'Shark Tank' contestants bring robotic dinosaurs to the show, walk away with a life-changing deal

Entrepreneurs on "Shark Tank" go to great lengths to make an impact with creative pitches for innovative products. This includes coming to the stage on unicycles and bringing animals to the sets. But the husband and wife duo of Dino Don Lessem and Val Jones had a lot of help from their life-sized robotic dinosaurs on the set. The co-founders of "Dino Don" showed off their product by making a demonstration that nearly made the Sharks scream. In the end, they managed to get a $500,000 deal with Mark Cuban, who they had been eyeing even before they got to the show.

They were seeking $500,000 for 10% of their business. They start with the story about how big Lessem is in the dinosaur world, and how he worked on big fossil excavations and Jurassic movies. They then turned to their two life-sized robotic dinosaurs. While talking about the species of T Rex, the robot roared and scared the entire panel.

The co-founders shared that they were the largest supplier of robotic dinosaurs in the U.S, and they do tours to zoos and museums with an “entourage”. They explain that their show increases traffic by 15%-50% at the venues and helps them boost revenue. They further share that on average, a dinosaur costs $5,000 to make, and they rent them to zoos and museums. Since COVID-19 hurt their business, Lessem shares that he wants to establish a gate-sharing program with the venues to generate more revenue. They shared that they did $1.8 million in 2020, and projected to do $3 million in the next year.

While they were confident about the economics of the gate-sharing model, the sharks weren't intrigued. "No way! That's not how it works. I mean, look, you've got to give me real numbers. I don't believe that," Kevin O'Leary said. He further added that the company was "all over the map" and the numbers didn't make sense, so he was out. Daymond John followed O'Leary's lead, and soon Lori Greiner went out as well.

However, Cuban was still interested. He offered the couple $500,000 but for 25% of the company as he felt it would need a lot of work to make things work. At this point, Robert Herjavec bowed out of a deal, calling Cuban's offer "generous." After conferring with Jones, Lessem accepted Cuban's deal and revealed that they always wanted Cuban on board, by showing him the back of their t-shirts. 

According to the Shark Tank Blog, Dino Don got an update on the show later, where the couple shared that the company had grown from 150 to over 400 robots since their appearance on "Shark Tank". Cuban further added that the company was on course to do $10 million in a year or two. 

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