‘Shark Tank’ preview: Budsies, PullyPalz, Bee Thinking, Focus Athletics, and a Q-Flex update
Have you missed “Shark Tank“? We don’t blame you! It’s been a few weeks now since we’ve had a new episode, but the show will be roaring back Friday night with products for children, for adults looking to be in good shape, and … beekeepers? Clearly this is a show reaching a fairly wide audience. It also has one of our favorite products that we’ve ever seen on the show, at least in terms of an idea. We have to reserve a little bit of judgment without seeing the pitch.
We have every shark other than Barbara Corcoran in this episode, and you can see the full synopsis for this one below:
“A mom from Atlanta, GA has the solution to the lost pacifier problem; a beekeeper from Portland, OR wants the Sharks to invest in his hives to make money and better the planet; a Palm Beach, FL entrepreneur sells customized stuffed animals created by you or your kids; two men from Chicago, IL and Indianapolis, IN tout their super-comfortable lightweight running shoes. In addition, Barbara Corcoran follows up with this season’s 13-year-old Andrea Hirzel Cao and her mom, Hong Cao, of San Luis Obispo, CA. They are creators of Q Flex, a handheld back massager that didn’t even have a website when they struck a deal in the Tank with Barbara and Mark Cuban.”
Now, let’s get to spotlighting the products.
Bee Thinking – Are some beekeeping products going to get you buzzing? This is going to be a weird pitch in some ways. The honey part of it looks delicious! As for the beekeeping part of it, that is so niche a product that there’s no way it will have the potential for some of the sharks. Plus, this very much seems like the sort of thing that you really should know what you’re doing before you start it. At least their website does a great job of explaining about as much as you really can.
Budsies – This is awesome. Seriously. When we were a kid, we used to love to draw various characters for made-up comic strips or video games that we would try to design on pieces of paper. What we would’ve done to actually have some of these creations come to life! We don’t really mind that the turnaround time to get your drawing (or picture of yourself) into a stuffed animal is ten weeks. We’ve been writing about “Shark Tank” regularly for several years now, but this may be one of our favorite ideas to date. It just takes imagination to a whole new level.
PullyPalz – They have already committed our #1 cardinal sin, which is putting a Z at the end of your name; it’s sort of what the fun uncle does to sound cool. We’re not the best judge of a product given that we have about zero experience with babies other than being one at one point in life; with that said, it feels like this would be a practical solution to the issue of babies not being able to get access to their own pacifier easily.
Forus Athletics – We’ll take a wait-and-see approach on this one. They are following the lead of many other recent products in that they give a portion of sales back to charity, which is admirable. Their shoes are reasonably priced and focused on creating a better, pain-free experience when walking or running. Strategy is going to be the key for them, given that there are so many athletic shoe conglomerates, and we don’t think it’s so easy to educate shoe customers on what makes your brand stand out.
If you want to get some other highlights from this season, head over to the link here to read one of our recent reviews! Also, you can sign up to get some further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)