevin:
Really? You are? Mark: No, I just wanted to see your face.
#9: Xero Shoes
When Steve Sashen and his wife Lena pitched their company on Season 4,
their idea for an ultra-lightweight footwear with thin, flexible soles,
Sharks Robert and Barbara tore it to shreds.
Robert: To me, I open it up and it looks
like a plain piece of plastic. Barbara: Like a broken sneaker.
Ultimately, they declined Mr. Wonderful’s offer which asked for
50 equity, and they walked away with zero investment. However,
Xero Shoes received an influx of orders just days after their episode aired!
Surprisingly, the barefoot-inspired footwear which Daymon called “a piece of string and
rubber,” found a cult following who enjoyed the minimalist design,
easily-adjustable straps and sole-hugging comfort of Xero Shoes.
Man: We love how light and small they are. Yeh, they’re really flat
but they’re also super flexible and weigh nothing compared to other hiking sandals.
Other investors eventually approached Steve, and by 2018, the company had recorded sales
of up to 8.8 million dollars! In 2020, Xero Shoes was even declared as the official footwear partner
of the USA Artistic Swimming, and their annual revenues have soared to a whopping 12.1 mil!
If you think the Sharks were nuts to give Xero Shoes a pass,
stick around ‘til number one to see their biggest billion-dollar blunder!
#8. Shrimp Burger
Nowadays, there’s a wide variety of burger options that don’t exactly contain meat.
Take for instance, the Shrimp Burger, created by Shawn Davis a.k.a. Chef Big Shake!
He got the idea from his 10-year-old daughter when she resolved not to eat
any more meat after seeing how animals are slaughtered.
Chef: We have burger nights, I didn’t want to make anyone feel left out,
so I started creating patties for
her and over time I got better and making patties and they turned into Shrimp Burgers.
However, when he presented the product to the sharks back in 2012, although they ate
the idea up, business-wise, the sharks thought Shawn was biting off more than he can chew.
Kevin: Even if he has those orders, the business is not worth 500,000.
However, after the show aired, Shawn’s business sizzled when other people reached out to him!
He got a 500,000-dollar investment for 30 percent equity, which was a better deal
than what he asked for in the show! Shawn even made it to QVC and Access Hollywood!
By the end of the following year, his sales grew from 30,000 dollars
to a whopping 5 mil! Make it rain chef, make it rain!
Man: Ooh, hallelujah,
hallelujah, hallelujah!
#7: Rocketbook
Man: Remember when they laughed us off Shark Tank? Man 2: Huh, yeah. I think that was right
before the Rocketbook Wave became the number 1 selling notebook on Amazon.
Touché guys, touché.
Although I really don’t blame the sharks for not immediately seeing
the value behind the world’s first microwavable notebook.
In a nutshell, Rocketbook is a notebook that scans and sends all your notes
into the cloud and allows you to access them through an application. When it’s full,
you pop it into the microwave, and the heat clears the ink, allowing you to re-use the pages again.
VO: That means you can clear your entire Rocketbook wave notebook
in the same amount of time it takes a cup of tea.
The Sharks did not find the concept promising and no offers were made.
I bet their quirky costumes didn’t help either. But founders Jake Epstein and Joe LeMay had the
last laugh because the Rocketbook blasted off and made over 1.2 million dollars in sales post-show!
Their other model “The Everlast”, which erases notes with the use of water, made more than 4
million bucks. And by 2017, the company scored big with about 10 million dollars in revenue!
#6: Coffee Meets Bagel
There are hundreds of dating apps and sites out on the market already, but the Kang sisters Arum,
Dawoon and Soo just couldn’t find the right fit. So, they decided to create
their own that promises a more worthwhile match. Thus, Coffee Meets Bagel was born.
The app uses Facebook algorithms and suggests people based on mutual friends,
with the goal of presenting female subscribers with a high-quality romantic match,
‘coz, you know, there’s a lot of douchebags out there.
VO: Our model is quality over quantity. We enable women to refocus their time
and energy on quality guys who are serious on taking the next step.
As the title of this video suggests, the sisters didn’t get any sharks after their
pitch. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t given an offer. In fact, Mark Cuban gave what might
be the biggest offer in Shark Tank history thus far! Well… hypothetically speaking.
Mark: Let me ask you a question. If I offered you $30 million for the company,
would you take it? Girl: No.
Girl: Excuse me, are you out of your mind?
Yup, my thoughts exactly.
However, the sisters declined, citing Match.com making up to $800 million per year! And while
they didn’t find a match among the sharks, Coffee Meets Bagel quickly expanded and raised
23 million dollars in funding! The app also grew at a rate of almost a quarter million
downloads per month. Guess they weren’t the ones who were out of their minds after all.
#5: Kodiak Cakes
In 2014, brothers Jon and Joel Clark were looking to expand their family business
by asking 500K from the sharks in exchange for 10 percent of
their pancake and waffle mix company called Kodiak Cakes.
Jon: It’s unique because it’s made with 100%
whole grains, has no added fats or sugars, and all you have to do to make it is add water.
