'Shark Tank' contestants make a wild entrance on unicycles and walked away with life-changing deals

Standing out with an innovative product or creative pitch is a priority for entrepreneurs trying to secure an investment on “Shark Tank.” People do a lot of things to make a unique first impression, and a couple of entrepreneurs did so by riding in on unicycles, much to the sharks’ amusement. The entrepreneurs were David Martschinske and Daniel Wood, who sought $300,000 for 10% of their business, SBU.

SBU stands for self-balancing unicycles, which were made to be a portable and sustainable way of transportation over short distances. As the name suggests, the unicycles balance themselves, which is a big plus, and there’s no peddling involved. It runs on electricity, and the entrepreneurs claimed that on a single charge, an SBU could travel 10 miles at a top speed of 15 miles per hour. They had also sold out their first 100 units at $1,800 each.

The sharks were impressed with the product, but there were concerns about safety. The sharks had Segways as their reference. The company used to manufacture an electric scooter, which was said to be a massive innovation at the time. However, the company’s owner one day lost control of the Segway, fell into a river, and drowned to his death.

The Segway was banned by several countries as well from being driven on sidewalks, and the business died a slow death. The sharks were worried something similar could happen to SBU. Daymond John said no to taking the risk. Lori Greiner said she did not feel passionately enough about the product to take such a risk. Robert Herjavec also seemed to be on his way out, but the entrepreneur then said that he owned the technology that made the SBUs run as well.

With a growing EV market, that technology could be worth a lot of money. Kevin O’Leary and Herjavec both realizedd this. However, they weren’t willing to fo $300,000 for 10%. Herjavec said that he’d do it for 33% of the company. That’s when Mr. Wonderful came in and said that he was willing to team up for a deal. The entrepreneurs asked if there were any other offers on the table, and that’s when Daymond John gave them a piece of advice.

“You’re playing a very dangerous balancing act right now. You have two sharks interested, when honestly, I think we were all going to be out. I don’t think you should waste much more time,” he said. The entrepreneurs did not take too long after that to accept the offer they had received. It was higher than what they might have expected, but they got two sharks for their business.

Their pitch was quite entertaining as both Herjavec and O’Leary hopped on the SBU and took it for a spin around the set. The entrepreneurs said that it only took 20 minutes to learn and helped them around the place. Mr. Wonderful absolutely loved the experience and wanted to buy one for himself.