0:07

Hey there, and welcome to Another Bight,

0:09

where we we rewatch the most

0:11

innovative and intriguing pitches from Shark

0:13

Tank. I'm Jory, and I'm

0:15

joined by the ambitious, the adventurous,

0:17

and the admirable and the admirable aerial. Hey

0:19

guys! In sports, it's important to

0:21

be gritty, or or to today's

0:23

founders, founders, grippy. That's right, forget about

0:26

shock. Today's product promises stronger grips

0:28

with a quick pat with a

0:30

clap clap. pat But with a with

0:32

a $10 million dollar these founders may

0:34

find themselves in a sticky situation.

0:36

Will the sharks bite or will they slip away? We'll

0:38

tell tell you all about it in just a

0:40

moment. We

0:44

all know trends, right? Avocado toast,

0:46

cat videos, Remember, planking. But here's a But here's

0:48

a trend you'll wanna hop on

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right now. HubSpot's entrepreneurship trends report

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turn these trends into real results

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for free. free. Today

1:17

in we have we and Choclis is

1:19

brought to us by founders Greg and

1:21

James is are asking for us ,000 for

1:23

Greg in their business, which is a

1:25

$10 for $400,000 for the limit business, I

1:27

don't mean to a $10 but considering this

1:29

product, I was like, the limit here Choclis

1:31

is a grip enhancer. to I'm just

1:33

going to put it like that.

1:36

It is an alternative to putting I was

1:38

on your hands to increase your

1:40

grip of your rackets and your bats

1:42

and maybe even that. wall, climbing

1:44

wall, depending on the sport that you

1:46

do. do. Yeah, it helps you grip.

1:48

Like like when your weight and your hands get

1:50

all sweaty, hands don't have like of

1:52

a hold on as good of a it's like

1:55

removing the oil. the that's what's landed

1:57

them, these two These two issued and two

1:59

patents pending where like actually physically removing

2:01

the oil from your skin when you

2:03

clap it off. So thinking about our

2:05

pitch, our founders, and our product, this

2:08

grip-enhancer, what were your thoughts of chocolates,

2:10

Ariel? Sure, it's a dry shampoo for

2:12

the hands. It's pretty much what it

2:14

is. I loved that. Okay, tell me

2:16

more. It's chalk. A $10 million valuation.

2:18

It's not chalk. We don't know what

2:21

it is. It's an anti-shock. which is

2:23

a whole other can of worms if

2:25

you want to open it up, right?

2:27

They say that it's environmentally friendly and

2:29

non-hazardous, but that's all we get. Yeah,

2:31

I just I don't buy that it's

2:34

non-hazardous. Could be anything. It's not chalk,

2:36

but it's something else that like dries

2:38

up oil and naturally. Yeah, it just

2:40

didn't really feel right to me. I

2:42

think this product is a little too

2:44

niche. This is my hot take. I

2:46

think this could actually be utilized in

2:49

other circumstances outside of weightlifting. Like you

2:51

mentioned bouldering is a really great example,

2:53

but also gamers. have controllers and get

2:55

sweaty while they play and can probably

2:57

utilize some form of like chalk as

2:59

well. If you are a hardcore gym

3:02

goer, you have your routines, you have

3:04

your brands, you may have mitts that

3:06

you use for like weights as opposed

3:08

to chocolate, you have kind of your

3:10

set preferences. I just don't think that

3:12

it has enough benefits and uniqueness. to

3:15

really become like the next you need

3:17

to have this if you're a bodybuilder

3:19

or a weightlifter. I wasn't really sold

3:21

by the grip test that they did

3:23

at the beginning on their own technology.

3:25

Right. Like I don't see how this

3:28

can scale. Yeah. They walk out and

3:30

I need your take on this because

3:32

one of the founders physically throws a

3:34

bat behind the sharks and we hear

3:36

this crash and at first I was

3:38

like, oh, obviously that's like a joke

3:41

and fine. But then Lori was like,

3:43

did you actually throw that? And then

3:45

the founder looked really guilty. So I

3:47

wanted to know, like, did he actually

3:49

mean to let go of the bat?

