0:05

Hey everyone,

0:07

and welcome to another bite where we

0:10

rewatch the most innovative and intriguing pitches

0:12

from Shark Tank. I'm Jory and I'm

0:14

joined by the ambitious, the adaptable, and

0:16

the admirable Ariel. Welcome back!

0:19

After a long day on the slopes, the

0:21

last thing you need is for your skis

0:24

to shred the side of your car as

0:26

they fall. Today's two founders aim to give

0:28

powder to the people with their innovative new

0:30

product. Slope and steady wins the race. Will

0:32

the sharks hop on board, or is it

0:34

all downhill from here? We'll find out after

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started for free. Today

1:14

in the tank we have Rig Strips. And Rig Strips are

1:16

brought to us by founders Stephen and Zach who are asking

1:18

for $300,000 for 7.5% of their business, which is a $4

1:20

million valuation. The

1:25

problem that Rig Strips is trying to solve for

1:27

is that after a long day

1:29

on the slopes, your ski or outdoor equipment

1:31

could damage your car. So if you think

1:33

about it, you're like laying your snowboard, for

1:35

example, against your car as you're trying to

1:38

open your door and figure out where to

1:40

put it. And basically what

1:42

this product is trying to solve for

1:44

is sometimes that equipment can fall and

1:46

then the edges can like scratch your

1:48

car, scratch your window, and it's just

1:50

a mess. So the solution is that

1:52

Rig Strips is a magnet or sometimes

1:55

it comes in an adhesive form where

1:57

you can secure your skis, your board,

2:00

even your fishing rod against your car

2:02

as you pack it up. So basically

2:04

it's a ridged strip, if you

2:07

will, that allows you to sort of

2:09

slot your equipment in and it either

2:11

magnetizes against your car or again, it

2:13

can be permanently attached to it if

2:15

you have an aluminum car. But

2:17

it's just like an extra piece of equipment

2:19

to just make sure that there's no damage

2:21

after you're very tired and you've done your

2:23

outdoor activity. We mentioned that

2:26

they have a few competitors for fishing

2:28

rods, but it is not something that has

2:31

competitors, at least for the ski

2:33

and snowboard edition. They're

2:35

mostly running as of the Shark Tank

2:37

on meta ads and they do have

2:40

design patents and trademarks. So thinking about

2:42

our pitch, our product and our founders,

2:44

Ariel, what were your thoughts of rig

2:47

strips? Rig strips solves for a real

2:49

problem. I think that a lot of

2:51

skiers and snowboarders face. So

2:53

I love the concept of being able

2:55

to have a very simple adhesive to

2:57

ensure that you're protecting your car. The

2:59

fact that they have patents in place

3:01

puts them in a position of defensibility.

3:04

I hear what you say about the fishing

3:06

poles. I think there are different enough of

3:08

affinity based audiences that you wouldn't see as

3:11

much overlap, maybe

3:13

a spicy texture. But I think

3:15

the fundamental challenge that I see

3:17

with rig strips is that this

3:19

is a one time purchase product.

3:24

Ideally, if the adhesive is working great

3:26

and everything is holding things up. If

3:28

it's high quality. Right. You

3:30

would only need to purchase this maybe once

3:33

or twice if you have a two car

3:35

household. So I think for me where I

3:37

struggle with this, is this actually a scalable

3:40

long term business if this is going

3:42

to be their only product or is this

3:44

a single product business, which we've reviewed before. But

3:46

I think hearing from our founders,

3:48

I think they can't just lean into this being

3:50

a one product kind of business or else they're

3:53

going to run into challenges and kind of hit

3:55

a wall over time because you're going to just

3:57

only be acquiring new customers. You're not keeping them

3:59

in your life. cycle somehow. They can try

4:01

to sell affinity products like snow

4:03

gear or like coats, which we see this

4:06

happen all the time. But when you look

4:08

at the data behind businesses that do that,

4:10

that try to bundle similar products, they don't

4:13

really sell very well. And then you have

4:15

the same problem of we're focusing on too

4:17

many different things instead of just our anchor

4:19

products. So I think they need to kind

4:22

of have a plan in place or maybe

4:24

work with a shark to come up with

4:26

a path to being a multiple product company

4:29

because I do worry that the efficacy

4:31

of this product is actually going to

4:33

be kind of a bit of a

4:35

negative for them, especially when

4:37

it comes to keeping your customers

4:39

retained and having multiple repeat purchases.

