‘Shark Tank’ review: Veggie Mama, Rent a Goat, RuffleButts, and ‘Survivor’s’ Edna Ma
Tonight on “Shark Tank,” there really was a little bit of everything. We had children’s clothing, hair removal, and then plant removal with the help of livestock. Shows with this sort of variety are in our universe greatly appreciated. While we can’t say that we would be buyers in most of this, we’re also not the average consumer someone who loves goats (well maybe a little), or has a need to wear specialty underwear before a bikini wax.
As always with our “Shark Tank” reviews, our analysis of each product shown comes with a link to the official website, that way you can go straight from here to buy anything that you are interested in.
RuffleButts – This was a great deal if you are Lori Greiner, since she made a deal that basically minimized the amount of risk that she is taking on a kids’ clothing company. This market, as you may know and as you saw in our preview article, is pretty insane. Nobody’s going to stop having kids, and you want the clothes they wear to be something very cute.
Lori did offer them the best evaluation over Barbara Corcoran in $600,000 for 9% of the company. However, she also did basically put them in a situation where they have to pay her the money back within the next two years. In theory, that is something that they could do without a problem, but they are in big trouble if disaster strikes.
Bare Ease – Hey, it’s Edna Ma from “Survivor: South Pacific”! If only she had brought Coach with her, he could have given everyone nicknames and taught them all to meditate. That way, they would have been more zen to listen to her speech about a product that had a male component named “Numb Nuts.”
It’s hard because Edna is someone from one of our favorite shows, but there is a big problem with her product just on the concept alone: If she had something that removed the hair that she was talking about here, then this could have been a phenomenal product. Instead, it’s just something that you get to help with a removal process later. It’s hard to convince anyone to spend money on something like that. We’re not shocked that she left without an investor, since she has so much other stuff going on that she just doesn’t have the time to commit.
Rent A Goat – Hilarious! This is the sort of thing that you can’t make up. Basically, these owners help businesses clear grass and fertilize land using something that is completely green: Goats. Why hire machines to do a job that goats can do, and for less? It’s an innovative idea, and probably one that goats enjoy doing.
So really, the actual business is not as comical as it sounds, but it was just too early in the company. This is something that could actually work somewhere down the road, but for someone else rather than a guy who seemed a little over his head.
Veggie Mama – A good idea for a product given that every parent out there wants to see their children eat their vegetables. But, the twist here is that they make these into “pops” that are something that kids can enjoy.
The big problem here is that children are probably still going to be convinced to eat these rather than your average pop out there, mostly because there is that sort of nasty stigma attached to anything veggie-related. This still did not stop the offers from pouring in, including a very generous one of $75,000 for 25% from Robert Herjavec, plus a salary to get the husband in this duo to quit his job. But, they got greedy, and waited to hear other offers when they had an amazing one. This led to them nearly being stuck with a royalty.
This may be the greatest end to a negotiation on this show ever. Just to shut up Lori, Robert, and Kevin O’Leary, Mark Cuban and Barbara teamed up, and managed to get them a deal that was less when it came to cash, but did not include a royalty in any form. This capped a very good episode, and one that we’d watch again in repeats. Grade: A-.
Be sure to vote for your favorite product featured tonight below! Meanwhile, click here if you are curious to see some other highlights from this season.
Photo: ABC