3:51

Did you think that was part of

3:54

the skit? Because I was like on

3:56

the fence of like, I feel like

3:58

this is and they wouldn't do that

4:00

but then something broke and like the

4:02

founder the way his face looked told

4:04

me was like was that an accident

4:07

actually and you're just like playing it

4:09

off I had the same thought too

4:11

but listen it got their attention true

4:13

it got the hook it sold the

4:15

story he threatened them a little bit

4:17

you know because it could have hit

4:20

one of the sharks and it felt

4:22

like it soared really high but it

4:24

could have hit mark yeah could you

4:26

imagine dealing with like being sued by

4:28

one of the shark Oh yeah, they'd

4:30

bury you. They'd bury you. But I

4:33

think the issue with me is the

4:35

type of story that they're telling. I

4:37

feel like they really level into it

4:39

being sort of like baseball-centric and like

4:41

they mention racket-centric without being like here's

4:43

all of the use cases. So I

4:45

guess because it was in the pitch,

4:48

my mind only went to baseball and

4:50

not a million other use cases you

4:52

could be using it for, which is

4:54

why I was like rock climbing feels

4:56

like actually... the niche both to sell

4:58

to the gyms that do rock climbing,

5:01

but then also to the individuals and

5:03

getting like influencers in the rock climbing

5:05

space. Like I feel like that's a

5:07

massive community and a massive use case

5:09

for this that they just didn't mention

5:11

at all. But It's the one community

5:14

that I think about the most when

5:16

I'm thinking about who's actually like using

5:18

chalk and clapping it off in the

5:20

gym. It felt like this could have

5:22

been really focused on a very specific

5:24

persona or set of personas, but because

5:27

they're trying to sell it as everyone,

5:29

it actually felt like a less effective

5:31

product to me because it required me

5:33

the user to try to come up

5:35

with use cases versus them being like,

5:37

here's all of these use cases. I'm

5:40

telling you. but you could also use

5:42

it for whatever else you need, but

5:44

here's our core personas, our core selling

5:46

points, and these are the sales that

5:48

we've done in each of those verticals.

5:50

And without that, I just didn't feel

5:53

it was as compelling as it could

5:55

have been. They come onto the tank

5:57

because they mentioned that marketing is the

5:59

issue and maybe this is the marketer

6:01

and me being like, man, like you

6:03

could really sell this a bunch of

6:06

different ways, but it just didn't feel

6:08

like an effective pitch over. get me

6:10

the viewer to really understand who this

6:12

is for, what exactly is the problem

6:14

it's solving for the unique user, and

6:16

all I'm left is like, it makes

6:19

your grip more grippy, which is just

6:21

not effective storytelling. Yeah. When you have

6:23

a product like this, I think it's

6:25

absolutely imperative that you are able to

6:27

show off all the different use cases

6:29

because that will differentiate you. Even if

6:32

they do have a very specific persona

6:34

and audience, like maybe it is like,

6:36

okay, we do take the rock climbing

6:38

example. Maybe it's we offer this in

6:40

gyms, the same way of hand sanitizers.

6:42

You can just get your chocolas on

6:45

your hands and like ready to go.

6:47

Like I think there are so many

6:49

different what are all the different use

6:51

cases when there's so many other solutions

6:53

in the market, and then understanding what

6:55

your main reasons to believe are, from

6:57

there you can slightly tweak that messaging

7:00

depending on your audience without excluding anyone,

7:02

but while staying true to kind of

7:04

like your brand. So it's really just

7:06

thinking about what do we want chocolate

7:08

to be and why is it better

7:10

than the alternatives? The alternative, which is

7:13

a lot cheaper, right? Because even a

7:15

small bottle of this is like $25.

7:17

They mentioned that a bottle of 100

7:19

doses. I hated that they called it

7:21

dose. I don't like that either, because

7:23

everyone, like, what's a dose for one

7:26

person versus the other? Yeah, what does

7:28

that mean? And then, so that's 3599.

7:30

I also didn't love that it looks

7:32

like it came in a seasonings can.

7:34

Yes. It looks like a shaker that

7:36

you'd get your big garlic powder out

7:39

of and like it didn't look that

7:41

different. So I was like, that feels

7:43

like slightly a hazard, even though one

7:45

of their patents is on their innovative

7:47

distribution system or what have you. I'm

7:49

sorry. I thought this was also patent

7:52

ruling. because they list what their patents

7:54

are for. They're cornering the shock market.

7:56

No, because they patent to the use

7:58

of grip in some way. And it's

8:00

like, that is a massive English verb.

8:02

Like, be so for real right now.

8:05

So they have a couple things that

8:07

they're up against, right? They have the

8:09

pricing issue. They have the fact that

8:11

it. look intuitively like the type of

8:13

product it is, it looks like a

8:15

spice out of the can. Potential misuse

8:18

and liability. Yep, there's a liability issues.