4:42

That's fair. I think they already have

4:44

sort of the total addressable market of

4:46

skier and snowboarders. I do think that

4:49

that market is quite big overall.

4:51

I do hear you though in terms

4:53

of repeat purchases. What I did love

4:55

to see is that the founders seem

4:58

to be listening to customers, which is

5:00

where they get the sun

5:02

strips, which is for the fishing

5:04

rods. What I think they sort

5:06

of will come up against, as

5:08

you mentioned, is that they either

5:10

have to keep innovating and coming

5:12

up with these new devices because

5:14

the repurchase cycle you're entirely right,

5:16

unless a customer has a defective

5:18

product, which is not how you

5:20

should be designing your products. Unless

5:23

they're buying the products from your

5:25

other lines, there's not really like

5:28

an easy repeat purchase unless they're

5:30

buying for their friends and

5:32

family. And maybe

5:35

you could capture them on like, if

5:37

you buy one, you get 15% off. But

5:39

I understand what you're saying in terms of

5:41

like, how are you going to keep people

5:44

in your company and like still

5:46

expanding it meaningfully. Market gave

5:48

this feedback as well, right? Where he was like,

5:50

this seems like more of a

5:52

product than a company. And

5:55

again, unfortunately, we see a

5:57

company that has branded itself

5:59

a around its core product, Rig

6:01

Strips. And so they're going to even

6:03

in the future have some issues with

6:05

that, especially if they

6:07

expand into things like other ski

6:09

equipment, because their company, unless they

6:12

rebrand, is still Rig Strips. So

6:14

I worry that they've kind of

6:16

started to paint themselves into a corner, even though

6:18

it seems like it's a good product overall. And

6:22

that made me a little bit concerned. We talk

6:24

about this a lot in terms of like, is

6:26

it a product? Is it a company? This

6:29

seems like a product to me. And for those

6:31

reasons, I'm out. I'm

6:33

going to challenge you there on the Rig Strips names. Okay.

6:36

Ariel talking on both sides of her mouth yet

6:38

again. Tell me more. I don't think in this

6:40

instance, naming the company off

6:42

of this single product is the worst thing.

6:44

They could come up with similar, they could

6:47

do Rig Strips like large, like pro size

6:49

for like different sizes or for different types

6:51

of equipment. Then you have overhead fees. Then

6:53

you have a bunch of products that is

6:55

reliant on people having those types of vehicles.

6:58

To an extent, yes. But if they had a Rig

7:00

Strip for like, let's say like the top of your

7:02

car for like kayaking. Okay. Like

7:05

how many times do you see people like wrap

7:07

up like a kayak? Like you could say, I

7:09

have Rig Strip water. Like that could be the

7:11

series Rig Strip, like snow, water, earth. Like

7:14

you could like come up with different. So your

7:16

solution is just to name everything a Rig Strip

7:18

and therefore it's not a problem. To keep it

7:20

in the ecosystem. I mean, I don't know. Okay,

7:22

I'll take that. So you think that

7:24

they should just name things. They just

7:26

keep it like Rig Strips as like the

7:29

overarching brand name. They could, I mean, look

7:31

at Apple. Apple does like pro and plus

7:33

after their names for like all these different

7:36

iterations of things. But the iPhone isn't called

7:38

Apple. Yes. You know, it's

7:40

called the iPhone. That's part of Apple. But

7:42

you know the eye, when you see a

7:44

lowercase eye next to you, you know that

7:46

it's an Apple's ecosystem. So it's subtle branding

7:49

through text. I think they could do something

7:51

similar in their logo across

7:53

like a product offering that like kind

7:55

of hints at it a little bit.

