I went through a phase of watching Shark Tank on whatever channel the repeats are on. So far I’ve bought and been really happy with the Better Life cleaning products I first saw on the show.
I did not see that, but I am heartily gratified to hear he ate it. Wolf’s performance was legendary.
Yeah, never mind, it was an interview I saw. I’m remembering it wrong. :o
One of the sharks, the guy who sits on the opposite end of Mark Cuban where Robert usually sits, was an early Uber investor, and he tends to bring it up at some point whenever he’s on the show.
That would be Chris Sacca.
I’d been aware of the show, but had never seen an episode or really felt interested in the concept until a month or two ago when I stumbled across a repeat on CNBC. They air 3- or 4-episode blocks Mon-Thu evenings, and one night when I was surfing the channel guide I decided to check it out. I didn’t expect to like it, but I was immediately hooked! I haven’t bought anything yet, but I’m tempted to get a Lumio (or two). 
Now I watch an episode or two once or twice a week.
I’m OK with the different shark personalities, but what I don’t like is when someone offers a deal that’s only good if it’s accepted immediately. If you’re offering the best deal you won’t mind a little competition! If I were an entrepreneur on that show I’d have to turn down any offer with that condition just on principle.
I used to be a pretty big fan of this show, mainly because a show about honest, hard-working Americans trying to make the world a better place and make a lot of money in the process was an incredibly refreshing change from the usual reality TV fare. Unfortunately, the contrivedness of the “arguing”, including some real howlers that no halfway intelligent negotiator could ever get away with, eventually drove me away. I still catch an occasional episode, but at this point I find The Profit more entertaining and more realistic.
The true value of the show, I think, is informing us of a variety of unusual or specialty products. Even if the company doesn’t make a deal or goes bust, we can still look of lots of stuff we didn’t even know existed before. I’d love a quality ratchet belt, and you can bet that I’d give Tom 'n Chee a try.
Dewey Finn - Never liked “You’re dead to me”. Cheesy and has zero impact coming from a pudgy guy in a suit. A simple “Nice knowin’ ya”, “Not today, kiddo”, “Too bad, so sad,” or even “Don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out” would work better.
crazyjoe - Hey, every show needs a straight man. I get the feeling that he’s there to fill a role and knows it, and any deals he makes are just gravy.
As for what happens after landing or not landing a deal, ABC briefly had something called “Beyond The Tank” which explored just that, but I haven’t seen any new episodes in over a year. The thing you always gotta remember is that nothing is official until there is a contract on paper signed by both parties, and until that happens, either party can renegotiate, ask questions, delay, or pull out at any time. There were several instances where a Shark saw the operation and decided it wasn’t worth it, or there were other controlling interests within the company who didn’t like the terms and shot the deal down. One owner killed a deal after outright admitting that he only went on the show for the publicity.
DCnDC - Didn’t ABC do away with the 2% ownership or 5% of profits or whatever it was? I remember Cuban being against it. That sounds like a damn high price for some publicity. I’m pretty sure more than a few entrepreneurs think of this like American Idol; they just want to say that they did it. Not to mention getting real-world experience delivering a pitch and negotiating in front of a national TV audience.
Misnomer - Yeah, hate that. Putting on the pressure and demanding that someone make a decision RIGHT NOW is what scam artists do. I know exactly where Cuban can cram his 24-second clock.
I like the Canadian version better, partially because the dragons do get silly from time to time. The set looks like some cheap abandoned warehouse; everything has this very low key vibe.
Also, the dragons aren’t horrible to each other (or the supplicants) the way the sharks are. They’re polite. They let the entrepreneurs hear everyone’s offer before they get backed into a corner. They go in on investments together all the time rather than forcing a stupid choice. It’s just a much better feeling show.
The shark tank just seems unnecessarily nasty to me.
There was a site at one point with statistics on how many deals work out, and one really glaring statistic is that Robert had by far the lowest percentage of deals that went from ‘took the deal on air’ to ‘actually signed an agreement’. Apparently he nixes a lot of deals when they sit down and look at the hard numbers. I presume the people going on the show do some research on the sharks, so they know this, and it probably makes people more hesitant to take a Robert deal because he’s likely to back out between the filming and the signing.
According to this article (note: Forbes), Kevin makes the fewest deals by far, and with the exception of Cuban, they ALL back out of a troublingly high percentage of their on-air handshake deals.
But I can’t really blame them. You don’t get rich and/or stay rich by making bad deals, and while I believe they do talk to the hopeful entrepreneurs for much longer than what we are shown on TV, there’s only so much information you can get from that sort of forum, and I’d imagine things can rapidly go sideways once they actually sit down with lawyers and accountants and papers and other serious-business-stuff.
Yeah, I guess I would do my research on this as well and be prepared for that. But of all the Sharks, he strikes me as the smartest. He might not be as salesy as some of the other sharks, but given his business (data/electronic security) I assume caution and due diligence are a big thing for him. If I were going on the show without a niche (obviously Daymond for fashion or Lori for stupid shitty QVC products) I’d definitely be targeting Robert as a partner and I’d have the numbers to sell it to him.
But that could be because I feel some kinship toward him. Data is my business as well, and I hate seeing people leave it unsecured or use it foolishly.
Funny, I haven’t seen it from Cuban yet…most recently it was Barbara Corcoran, but I feel like I see it most often from Kevin O’Leary. I think I might have even seen it *once *from Daymond John. (Keep in mind, though, that even though I’m now watching a few episodes a week I haven’t been watching for very long; and, I’m still only watching old episodes.)
I used to watch the original concept show “Mane no Tora: NO CHALLENGE, NO SUCCESS” (YouTube) from Japan in the early 2000’s.
Many years later, I’m watching:
“Dragon’s Den” (UK)
“Shark Tank” (US)
“Dragon’s Den” (Canada)
“Shark Tank” (Australia)
But I prefer Marcus Lemonis in “The Profit” much more. 
I love watching Robert’s reaction whenever someone brings a dog into the Tank. 
I do prefer the more serious tone of “Dragon’s Den” (UK), although the rare occasions when a complete moron enters the tank are amusing. Didn’t understand why Duncan Bannatyne got so grouchy toward the end of his run though.
“The Profit” is probably my favorite though.
SWMBO is into Shark Tank big time. I watch it every once in a while and secretly lust after Lori Greiner.
Well, I bought my first Shark Tank product over the weekend: not the Lumio, as I expected, but a Comfort Click belt. I’ve been losing weight, and right now my “fat person” belt is a *little *too big while regular-sized belts are still a *little *too small. I liked the idea of something more adjustable that still looks dressy. The box makes it clear that the belt and the buckle are provided separately, and I should have taken it out of the box before this morning: I couldn’t quickly figure out how to attach the buckle, and there don’t seem to be any instructions, so I haven’t tried it yet. I’ll play with it when I get home.
Sorry I didn’t see your comment until now.
After a bit of research it would appear you are correct. Cuban threatened to not return to the show if they didn’t stop that. And to correct myself, the equity went to the show’s production company, not to ABC.
https://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/mark-cuban-forces-shark-tank-to-remove-equity-clause.html
As by far the richest person on the panel, he threw his weight around and got it his way, and in this case I think it was a net positive for everyone. It also goes a long way in explaining his willingness to make and actually close a much, much higher percentage of deals than anyone else.