8:20

I think there was just a couple

8:22

problems that they could have very easily

8:24

solved for with like that effective storytelling

8:26

element. And benefit of the non-doubt, so

8:28

say this was just a cloud chasing

8:31

thing, right, like say they were just

8:33

going on shark tank. for the sales

8:35

bump. This is a huge missed opportunity

8:37

in fully leveraging the opportunity that is

8:39

shark tank to get eyes on your

8:41

product. Now people are going to think

8:44

about them as the grip product when

8:46

it could have been these sports go-to

8:48

product. Yeah. It was a bit weird

8:50

though as we start to pull back

8:52

the layers of this company that the

8:54

founders didn't want to tell the sharks

8:56

how much it cost to make. And

8:59

one of them is a chemical engineer,

9:01

mind you. And so knows a thing

9:03

or two about chemicals. Although I think

9:05

he was like, oh, but I'm a

9:07

chemical engineer for like nuclear plants. And

9:09

I was like, oh gosh, what are

9:12

you putting in your chocolate solution? Then

9:14

I didn't, I don't think, it doesn't

9:16

really help the credibility in this instance.

9:18

Yeah, that proximity to authority didn't do

9:20

what you think it did there, Bud.

9:22

But it was a little bit interesting

9:25

that they started to get. a little

9:27

bit coy with their numbers, but then

9:29

we're giving us blended margins. So it's

9:31

technically something that was calculable because we

9:33

know how much it cost to make.

9:35

They do say that they have a

9:38

67% margin, which is good, and sales

9:40

are $740,000. So they are breaking in

9:42

somewhere, but they do mention that they're

9:44

here because they have an awareness issue.

9:46

And I was kind of curious from

9:48

your point of view, for a product

9:51

like this, if you're having an issue

9:53

with awareness, like and it's like a

9:55

physical product and you haven't broken into

9:57

retail yet, what's your gut instinct in

9:59

terms of where people should be thinking

10:01

when it comes to building awareness? Like

10:04

is your thought ads initially? Do you

10:06

start organic with and building your own

10:08

content? Are you trying to build social

10:10

media followings? Like in 2024, how are

10:12

you unpacking an awareness issue? Yeah, so

10:14

I think definitely having a social media

10:17

presence should never be underestimated, especially with

10:19

just the emergence of like we talk

10:21

about video on social a lot, but

10:23

with like brain rot being on the

10:25

rise, I feel like now more than

10:27

ever having video content is like essential

10:30

because you are going to get more

10:32

eyes and visibility on, you know, your

10:34

product. I think this one would be

10:36

really interesting to almost have kind of

10:38

like a gorilla marketing tactic. around it

10:40

of like maybe it is a video

10:43

series where you have one very charismatic

10:45

person go in and say hey just

10:47

try this out and tell me what

10:49

you think about like your exercise like

10:51

a little bit that social experiment kind

10:53

of place so that way it's engaging

10:56

content it's showcasing the product how it

10:58

works it comes across in a very

11:00

natural non-branded corporate kind of feel and

11:02

way which we know that video content

11:04

resonates really well with audiences anything that

11:06

feels more authentic is something that your

11:08

target audience is going to align more

11:11

with. But I think it comes back

11:13

to them having a very specific audience

11:15

in mind. So if it is the

11:17

bouldering community, I think having that on

11:19

the ground, like, hey, try this out,

11:21

let me know what you think, like

11:24

type approach works really well, because word

11:26

of mouth is really strong in those

11:28

communities. If you're trying to reach out

11:30

to everyone for multiple different use cases,

11:32

then you're going to prioritize distribution channels,

11:34

whether that's social media, whether that's, you

11:37

know, PR, to have your wide amount

11:39

of reach to as many people as

11:41

possible. So if I were them, I

11:43

would lean into this is who our

11:45

persona is, or this is who I

11:47

know is making the most amount of

11:50

purchases or our repeat buyers tend to

11:52

have this trait in common, or tend

11:54

to have this specific use case. and

11:56

really just kind of hone in on

11:58

that a little bit, make that more

12:00

prevalent in your marketing, and then see

12:03

how it naturally expands to other infinity

12:05

groups, because I think so often brands

12:07

will try to focus on speaking to

12:09

everyone. And sometimes you. need to focus

12:11

on that one specialized cohort and then

12:13

from there it kind of has more

12:16

of its organic kind of trickle-down effect

12:18

but this is not something that should

12:20

be like blasted all over on like

12:22

Facebook ads like I think there has

12:24

to be that community aspect and like

12:26

that hey I love this product you

12:29

have to try this out. Yeah, and

12:31

with those types of communities, there's often

12:33

like competitions and events that you could

12:35

set up a small booth and then

12:37

people are physically trying it. And that's

12:39

the thing with the product like this

12:42

is it's so experiential that you kind

12:44

of have that lack of trust when

12:46

it's something that's online because you never

12:48

quite know right how it's going to

12:50

feel if it's really going to do

12:52

it. But if you get in those

12:55

communities and they feel it. like on

12:57

the ground, then they're either going to

12:59

believe it and buy it or not.

