In this article we are going to list the 15 most successful products from Shark Tank. Click to skip ahead and jump to the 5 most successful products from Shark Tank.
While working an office job from 9 – 5 has historically been the normal way to go for most people, especially those without trusts or wealth. After all, when you don’t know where your next meal will come from if you stop getting even a couple of paychecks, then you can’t really afford to risk anything and start your own business, with the added caveat that only a few businesses or startups survive and flourish.
However, here’s the good news. As technology has continued advancing, the world has become more and more globalized, which means a lot more opportunities for people. Further, entrepreneurship has also been encouraged in most countries across the world as the more businesses you have, the better the economy and employment statistics, leading to a higher standard of living. I’m sure many people have had brilliant ideas without resources or the connections to bring these ideas to life, which in turn means that we have lost out on my such brilliant ideas.
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To successfully start or even maintain a business, you need capital. Capital refers to the investments made into the company by the owners of the company, and this capital is used initially to fund expenses, both of an operating nature as well as a capital nature. Operating expenses refer to expenses which are made on a day to day basis for the running of the company, while capital expenses refer to the purchases of physical assets such as land, plants, vehicles and machinery, where such expenditure is used to buy things which will be used for several years in the future. And this is why having capital at the start is so important. Unless the business is exceptional and there are exceptional circumstances, you will not be making profits in the first year or even the first few years. And if you don’t have sufficient capital, you will be unable to get the business in the state you need it to be.
The good thing is, there are now many different ways to raise capital. Gone are the days where making connections with investors and setting up meetings was the only way to get investors interested in your product. Now, there are websites such as GoFundMe and Kickstarter, where you can crowdfund your project or business. You can simply go to these websites and write about your product and what it aims to do and also mention any extra benefits that the people funding the project will receive. Some of the biggest projects on these websites have received millions of dollars from regular people. In fact, many recent start-up companies have even gone on to become public companies including Trivago (NASDAQ:TRVG), One Medical (NASDAQ:ONEM), Casper (NYSE:CSPR) and Kingsoft Cloud (NASDAQ:KC) among many others.
On the other hand, another option over the last few years is Shark Tank. We live in a time where reality shows are incredibly popular, and major TV channels keep trying to find new scenarios in which to film such reality shows, while led to the creation of Shark Tank. The show itself is the US franchise of a show called Dragon’s Den which premiered in Japan all the way back in 2001, while Shark Tank’s first season was in 2009.
The show has a panel of judges, who are all incredibly successful businessmen and women, with some of them billionaires and known for their successful investments such as Mark Cuban. Regular people who have an idea for a business or a running business but need more business then pitch their idea to the panel during the show, and based on the pitch, the investors decide whether they want to make the investment or not, and what they’re getting in return for making the investment. The show airs on ABC, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) and has been extremely popular with viewers which is why it has now been renewed for an 11th successive season.
If the investors (the panel) are interested, they can make a handshake deal, or a gentleman’s agreement on an investment. Often, if an idea is really popular, these guys will also try to one up the deal other members of the panel are making, in order to convince the applicant to select them as their investor. If no investor shows interest, then the applicant leaves empty handed. It is of little surprise that the show has attracted so much attention and popularity in the United States, which is the unofficial entrepreneur capital of the world. In fact, around 40,000 companies apply to the show every single season of which only 158 being allowed the opportunity to pitch their product and only 88 being showed on air. While the actual pitches can run up to an hour, the TV show edits and whittles it down to around 11 minutes. The premise of the show is to showcase the drama and tension that occurs during a pitch of a business with the panel often finding faults with the business and can even be brutal in their rejection of the idea.
Of course, that’s not to say that the judges are infallible in their knowledge. Many times, ideas and businesses have been rejected which have gone on to achieve great things. But just as often, if not more, the investors have invested in businesses which have gone on to bring a huge return on their initial investment. However, according to judge Kevin O’Leary, around 20% of the handshake deals are never executed in reality, because when the investors do their due diligence, they find out facts and information which makes the investment a bad idea. However, another Shark Robert Herjavec said that most of these rejections come from the entrepreneurs themselves, who only came to the show for publicity and didn’t want to actually give up a share of their company. And it is definitely true that simply appearing on Shark Tank can boost a business, in what is now known as the Shark Tank effect.
As I mentioned earlier, many products from Shark Tank have gone on to do really well. To find out these products, we have scoured the internet and various websites including The Pioneer Woman, USA Today and CNBC, to come up with our list. So let’s take a look at the products from Shark Tank which have gone on to achieve a lot, starting with number 15:
15. PhoneSoap
Appearing on Shark Tank in 2015, PhoneSoap is a UV light sanitizer which has had $46 million in total sales. You simply keep you phone in the box, and the box does the rest, killing of 99.99% of all germs on your phone, which in the days of a pandemic where we have to be extra careful and responsible, seems like a really good idea.
Pixabay/Public domain
