I am sure Cuban gets pitched by smart tech guys all the time, he doesn't need a bunch of 15 year olds on his rolodex. Or as the other poster said, he doesn't need to give them 300k for a dumb idea to get them there, even if he thinks that the boy will be the next Zuckerberg.

there's a lot of smart kids out there who are into science/technology. the presentation didn't really show anything that sets them apart so much that they're worth throwing money at just for that reason. it's certainly possible that one or two of them are the real deal, but it's probably more likely that one of them has an engineer as a parent.

Ezra, I strongly disagree that the "I want to draw a cat" guy is analogous to the Inventioneers/SmartWheel.

First off, the return profile is completely different. CatGuy was low-risk, quick payback, where as Inventioneers is high-risk, long payback. "I want to draw a cat for you" paid Cuban back his money within a couple months after the show aired iirc. Cuban probably had a fairly good idea that this would happen.

Second, there was lots more to Cat guy that they didn't show (but which i bet Ezra knows about?). He had a TV series he was pitching, a regular Chicago comedy troupe, etc etc. Cuban knew all that, so he knew that there was a known substantial upside. Inventioneers is unknown upside.

Third, CatGuy was what he was. Finished product, on the market with sales. No due diligence necessary. Inventioneers is a prototype with unclear distribution but which COULD be huge if they can sell to a carmaker/govt agency/tractor-trailer makers etc. This is why Cuban did the deal. He can potentially make 1 sales call during due diligence, get a huge order and then it's obvious he should invest.

If all Cuban wanted was a relationship, he could've very easily given them his phone number or asked for theirs and said he'd be interested in hearing about their next idea. He's fricking Mark Cuban, of course he'll get a call from a group of 18 year old kids whenever they think they get something.

SMART = Safe Motorist Alert for Restricting Texting

I went back and watched this, and I don't understand where you're coming from. Can you explain why you hold that view?

As I see it, Cuban was simply objecting to Robert focusing in on GM/Ford/Chrysler. He doesn't want that contingency in the deal because he wants the flexibility to pivot to other distribution markets/channels, eg commercial...which he specifically mentions.

If they leave Robert's carmaker contingency in the deal, it's a free option for the Inventioneers to kill the deal if the thing takes off in a non-carmaker distribution channel.

nailed it.

I've thought about an invention years ago that would prevent texting in the car and at the time looked it up and there was already someone developing this and working with government contracts in the public sector to implement this across their vehicles and phones.

This is usually where these things start, and we will see this as a safety feature on vehicles in the future whether it becomes standard (go insurance lobbyists) or an optional feature with parental control etc.

The steering wheel is a much different idea, and while I don't think its a home run, there is always a huge market for the over protective controlling parents out there.

Purchasing a $200 item no matter how dumb is not much of a reach for most if it appeals to their sense of fear everyone walks around with these days....especially regarding their teenager driving.

This week's Dragons Den had a very interesting negotiation between Kevin O'Wonderful and the rest of the Dragons.

Been doing some thinking about Pretty Padded Room.

There is only one shark that might ever invest in an early stage venture with low probability of success but potentially huge payoff: Cuban. Mark seemed interested, but he'll never invest when the entrepreneur doesn't know the customer acquisition cost and lifetime value.

If I had a VC fund, I might invest if the team was right. I would have an analyst/associate call Bea Arthur up. I think there's something there, but we'd have to find the right team. She can't do the marketing or control strategy. She should only be in charge of the product/user experience which she seems to be good at AND is what she truly cares about. Finding the right team wouldn't be easy, but it'd be worth searching and/or trying to get an MBA program to make it a class competition.

The biggest question is whether there's a big enough market for therapy by Skype/FaceTime.

But finding that market seems doable. Online counseling can probably be half the hourly rate of in-person counseling and still make a decent profit for PPR. You should be able to find potential customers through PPC for divorce/problem child/suicide/child loss/dog loss/death/anorexia/counseling/psychiatrist/whatever. And the lifetime value of a customer should be way higher than acquisition cost. Plus, there might be a way to do a strategic deal with a big institution that will guarantee you a certain number of counseling hours (big oil company? insurance company? school district? military?)

If you can disrupt counseling worldwide, then you would be in a good spot to disrupt other professional services.

I'd love to hear good arguments for why I'm crazy, beyond just "but getting the right team is SO hard."

the online therapy girl straight up lied about her numbers and the feigned ignorance when they didn't add up. investing in people who do that is a bad idea.

Glad the Wine by the glass guy stuck to his guns and didn't take a deal. This guy clearly demonstrated that the Sharks are really only there to try and pay a nickel for something worth a dime.

re: stinkypete
i don't think she lied, i think she just didn't know them.

not gonna go back to verify but she said something about ~40% (i think?) of users who signed up for the trial becoming paying members. it's just not possible.

Ive been thinking this since the episode and wanting to post but you beat me to it!

I see the product having the potential for school buses and city bus systems for the reporting feature, safety and quality control, but not much more than that. Now thinking about it, i remember seeing something about train controls having systems which require the conductor to do something with the controls every 30 seconds or an alarm goes off that may or may not have a reporting system built in, but I digress.

Then what Ezra said, if the group of kids, or any of them individual or with whoever else have a great $$$$ product down the road, who will they call first for a partner/investor? Mark or Robert.

Cuban on Howard stern show today. Interesting to hear that his 2 most successful investments have been the surf fitness people and the paddle board guy.

One more problem with the idea that Cuban was investing in these kids "for the long term."

These kids have shown that they're smart, and have even had a good idea. But ideas are worthless. Execution is everything.

These kids haven't shown great execution yet. The only execution success they'd have is a PR strategy that used their youth as the hook. That's not repeatable.

Cuban has said before that he does make some semi "goodwill" investments. He gives people chances.

yea he did this w/ the christmas tree delivery guy earlier in the season eventhough the business side of that wasnt too sound .

It was 40%; I forgot how many people went to the site, but I remember doing the quick math, and if she actually convetrted 40% (lol), she would have been up to her neck in money. She probably meant 4%, which is still not that bad.

I ordered a sampler of the Grinds from one of the recent episodes.

All I know is if you are going to be on national TV you better have stock to ship out the dam product. I can't believe I have had to wait like 2 weeks for this haha.

You do realize that one of the biggest reasons most of these businesses need money is so that they can invest in inventory, right? Your statement doesn't make much sense.

yes and those folks get loans from the bank, not equity on Shark tank

if you have orders written down no bank would turn you down

now, move along....
nothing to see here....

However people still go on the show with orders in hand that they can't fill... Go figure. Silly banks, huh.

IIRC, didn't the guy with the nose filter have a multi-million dollar deal in hand when he walked into the tank?

silly people

my reply was that to go to the shark tank has nothing to do with having unfilled orders (zero causation). It's to grow the business.

Sushi business - something i would go to on a regular.

Smart wheel - quickly thought about companies with drivers.

Pink Padded Room - kinda funny thinking about this myself about 8-9 months ago (not sure on time line) but would be just hiring people at $8-9 hr then charging like $20-30 for a 30min session. The reason I thought about this was when I was working sales people would just talk about some product they were looking at then start telling me about themselves, personal day, some weird things. Gotta be a big market place for this. Just for people to vent about there day and have someone listen to them.