'Shark Tank' contestant tucks himself into bed and plays with a dog — ends up with a 6-figure deal
From dance routines to a plunge in ice-cold water, pitches on “Shark Tank” at times involve over-the-top yet innovative antics. Entrepreneurs Yuki Kinoshita and Noah Silverman were seeking $200,000 for 10% of their business, Plufl. They had also brought a dog and a bed to the set, which was an important part of their fantastic pitch.
Plufl is a company that makes dog beds for humans. They’re basically much larger dog beds made with materials like memory foam to give humans a comfortable sleeping experience. Kinoshita jumped into one of them during the pitch, closed his eyes, and started snoring. The dog came up to take a look at the entrepreneur as he pretended to sleep. Intrigued by the product, Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec also joined in.
Both of them seemed comfortable in the Plufl bed, and Hervajec even lay down a blanket on Cuban as if he was tucking him into bed. A couple of the sharks did not understand the product, and the fact that they had not yet delivered a single unit despite taking a lot of orders was also disheartening. However, Kevin O’Leary saw value in it and offered the money. However, he wanted 30% of the company instead of 10%.
This was a bit too much, but the entrepreneurs might have taken the offer. That’s when Cuban made a joint offer with Lori Greiner. The two sharks had worked together with a company called Hug Sleep, and at the time of recording, had done $15 million in sales. So Plufl was right in their wheelhouse. The two of them together could help the company go big, and the entrepreneurs knew that.
They offered $200,000 for 20% of the company. There was an attempt at negotiations by the entrepreneurs, but the sharks weren’t willing to budge from their position. Without delaying things any further, the deal was accepted. Greiner and Cuban could truly do for Plufl what they did for Hug Sleep. The company made a comfortable and stretchable sleeping bag-like blanket for adults. Back then, the sharks offered the husband-wife duo of Matt Mundt and Angie Kupper $300,000 for 20% of the business, and that was the deal struck that day. The company reported a whopping $4 million in sales after the episode aired, and things have only looked up ever since. The sales figure was around $15 million two years after it was broadcast.
“We never actually thought it was going to happen,” Mundt said as per a Sleepopolis report. "I knew we had pretty good numbers for only being in business for a year, but the product at the end of the day is very different, it’s very unique, and that’s something that we’ve leaned into. You just never know,” he added. Mundt also said that when “Shark Tank” contacted him for the first time about appearing on the show, he didn’t believe it.
