How Not To Pitch Your Business On 'Shark Tank'
Shark Tank
What does billionaire investor Mark Cuban hate more than anything else?
On ABC's reality pitch show "Shark Tank," nothing infuriates Cuban more than what he calls "want-repreneurs" — adventurous spirits who like to come up with ideas but don't understand anything about business.
This is exactly who the Sharks came face-to-face with when hopeful Jason Woods and his fiancee Elise came on this week's show seeking $250,000 for a 20% stake in Woods' company, K ymera .
While Woods told the investors about his j et-propelled electric body board K ymera, which combines the light weight of a paddle board with the speed of a jet ski, Elise demonstrated how to use it.
Woods had the Sharks' attention until C uban realized that he'd said nothing about Kymera's business model.
"That's a nice little sales pitch, but you didn't tell us anything about the business," said Cuban.
Once Woods started pitching the business side, things went downhill quickly. Some of the issues:
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Kymera has not been granted a patent.
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The mold needed to make Kymera boards costs $40,000 to $50,000.
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Woods has never sold a single Kymera board.
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Woods gave his company a $1 million valuation despite having zero sales.
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Woods has put $130,000 of his own money into the company in the last 10 years.
Things got even worse when Woods started blaming Kickstarter for his problems and said he didn't want to sell products out of his garage, but wanted large-scale production.
Then Cuban lost it: "Jason, you're so full of crap ... You had so many opportunities over 10 years!"
Investor Daymond John called Woods' pitch "the worst [he's] ever seen."
Not surprisingly, Woods walked away with no deal, saying, "I'm pissed. All they cared about was the dollar amount."
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