'Shark Tank' contestant who teaches young girls to make robots gets a life-changing deal
Most investments by "Shark Tank" judges are made purely on the basis of innovation, sales figures, and business models. But sometimes, sharks also back businesses that are making the world a better place. Such a venture that encouraged women to take up engineering and robotics, which are male-dominated fields, found an investor in Daymond John.
Sharmi Albrechtsen was the founder who pitched her firm SmartGurlz, which makes dolls that are operated through coding. The company has an app called SugarCoded, which helps users operate these dolls using code, getting young girls interested in such male-dominated science fields from a very young age. The entrepreneur asked for $200,000 for a 5% stake in the company.
Albrechtsen even got a couple of young ladies, aged 9 and 10, to demonstrate how the product worked. The two seemed quite adept at coding as they made their dolls do a little dance routine. Guest shark Sir Richard Branson was highly intrigued and joined them on stage to learn about the coding. All of the sharks agreed that this was a great way to get girls into coding from a very young age, which could help them get into engineering and robotics in the future.
The entrepreneur said that the product had been on the market for less than six months and in that time, it had earned a revenue of $250,000. She also said that she had a provisional patent for the product, and claimed that they could even license the technology. Everything seemed great, but the big problem was that her valuation of $4 million was much too high.
Daymond John loved the product and the mission behind it. He was also interested in the licensing aspect of things, as that was his area of expertise. So, he offered a deal, but it was a steep one. The shark said that he’d pay $200,000 for a 30% stake in the company. This was way higher than what Albrechtsen had asked for, and she might have hoped to get some more offers on the table.
However, that did not happen. Robert Herjavec and Lori Greiner both had experience in the toy industry, and it was brutal. Neither of them wanted to revisit that area again. Mark Cuban did not like the fact that the product was in retail and said no, as the industry was quite tough to navigate. Branson simply did not think that he could add value to the company, as this was not his field.
John’s was the only offer that remained on the table, and that too just for the licensing side of it. The two negotiated and agreed to do the deal at 25% for $200,000. In the end, despite giving up a lot of the company, the entrepreneur seemed happy.
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