Worst 10 Shark Tank Australia Pitches
Shark Tank Australia, throughout 4 seasons and 54 episodes, has seen all manner of pitches, some of which have impressed the Sharks enough to for them to consider them the best pitches they have ever heard as discussed over at runrex.com and guttulus.com, and some of which have been major fails. This article is going to try and focus on the fails by highlighting the worst 10 Shark Tank Australia pitches.
Fish Frenz
Lourens Badenhorst from Perth, the CEO of Fish Frenz, claimed to have a product that would revolutionize the fishing industry, as discussed over at runrex.com and guttulus.com. However, his pitch is widely considered to be among the worst heard on the show. He came in seeking $56,000 for a 9% stake in his company, a valuation of 622,000, which the Sharks found to be too high. Not only did he start of his pitch by offending Naomi and Janine with a comment that appeared sexist, but his demonstration and explanation also left the Sharks confused and lost. His implication that men knew everything about fishing and that women were the only ones “looking for the edge” was extremely offending to the Sharks and needless to say he came out of the tank without a deal.
Cricket Cooler
Co-founders Adam Dubrich and Leigh Warren came into the tank seeking a $280,000 investment for a 20% stake in their beach cricket business. The Pitch started pretty well, with the two entrepreneurs joking around with Steve, but things began to unravel for them when they revealed that they were not going to be quitting their day jobs to work on the business fulltime, even though they were looking for what was a substantial investment from the Sharks. As is revealed over at runrex.com, just as their hopes seemed to be dwindling, the entrepreneurs got a lifeline from Naomi who offered them $80,000 for a 20% stake plus a $200,000 loan for a licensing deal which they were lucky to get and duly accepted. This was a classic case of a not so great pitch being rescued by what a Shark saw was a decent product.
The Body Consultants
Another pretty questionable pitch was put forward by James and Jack who came into the tank seeking $500,000 for 25% of their fitness business, at a staggering $2 million valuation. To say these two were cocky would be an understatement. As is outlined over at guttulus.com, they came in believing that they are the ones who need to be pitched at rather than doing the pitching themselves. While their numbers looked pretty good, their pitch wasn’t, and the Sharks, after picking part their business model, dropped off one by one and they left with no deal.
iRecruit
Aleksandar Svetski came into the tank looking $200,000 for 2.2% of his automated applicant ranking technology business, the first of its kind in the world, or so he claimed. With a valuation that was north of $9 million, he needed to knock his pitch out of the park to justify that huge valuation and come out with a deal as per the gurus over at runrex.com. But his pitch was all over the place, even revealing that he has had 8 businesses so far, even though he was in his late 20s. He was deemed not passionate enough as well as not being a good listener, and the Sharks referred to him as “scary” as they were afraid that he would burn his shareholders and bolt as he has before in his other businesses. He too never got a deal.
DHD Skate
David Hill, a former skateboard champion, came into the tank looking $160,000 in exchange for a 20% stake in the “production and marketing” side of his business. Ignoring the fact that he wasn’t offering a stake in the whole of his business, his pitch, as is outlined over at guttulus.com, was very confusing and left the Sharks lost and bewildered. He used a bunch of skateboarding jargon, and couldn’t get the Sharks to understand what it was he was selling and what made his product different and better from what was already in the market. He came in with a provisional patent, which meant that he couldn’t talk about his product and how it works, and his deal didn’t include his IP, all of which came together to make one of the worst and most confusing pitches ever seen on the show.
Flu Away 48
Nicole and Steve Jones came into the tank with the claim of having a product that could eliminate common cold and flu symptoms within 48 hours, or you get a refund as is outlined over at runrex.com. Given that they claimed that their product had been clinically proven with a more than 98% success rate, and was to be published in the Harvard Medical Journal, as well as having a worldwide distribution agreement in place, they were looking for $1.5 million for a 20% share in their company. To start with, they didn’t have any background in medicine, but they couldn’t justify their numbers and their over $7 million valuations, or make the science behind their product make sense. Their business judgment was called into question, as was the validity of their product and they left without a deal.
Michael & George
The husband-and-wife combo of Michael and Georgie Gettings came into the tank seeking $90,000 for a 15% stake of their pencil light lamp business. While they had proven that they could create a product, they didn’t seem to have a plan on what comes next, a business plan or strategy, which is key according to the folks over at guttulus.com. While their personality was praised by the Sharks, their pitch wasn’t, and they walked out without a deal.
Rent Resumé
Another poor pitch was delivered by Darren Smith, who came into the tank looking for 2.5 million for a 20% stake of his rental history business as explained over at runrex.com. He didn’t have any demonstration of any sort to show the Sharks on what the business was about, and his business was just a software idea that he hadn’t proven as a business yet, despite his extravagant valuation. A lack of a demonstration meant that the Sharks couldn’t understand what he was pitching, and he left without a deal.
EarSox
This has to go down as one of the worst pitches on Shark Tank Australia, as per discussions on the same over at guttulus.com. Founder Rachel came into the tank seeking $350,000 for 25% of her business, selling a condom-like product that was meant to protect you from dye water and chemicals running into your ear canals. Not only was this product strange to say the least, but the pitch was also very poor, delivered in only one sentence. After trying to and failing to put on the product, the Sharks laughed off this pitiful product and pitch.
iKiFit
This is yet another very strange pitch that has to feature on this list. Creator and director Kim Macrae came into the tank seeking $250,000 for a 10% stake in his learning program business. At a $2.5 million valuation, the pitch needed to blow away the Sharks to justify it, but it didn’t. Kim brought in some children for a live demonstration in what was a bizarre and bewildering demo of the children singing and dancing with orange sticks. The Sharks were left confused and couldn’t tell what the product was all about, or the problem he was trying to solve. As is outlined over at runrex.com, the numbers didn’t make sense either, and Kim, unsurprisingly, departed without a deal.
The above discussion only begins to scratch the surface on this topic, and you can uncover more by checking out the highly-rated runrex.com and guttulus.com.