All ‘Shark Tank’ judges loved his product but there was one problem — no one was ready to invest

Bringing a fascinating product to "Shark Tank" with a creative pitch may impress the investors, but it still isn't enough to make them loosen their purse strings and offer a deal. One founder's business of selling small things was ironically too small for the judges. The founder of 'Mini Materials', Jared Waters, managed to win everyone's hearts with his miniature construction materials, but failed to convince the sharks that his business was worth an investment of $100,000. In the end, the entrepreneur left the show empty-handed despite having good sales figures and a great product line. 

In the episode, Jared entered the Tank seeking $100,000 for 20% equity in his company. He began his pitch by saying that the world had been through a lot of big changes in the past few years, thus, it was time to think small. He then pulled out one of his small cinderblocks, saying, “That’s what I’m talking about.” He introduced the Sharks to his line of miniature construction materials that are made of real concrete, real wood, and real metal. "We cater to a new generation of creatives who make art with fingerboards, action figures, and RC crawlers. If your hobby is small, then we are the perfect fit," he said.

While the Sharks loved the samples, O'Leary expressed that he couldn't understand why anybody needed them. He was then told off by Lori Greiner, who explained that it was a toy and people need a little joy in their lives. Waters then shared that it wasn't his original idea, as he bought it from a co-founder who discovered the concept on the social media platform Reddit. He said that the product had gone viral on the platform when he bought the company for $200,000. He further shared that he had healthy margins of 50% to 93%, and the company did $200,000 in sales in the previous year.

After hearing that some of the products sold for as high as $20, Daymond John enquired about the average age of the buyer, however, Waters failed to come up with a definite answer, which upset John, who dropped out of the deal early on. Mark Cuban then asked about the social media content of the company, as he could see potential for creating stop-action videos. While Waters said that he was making such content, he confessed that marketing was his weakness. "One of the reasons I'm here right now is that marketing is my biggest weakness as a company," he said. 

After Robert Herjavec asked about the profits, Waters said that the company was fairly profitable, as he paid himself $55,000 per year. However, all of this wasn't enough for O'Leary, who became the second Shark to drop out. "I can see a forever perpetual demand for it from a very small segment of the market. Everything about it is small, literally, and that makes it a difficult investment for me," he reasoned.

Lori Greiner followed O'Leary's footsteps and dropped out as well, saying that the business wasn't for her. On the other hand, Herjavec expressed that he believed Waters could get his business to $2 million to $3 million all on his own, and he needed to see something bigger in order to invest. Thus, he dropped out as well. Cuban then became the last one to drop out.

In the end, while everybody loved the product, Mini Materials got no offers from the sharks, and Waters was forced to leave without a deal.