‘Shark Tank’ review: Oru Kayak, Cinnaholic, Bon Affair, and Hargitt Marine Services
On tonight’s “Shark Tank,” we had a little bit of everything: Treasure, booze, food, and then kayaks. Maybe you can kayak out to the ocean, find treasure, and then celebrate with cinnamon rolls and wine. What a strange but fun episode this was, and it included one of the weirdest presentations that we’ve ever seen.
As always when we present our product reviews, we’ve included links to the applicable websites for you to find out more (at least for the products that actually have websites).
Oru Kayak (seeking $500,000 for 12% of the company) – A great presentation, and a very interesting product. We can see the value in this for people who love the outdoors, and kayaks take up a ton of space! The biggest issue we have? The crazy valuation of almost $10 million.
Robert Herjavec managed to get this valuation down to what we feel was the right offer all around: $500,000 for 25%. This matches what the real value of the company is from our vantage point, especially once you remember that Robert brings so much to the table.
Bon Affair (seeking $150,000 for 35% of the company) – Basically, this is a wine spritzer that gives wine lovers something to drink without having the calories of wine. It’s not a terrible idea since low-calorie drinks are popular these days. But, there was a leaky cap issue that caused the business to lose a ton of money.
The problem with beverages is basically the same exact thing as food. It takes a ton of money in order to get in stores, and then convince consumers that this is worth trying. To us, it doesn’t really bring anything necessary to the table. Luckily for the company, Mark Cuban disagreed and gave the company exactly what they asked for.
Hargitt Marine Services – Every now and then, “Shark Tank” has a business that is so completely out of left field that you don’t know how it got on there. This is one of them. This was just some dude who looked like he stumbled over from an Alaska-themed series from Discovery in order to make a pitch. He didn’t have any real presentation! He just had a cooler full of ore and stuff! We personally love the fact that he was basically telling the sharks that they were going to get some crazy amount of money when they have SO MUCH MORE MONEY THAN THIS.
Cinnaholic (seeking $200,000 for 20%) – Okay, so these look delicious. We love food products and food chains, but they are a huge risk. Not every place can be a Tom + Chee and a Cousins Maine Lobster (who are successes in this venture).
What made this business appealing to Robert in particular was that he could bring experience to it, in addition to some genuine advice about how market this into something nationwide via the internet rather than opening another retail store. He invested, but took 40% rather than 20.
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Photo: ABC