They say sharks are natural hunters, but Sunday’s “shark tank” caused the sharks to leave the tank to go after two businessmen.
marc lickfett and mikael soderlindh are the creators of knife aid, a postal service knife sharpening company. Drop your blunt blades in the mail, and in less than a week and for $10 a knife, the company will make them sharp enough to cut a pineapple or rope (as Kevin O’Leary and Rohan Oza Sharks proved). .
soderlindh has experience building successful global brands, including Swedish clothing brand happy socks. But due to a past failure, the two came onto the show seeking help from a shark who understands America better. uu. market.
“We had another brand going into the American market without having American people involved in the business,” Soderlindh said. “I’m not going to do that mistake again.”
shark lori greiner liked his concept: “you’re cool. you are unique. you are different. You already have the packaging below. it’s really quite good. I think you’re smart to need to know what the market is here.” she offered them $200,000 and an additional $200,000 as a line of credit for a 20% share.
Not responding to the offer, the two entrepreneurs discussed their plans to advertise their service in retail stores. an exasperated greiner picked up his phone and mimed scrolling through his contact list: “listen guys, it could be like, ‘pick a contact. any contact. everything I offered you is what you are asking for.”
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But O’Leary wanted them on Team Chef Wonderful. He offered them $400,000 for 20% of their company. “I have all the same contacts, but I have something she doesn’t have. I’m Chef Wonderful. Chef Wonderful is huge in cakes, chocolates and meats. Google him, he’s fantastic.”
following o’leary’s offer, greiner sweetened the deal by partnering with oza. soderlindh and lickfett would get twice as many sharks for the same price. oza said, “when you get the queen of retail and combine it with the king of branding, that’s a great combination.”
but greiner wasn’t the only one who could join. O’leary teamed up with fellow shark Barbara Corcoran; they offered $500,000 for 20%.
but the creators of knife aid were reluctant to accept either offer. Greiner noticed that they were still looking at Cuban shark mark, who was remarkably quiet: “Are you waiting for mark to make you an offer?”
for his part, cuban believed that he could increase awareness of the knife aid brand, but would wait to see what they decided with the offers they had been offered.
Before heading out into the hall to discuss deals with Lickfett, Soderlindh asked the Sharks how passionate they were about their company and how much time they would invest. O’Leary and Greiner insisted they were the best sharks for the job.
cuban shook his head at his fellow sharks: “damn, do you guys crawl enough? I don’t beg or crawl. I’m an (expletive) shark.”
“I’m not above doing whatever it takes,” Greiner replied, and to prove his point, he decided he’d waited long enough. She left the tank to track down Soderlindh and Lickfett. “You want to know about passion. I’m not sitting and waiting. I want this deal.”
o’leary was right behind her, followed by oza and corcoran. Soderlindh was interested in making a deal with Greiner and Oza, but he wanted them to match the $500,000. the two sharks quickly agreed and sealed the deal.
“Having four sharks running after us through the corridors is something I never would have dreamed of,” Soderlindh said.
Back in the tank, Cubano agreed: “It’s a new breed of crawling shark.”