I have done week by week reviews of American Idol, which in fact made up the meat of the majority of my work on Caponomics during the first few months. I felt that it would be a good idea to do the same with Shark Tank. My Shark Tank posts have proven to be fairly popular according to my stats, as both my pieces are in the top ten. Now let's get to business... literally speaking. Episode 2 of Shark Tank was filled more so with entertainment value, whether it be fun entertainment, seeing idiocy be brought down entertainment, emotional entertainment, or just zany entertainment. Only one of these bits of entertainment actually made it in the tank tonight. The sharks featured in the episode were Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O'Leary, Barbara Corcoran, and Robert Herjavec. I am going to issue this warning: if you did NOT see the show and want to view the events on your own, DO NOT READ ON. This post WILL be issuing spoilers. This will apply to my other reviews of Shark Tank as well.
First into the tank was Steve Gadlin with a business called "I Want To Draw A Cat For You." This line was just random drawings of cats that delivered some kind of humorous message. He drew cats for occasions, such as a birthday, or for any kind of theme. He admitted to thinking of most of his ideas on the toilet and gave a zany presentation that included the format in which he spoke and the way he danced while doing it. The dance was absolutely catchy. The original offer was $10,000 in exchange for 25% of the company. Mark Cuban gave a counteroffer of $25,000 in exchange for 33%. Gadlin closed the deal with Cuban when he promised to draw a cat for every thousand sketches were made.
The next entrepreneur wanted to sell a company in which he was training people to become better salespeople. The only problem was, he was not such a good salesperson. Daymond John wanted him to sell him the pen he was holding, but did not convince him. With most of the sharks out, Mark Cuban tested him by offering him the exact offer: $90,000 for 40% of the stake in the company. He wanted to hear from Barbara Corcoran, the other shark remaining, but Cuban informed him that he failed the test of having something at his fingertips and blowing it away. Corcoran continues her streak of not making a single investment throughout the season. The entrepreneur left the tank empty-handed, coming off as being rude.
For the update, I strongly believed that "CitiKitty," the toilet training product for cats, would be revisited at least sometime during the season. Now happened to be the time. Kevin Harrington, who generally sat in the spot Mark Cuban is occupying, invested in this product. He was with the creator as they went to Walgreen's to promote the product.
Next up was Rick Smith Jr., a magician who wanted the sharks to invest in his magic show. He holds a record for throwing a playing card and he demonstrated this by hitting a stick of celery. He also had Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary sitting in chairs facing one another, lighting the lighter under Cuban's chair and it ends up hitting O'Leary. O'Leary took the lighter and wanted to strike revenge. The magic was incredible, but unfortunately, the price was major. Smith Jr. priced the magic show at $1,500,000, which was too rich for the sharks. They all went out.
To close the show, Donny McCall came on with a product called the "Invis-A-Rack," that was meant to allow you to organize what you needed to on the back of a pickup truck, but containing the same look to the truck. The product was really a good idea, though it needed a bit of work and McCall did not want to head overseas. In the business world, avoiding overseas business is not something the sharks wanted to risk. This was an emotional moment for Robert Herjavec, knowing from offhand experience about working your way up in the business world. He cited how his father worked his way from the bottom up as a factory worker when he immigrated to Canada from Croatia. He added that his father was made fun of, but he kept his strive and worked his way up in the business world, but still felt his time as a backbreaking worker was what he enjoyed the most. He broke down while telling this story. Mark Cuban came the closest to making an offer, but couldn't, due to the prices not being able to match up.
This final segment brings up a topic of discussion. This is the fact that the American dream is still alive and how this man is encouraged to contribute to the "Made In America" goal. While he may have not succeeded on the show, he did receive some recognition. Hopefully, his product does succeed and contributes to yet another product that can be considered a purely American product. On the other hand, Herjavec does prove a point when it comes to immigration holding such a fine opportunity. Just about every American immigrated to this country from another country. We immigrate in order to find opportunity, which was the message Herjavec was trying to deliver. I must admit that the story he told was emotional, even on my own end, as it goes to show you the strive "sharks" have to take to get to the position they are. In his case, it wasn't easy, but that's what makes the dream even better.
Shark Tank returns next week with several new entrepreneurs trying to see if the sharks will invest in their product. Will we see the next big thing? Will we see big dollar amounts? Plus will we see Barbara Corcoran make an offer? Those questions will be answered on next week's show.
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