Kevin and Barbara jointly offered 500,000 dollars
for 50 percent ownership, while Robert put forward a 500,000-dollar
deal in exchange for 35 percent stake. But the brothers didn’t wanna give up that much equity.
Man: We do appreciate the offer, but we feel the value’s way beyond what you’ve set.
So we need to decline the offers.
Fast forward to six weeks after their episode aired, and the company recorded a 1 million
dollar spike in revenue! Kodiak Cakes flew off the shelves of Target and Safeway. And by 2018,
the scrappy brothers became 100 million dollars richer in sales! Hey,
that’s enough money to buy them better wigs!
Joel: Hey happy Halloween, I’m Joel Clark and this is Cameron
Smith and we’re mixing it up with Kodiak Cakes.
#4: Scan
When you’re seeking a million dollars in exchange for a measly 5% equity,
you know it’s gonna be a hard sell to the sharks. But that didn’t stop
founder Garrett Gee from shooting for the moon when he pitched his mobile app called Scan.
Man: So first, I’m gonna scan the barcode, it’s as easy
as…and that quickly, my app showed me how I can save 25 dollars.
Although the app already had millions of downloads at the time, none of the
sharks felt it was worth the million dollar investment. But apparently, some other VC’s did!
Man: The same time that Shark tank denied us, some other investors believed in us
and they poured 7 million dollars. So that was at the end of year 2.
And it was at the end of year 3 that we ended up selling it.
And guess who acquired Garrett’s company? None other than Snapchat,
for a cool $54 million! Take that, sharks!
#3. The Buoqs Company
Kevin: If I wanna send flowers to your grave, I have to wait 6 days,
and I think you’re dying here today!
You gotta hand it to Mr. Wonderful for being the king of shade on Shark Tank. That was brutal!
But John Tabis of the Bouqs Company failed to make his online flower delivery service
idea bloom during his pitch. The goal was to take away the middleman involved in flower deliveries,
and bring a fresh bouquet straight from the farm into your doorstep within 4-5 days. But the long
lead time didn’t sit well with the sharks, and they wanted to “nip it in the bud” so to speak.
However, on the first Valentine’s Day after the episode aired, Buoqs made
1 million dollars worth of sales in just one day! Three years later, one of the sharks,
Robert, revisited Buoqs after discovering how exorbitant flower prices were. And… plot twist!
Robert: I took part in their last round,
we just raised 24 million dollars. Woman: So you did get in.
Now that’s a satisfying comeback if I ever saw one!
#2: Copa Di Vino
James Martin was traveling in France when he encountered a wine product that was being sold
by the glass. He brought the idea to the United States and sold ready-to-drink wine in single
glass packaging. And in 2011, he appeared on Shark Tank’s second season asking for
600,000 dollars in exchange for 30 percent stake on his company,
Copa Di Vino. But the sharks mostly said NO to his Pinot Grigio on-the-go.
Kevin: Don’t come and tell me this is premium wine, it’s not. It’s just industrial wine.
Other Sharks offered suggestions instead of investment, which James ultimately shrugged off,
while sweating like a pig in the middle of summer. He walked away without any deals,
but orders poured in after airing, and his sales drastically jumped
from 500,000 dollars to over 5 million in one year!
In a first for the show, the wine entrepreneur was invited back for season 3 to uncork a possible
deal, but this time around, his quasi-cool demeanor triggered the sharks even more.
Mark: You’re playing games, there’s nothing I hate more than playing games,
and you came in and created drama. Robert: I’m really out.
But just like a good wine, Copa di Vino only got better with age,
as its last reported revenues were estimated at $67 million!
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#1: Doorbot
In 2013, founder Jamie Siminoff appeared on Shark Tank to pitch
his innovative solution that aimed to be the next generation of home security.
Jamie: Introducing, Doorbot, the first ever video doorbell built for the smartphone.
Essentially, Doorbot is a doorbell that has a built-in camera and two-way audio. It connects
to your smart phone so you can remotely see and talk to the person on the other end,
kind of like a wi-fi intercom. However,
the sharks thought Jamie’s valuation on his business was a little… delusional.
Mark: This company is gonna be worth 7 million, could be worth 80 million,
90 million, I just don’t see the progression and for that reason, I’m out.
Mr. Wonderful did offer the amount as a loan and tried to strike a royalty deal,
which Jamie turned down. But opportunity soon came knocking at Jamie’s door
when the episode helped him get at least 5 million dollars in sales!
Jamie: Being on Shark Tank got us such awareness nationally,
that it really kinda saved the business.
The product was later rebranded as “Ring” and was sold in over 15,000 retail locations located in
100 countries! And get this. In February of 2018, Amazon acquired Ring for an estimated
value of 1.8 BILLION dollars! Not bad for a product that he literally built in his garage!
So, if you were a shark, which of these products would you totally invest on?
Let us know in the comments section below!
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doing what you do best! Awesome right! From brilliant ideas to
what-the-heck-were-they-thinking, check out our countdown of the 10 Worst “As Seen on TV” Items!
‘Til then, stay ahead of the curve, fact-natics! And see you in the next video!