Shark Tank rankings: Guard Llama, Validated, Guardian Bikes, Flag app

Let’s start off this edition of Shark Tank rankings with an admission: Guard Llama, Validated, Guardian Bikes, Flag app aren’t our favorites. None of them are necessarily bad ideas in theory, but only one or two of them really pop and even then, they don’t necessarily have mass-market appeal. There’s a lot of tech in the repeat episode airing tonight, and the thing about that is that it’s such a high-risk / high-reward sort of industry. There are some ideas that turn out brilliant and sell like hotcakes; meanwhile, there are others that fall apart like a cookie dunked in milk.

Below, you can see our rankings for these four products based on where they are now and where we see their long-term impact being — for the record, we’re not ranking them based on personal preference. We never do.

4. Flag – When the idea was brought into the Tank, it was very intuitive: A way to deliver free photos to consumers that would monetize itself via advertisements. Basically, it was trying to do for printed photos what websites do with some of their content. Unfortunately, there were many problems that befell them in the Tank, and many months later the company still doesn’t have much of an imprint online to make us think that they’ve made significant headway.

3. Guardian Bikes – The idea behind the product is simple and needed: Bicycles that strive to make everyone who rides them feel safe. The technology is there, and their presentation in the Tank was fairly slick and effective. So why not have them higher on our personal rankings? The simple reason is that we like to see more of a social-media hustle, and there just isn’t that much there in the way of a web footprint with this company compared to some of the others in this episode.

2. Validated – It’s described as a parking validation app for the urban explorer, which helps to allow shops and restaurants pay for your parking — it gives them further incentives to convince you to come in and shop, while it also allows customers to save money on things that they would be spending money on in the first place. All in all, this is an interesting idea and it is scaling outward — we’re not here to say that it’s game-changing just yet, but it has some promise.

1. Guard Llama – This is still a ridiculous name for a product, but we do like the basic functionality of the product: A way to get you help from the authorities so much faster than just dialing 911. It’s got a specific purpose, and since the show, there’s been a continued effort to further generate outreach. Are there still issues? Sure, with the biggest one being trying to get this into the hands of the wary consumer who often won’t prepare for an emergency until after something terrible has already transpired.

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