Mark Cuban reveals the smelliest pitch ever on 'Shark Tank' and we might be with him on this
After leaving “Shark Tank” following a 16-season stint on the show, Mark Cuban looked back at the net loss he made from his investments on the show. Apart from his worst investment decisions, Cuban has also talked about the products that he considers the most ridiculous ones ever pitched during his time. According to a report in Looper, the celebrity investor revealed that he considers a product pitched in a 2013 episode of the show to be the worst he had seen.
The entrepreneur pitching it was a man named Johnson Bailey, and he was the founder of a company called Original Man Candle. The company specialized in manufacturing scented candles. The unique thing about their product was that the scents were what some may describe as traditionally masculine. “We’ve got pot roast, we’ve got golf course, barbecue, football, draft beer, popcorn, awesome manly fragrances,” he had said during his pitch. However, the best seller was a gag candle.
“Say there’s someone in your house you really don’t want to hang around too long,” he said while describing who the candle that smelled like fart was intended for. “You just light that candle, 20 minutes, I guarantee you they’re gone,” he added. This drew laughter from the sharks, who then got to smell the various candles. Bailey had held on to the fart candle and only gave it to the sharks once they said they wanted to smell it.
Every single one of them found the smell revolting, which was a good thing because that is exactly what the product was supposed to do. “It just gets louder. It’s hard to imagine a fragrant getting louder, but it does. It’ll kick you in the throat a little bit,” the entrepreneur said. His pitch might have been impressive, but his sales figures weren’t. The company had only sold products worth $53,000 at the time of recording, and none of the sharks were willing to invest.
Bailey did get an investment later from an investor named P. Nathan Thornberry, who reportedly paid $65,000 for 35% equity. However, things did not end well between the two as Bailey ended up losing a breach of contract suit against Thornberry and filed for bankruptcy. Many years later, Cuban called the product nasty, even though that is exactly what it was supposed to be. "The worst was the fart candles," he said. "Some dude came on and he's like, 'I've got all these different flavors, or smells, for candles instead of just traditional candles.' And these are good gag gifts. And then they hand one out to each of the sharks, there's five of us, and of course, they want to hand me the basketball smelling candle. But instead, I get the fart smelling candle. I'm like, 'It smells like a fart but I'm not gonna invest in your company. It's nasty!' So that was probably the worst."
Original Man Candle products are still available online for purchase, so one may assume that Bailey eventually was able to get things right and make a living from his business.