7:57

Because like it sounds like from the customers

7:59

that they do. do have. The customers really

8:01

love the product. So much so that

8:03

they have a very open feedback cycle

8:05

with our founders. So I think they

8:07

kind of are stuck in like, okay,

8:10

we're known as rig strips. So

8:12

if we ever need to expand and take our

8:14

audience base, because they're not engaging constantly, because it's

8:16

a single time purchase, if they see rig strips

8:18

for kayaks, which again, you can rename it to

8:20

something a little bit sexier than like for kayaks,

8:22

then they'd be like, Oh yeah, I have one

8:24

of these for my car. I haven't seen this

8:27

brand in like years. That's so cool that they

8:29

do this for kayaks. Like, I think there's

8:31

some ways that you can subtly tie

8:33

that into encourage repeat purchases

8:35

across a broader product expansion. And

8:38

you know, as I'm thinking about

8:40

it, I think you have a

8:42

fair point too, because rig strips

8:44

just assumes that you're attaching something

8:46

to your rig, right, which could

8:48

be any car. So there's nothing

8:50

in that specific name that's like,

8:52

so ski in snowboard oriented that it

8:54

couldn't mean other things. I think they

8:57

would just want to make sure that

8:59

they are branding that well.

9:01

Fair point. I'll take that feedback. And you know,

9:04

Hey, even though I'm a

9:06

naysayer, you know, they're selling product, they're pushing

9:08

product because as of the shark tank, they've

9:10

got about 60,000 units

9:13

sold. And that equates

9:15

to about $3 million in

9:18

total sales. They've been around for a little bit. They've been around

9:20

since 2020. But I

9:22

mean, this year's projected sales alone, they're

9:25

up at 2.7 million.

9:27

So it's like, clearly, there

9:29

is a use case this is solving for. They do have

9:32

some kind of momentum in terms of

9:34

their user base. I didn't think that

9:36

it was like, so expensive. Actually, I

9:38

take that back. They are selling them

9:40

at $50 a pop. It's not

9:43

the cheapest product on the market. But they

9:46

mentioned that there's some seasonality to

9:48

the sales because they are seeing

9:50

these bumps around November and December.

9:52

I wish we got more

9:54

of an insight into how they continue to

9:56

build momentum throughout the year, because I think

9:58

if you've got a bit. of a

10:00

seasonal product, then you have some issues

10:02

in terms of scale later on, knowing

10:05

again that these are things that people

10:07

are only buying once. But

10:09

maybe that's where the feedback of the fishing

10:11

rods come in, because fishing could be for

10:13

the off-season, I guess. So they have to

10:15

find what are those sports that they can

10:17

align themselves to. It's fishing a sport. It

10:19

is, I guess. Surely. It's

10:21

on ESPN. Is it fly fishing? I

10:23

think so. I don't

10:26

know. I feel

10:28

like when I was little and homesick during

10:30

the day, I feel like there were certain

10:32

channel streaming fishing events. I can only stay

10:34

home from school having a fever dream. Yeah,

10:37

they call them derbies, right? So surely a

10:39

derby means that it's a sport. Who knows?

10:41

Yeah. Listeners, let us know.

10:43

Mark and I are on the same wavelength here. I

10:45

don't know if you know that, but Mark Cuban and

10:47

I, we see eye to eye on this. You guys

10:49

are besties. Yeah. He ultimately just

10:51

was like, this is a product, not a company I'm

10:53

out. He's rich enough. He

10:56

needs everything in those sort of like

10:58

black and white strokes. Kevin thinks that

11:00

they're asking too much and it would be too much

11:02

effort to get the momentum they would need to get

11:05

his money back. So he went out, Laurie,

11:07

again, they came in at a

11:09

four million dollar valuation. They were

11:11

projected to make three million. Right.

