I love watching Shark Tank with my family. It’s one of the few things that everyone in the house will gather in the living room for. We have fun talking about the different products, seeing the niche opportunities, and hearing the amazing stories the entrepreneurs share about how they got to be standing on the carpet in front of the group and presenting their idea.
Shark Tank had two hours to kick off the season, so they aired two episodes and featured eight entrepreneurs with their ideas.
Season 9 Episode 1: Sharks for the episode are Sir Richard Branson, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and Daymond John.
The first one into the tank was a kid with a cool and innovative skateboard that solved a frustration that a lot of teenagers have, creating his product from recycled skateboards he creates a functional new board that can easily fit into a backpack or school locker. Appropriately named, Locker Board. Excellent presentation, this kid was more prepared than a lot of adult business owners. His enthusiasm was fantastic and his smile and energy were contagious. Great way to kick off the ninth season and he walked away with a deal made with Sir Richard Branson.
Second up was a wingboard guy and his fun idea with WYP Aviation. Everyone thought his product was cool, but would take too much money to get from where he was to profitability since he didn’t have any event locations open yet. I’ll admit that I wasn’t feeling the ‘wow’ factor with his presentation, but the kids agreed it would be a fun thing to go do when there are places open to go fly the boards.
Third was Sierra Madre Research with their super cool hammock tent. Brilliant idea and properly priced for serious campers. Their passion is helping to drill clean water wells with their Sierra Madre (one) campaign; each (one) product = (one) year of clean drinking water for (one) person in need. I love a business with a big vision and life improving purpose.
Fourth was the Simple Habit guided meditation app, with the unique feature being that they use a collection of meditation teachers instead of hearing the same voice over and over again, plus the very focused five minute guided meditations to help combat every day stress. But the young lady had a few million dollars in the bank from previous investments, so Mark and Daymond took her to task for not needing to be on the show. An argument broke out between Mark Cuban and Richard Branson… including the water throwing incident you might have seen in the preview and commercials.
Shark Tank Season 9 Premiere Part II
Season 9 Episode 2: Sharks for the episode are Rohan Oza, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and Barbara Corcoran.
The Seventy2 emergency prep kit to have you ready for whatever happens. Robert said take my deal or I’m out, they took it before Lori could make her offer, so their portion of the show was pretty quick.
They also use a manufacturer that helps disabled folks have meaningful employment, so I think that’s extra awesome.
The emergency preparedness niche is pretty huge right now, ranging from folks who want prepackaged kits like this to be prepared all the way to the extreme level preppers who are quite literally for an apocalypse to start, and everything in between. People are looking to be educated and more prepared for everything and anything. I was happy to find this product is already available on Amazon, so that’s super easy to add to your affiliate site.
Next up was a family business that grew out of a healthy snack need for their son. Jackson’s Honest, chips made with coconut oil. The Sharks loved the chips samples, but they didn’t love the risk level and numbers. The grocery space is scary difficult.
They hashed out a deal with Rohan and left the Tank excited and happy.
Then the screen went black…
In memory of Jackson Reamer 2001 – 2017. Between recording and airing of the episode their son Jackson had passed away. I spent the commercial break in tears. My heart and thoughts go out with love to the Reamer family.
Qball was next in, a ball that is a wireless microphone. Great for classrooms and group events. Lori pointed out there were corporate use opportunities for things like conference calls and meetings. No more struggling to hear the person farthest from the microphone. Not only did he walk away with a deal, but it was a group deal with Lori, Mark, and Rohan. Nice!
A quick peek on Amazon says currently sold out there. They’re available on the product website, but there is a note that due to high demand current orders are expected to ship within 7 to 14 days.
Trippie was the last one on the carpet for the night, an app designed to help you navigate airports. A you are here interactive map that guides you to food and what you need and back to your gate in time to catch your flight. Great ideas, smart kid, but the Sharks felt it was just too early and not a business that was ready for investing.
Mark said the biggest problem was at this point its a feature, not a product. From the looks of things on Twitter after the episode aired, he took the advice from the Sharks and is continuing to grow and improve on the app.
Did you watch these two episodes of Shark Tank? Which products were you favorites?
Drop a comment below and share your thoughts.
Transcriptionist, passionate cross stitcher, writer at heart, wife, mom, and finder of lost shoes… Loretta Oliver, married to the comic book geek of her dreams and mother of four amazing young men, has been working from home full time since 2001. With a busy transcription service business, a few niche sites, and a handful of other internet marketing projects on the go, the computer is always fired up and the ideas are always flowing.