Mark Cuban once made the biggest offer in 'Shark Tank' history — the founders still said no to him
Entrepreneurs put their best foot forward for a favorable deal from a "Shark Tank Investor," and so no one could anticipate that the shark with the biggest offer ever on the show would be turned down. This happened founders of the dating platform, "Coffee Meets Bagel", Aram, Da Woon, and Soo, rejected Mark Cuban's $30 million offer for the company. Cuban, who dropped out twice during the pitch made by the Kang sisters, came back one last time to acquire the whole company. But the founders, who claimed that their product could compete with the big fish in the industry, didn't flinch before rejecting the mammoth offer, even if it meant walking away empty-handed.
The Kang sisters appeared on the show in 2015 seeking $500,000 for 5% of their company. They pitched Coffee Meets Bagel, a dating platform that helped people create genuine connections by matching them with friends of friends. The app gave each user a suggested match every day at noon, and after matching, the users had seven days to connect in real life before the secret chat expired. They claimed that Coffee Meets Bagel helps people keep things private and at arm’s length until the two parties decide to take the next step and meet.
The three sisters expressed their desire to create the next Match.com, and as proof of concept, one of the sisters shared she had met her current boyfriend on the site, while another was using it to date. While the Sharks were impressed with the concept, they had their fair share of questions in store. Kevin O'Leary fired the first by asking how the app made money. The founders explained that their initial product is free, but users need to buy virtual currency called 'Coffee beans' to buy additional features within the app.
Cuban then asked them about the number of users, and they replied with a vague answer, "several hundred thousand." "So, it's between one and five hundred thousand," they said. When the sisters refused to reveal the exact number, Cuban got upset and dropped out immediately.
Coming to sales, they shared that they made $87,000 in their first year, which jumped to $270,000 in the most recent year. They also projected $1 million in sales by the end of that year and $10 million in the next year. However, when Robert Herjavec asked about the profits, the founders revealed that they were negative in profits as they had to pay salaries and would lose $1 million on $ 1 million from sales. They further revealed that they were drawing $100,000 each in salaries, which put off the majority of the panel.
One by one, the Sharks started dropping out, citing several reasons. In the end, Cuban, who dropped out twice before, made a flying offer of $30 million for the entire company. However, the sisters rejected the offer as they saw much more potential in the company. "While 30 million dollars may sound like a lot of money, you just wait, Mr Mark Cuban, because this baby is going to explode!" they said in the end after walking out of the Tank empty-handed.
It turns out that the Kang sisters did prove Cuban and the other Sharks wrong. According to Benzinga, by 2018, Coffee Meets Bagel had raised nearly $20 million in funding and had doubled its users. Coffee Meets Bagel continued to expand its business after "Shark Tank," and it is still an active and thriving dating website.