11:14

Hey, I'm just telling you what the sharks are

11:16

saying. OK, they're the business experts. I

11:19

disagree. She said it was too high. OK, well

11:21

you can invest. But it was

11:23

Todd that actually this one I was very

11:25

shocked at. I guess I don't understand this

11:27

man's portfolio at all because he was like,

11:29

I'm a fisherman. I'll invest. And

11:31

I was like, dude, you're the chicken man. Like, what are

11:33

you talking about? I think his brand is just Southern. Oh,

11:35

that's true. His whole

11:38

thing is like he's from Louisiana. So

11:40

that's totally fair. But the fried chicken

11:42

and canes and fishing, like, yeah, it's

11:44

that persona. Actually, you know, he

11:46

is that person. I see that. So Todd was

11:48

like, I'm into this. We get a

11:50

bit of a back and forth between Todd and the

11:52

founder. He initially comes in at 20

11:54

percent for three hundred thousand dollars. They

11:57

counter back and forth, ultimately landing on. $300,000

11:59

for 15% of the business. So

12:03

Rig Strips did walk away with a shark

12:05

tank deal, at least a handshake one. And

12:08

I think that they seemed pretty excited

12:10

at the end, more so

12:12

than I feel like they were when they actually

12:14

got the deal. Yeah, my only thing is I

12:16

feel like our core sharks not giving any deal,

12:18

I think was a bit of a miss. Oh.

12:21

You have a product that has great sales,

12:23

great customer feedback. You have a

12:25

proven model that works despite being a

12:27

single product business. I get that our

12:29

guest shark ended up with the deal,

12:31

but I was very surprised from our

12:34

core sharks to not even see a

12:36

nibble. Yeah, I will say both in

12:38

the last season and the season, sharks,

12:40

they're more skeptical of companies coming in

12:42

and offering deals. I think we're on

12:45

the sharks in their conservative era where they

12:47

aren't giving as much money. They don't like

12:50

as high evaluations. The tightening of the budget

12:52

era. Yeah, look at Lori budgeting, but they

12:55

aren't offering as many deals to sort of

12:57

like the out there products. And we saw

12:59

that in terms of life raft and like

13:01

the chicken ice cream. I feel

13:04

like in the past, sometimes sharks would just

13:06

like throw money at like hilarious products. I

13:09

don't think that's the sharks of 2024. Yeah,

13:11

that's a good point. Thank you.

13:14

I don't know if you felt this as well, but

13:16

it sort of felt like they kind of like initially

13:18

walked away being like, Yeah. Ugh. Like

13:21

I wonder if they wanted Lori or something, like

13:23

if Todd was their dream shark, because we get

13:25

this sort of like post segment interview where they're

13:27

like, yeah, Todd was totally our

13:29

dream shark, but I didn't believe it for

13:31

a second. I think they were after Mark.

13:34

Yeah, it felt a little manufactured. Yeah, so

13:36

I think they took a consolation shark, but

13:38

you never know. You never know what shark

13:40

tank will build Jeff, but rig strips definitely

13:43

still available online. So if you're looking to

13:45

get your holiday shopping done early, do

13:47

I have the product for your dad? And

13:50

yeah, very much so the company. We'll see where

13:52

they take it. That is precisely who this was

13:54

for. Like a hundred percent. This was for dad.

13:57

Yeah, this is totally something that like kids that.

13:59

I don't know what to buy their father or

14:01

going to get them and be like, yeah, dad

14:03

fishes, I think. Right. And then they buy it.

14:05

It's better than a coffee mug. So, you know, it's

14:07

a step up. It's a step up. Except when dad

14:09

has like 90 rig strips. It's

14:12

fine. Production

14:20

for today's episode was brought to you

14:22

by Ari Dzarma. Editing comes from Robert

14:25

Hartwig and support from Alfred Schultz. Subscribe

14:27

on Apple podcasts, Spotify podcasts, or wherever

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you subscribe to the greatest podcasts ever.

14:31

That does it for me. See you

14:34

next week in the tank for another

14:36

bite. I

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