13:01

But if you believe in your product,

13:03

they're probably going to buy it. I

13:05

like that as a strategy. I was

13:08

also thinking in terms of virality, it's

13:10

less of a popular thing these days,

13:12

but you know those videos of like

13:14

the urban explorers who would like go

13:16

to like massive skyscrapers and scaffolding and

13:18

like parkor their way up to the

13:20

top. You know what I mean? Oh,

13:23

you're thinking extreme sports. Yeah, yeah. But

13:25

like, it's like they're like building climbers.

13:27

I don't know, there's like probably a

13:29

name for them, but they climb like

13:31

the tallest buildings across the world and

13:33

like the Eiffel Tower and they do

13:36

it with like a GoPro. With like

13:38

the GoPro cameras and stuff. Exactly. And

13:40

it's like if you can partner with

13:42

one of them and get one of

13:44

them to like be like, yeah, I

13:46

climbed whatever structure not advised at home

13:49

with. you know, chockless, then I think

13:51

that that could also have like a

13:53

viral moment of like, man, if it

13:55

can hold this guy up at 97

13:57

stories, then it can definitely hold me

13:59

up at my rock climbing, Jim. And

14:02

what I love about that, it can

14:04

just be a very simplistic tagline of

14:06

like, watch me climb this building without

14:08

chalk. Because it's true. Like, and then

14:10

you'd be like, oh, that's really interesting.

14:12

Like, what is this? Even though they're

14:15

still utilizing the product. a fun tagline

14:17

like the scaling challenge or something. I

14:19

don't know. Don't climb buildings that aren't

14:21

meant to be climbed, disclaimer. But yeah,

14:23

I think there could be fun ways

14:25

that you could go viral on TikTok

14:28

with the right influencers, but it would

14:30

have to be a little bit shocking.

14:32

But I think that there's plenty of

14:34

even communities that are shocking in nature.

14:36

What was not shocking is how many

14:38

sharks went out because they just did

14:41

not see how this would be a

14:43

good fit. Mark always goes out when

14:45

people are being a little sketchy about

14:47

the numbers and I feel like founders

14:49

going into Shark Tank just need to

14:51

know that going in. Like if you

14:54

flounder or if you don't know or

14:56

don't want to disclose, you're not getting

14:58

Mark Cuban. It's just not a thing.

15:00

I think they know that it's cheap.

15:02

Don't tell me what it's blended. Their

15:04

margins are probably closer to like 90%.

15:07

Let's be honest. There's a very strategic

15:09

reason why they said a blended margin.

15:11

And that's okay. We've seen people be

15:13

very transparent on shark tank and still

15:15

go on to sell bunches and bunches

15:17

of product. But it was the most

15:19

sharky of the sharks that I think

15:22

got involved with this sharky Esk founder

15:24

duo. And it was Kevin who offered

15:26

$400,000 for 4% of the business and

15:28

then two and a half dollars a

15:30

unit until he makes four million dollars

15:32

back. And then that royalty would drop

15:35

to 25 cents into perpetuity. So lots

15:37

of numbers, but basically a waffin royalty

15:39

deal. because he is trying to get

15:41

them $4 million back quick. What was

15:43

interesting here, though, is we saw the

15:45

guest shark, Rashan, also get interested in

15:48

that deal. Of course, he was the

15:50

demonstration shark. Of course, he felt the

15:52

torque, and his torque was the one

15:54

that improved on their specialty torque machine.

15:56

Say torque three more times, founders. But

15:58

it was interesting because this episode, much

16:01

like the episode we just covered Chom

16:03

Shop shop, was an instance where sharks

16:05

teamed up together, so Kevin and Rashan,

16:07

but they didn't up the equity ask

16:09

or the royalty ask. They just kept

16:11

it the same with two sharks to

16:14

try to sway the founders. And I

16:16

thought that was really interesting. So basically,

16:18

Rashan jumped in and offered to split

16:20

the deal with Kevin. Kevin surprisingly said

16:22

yes. And then our founders took the

16:24

deal. So it was a shark tank

16:27

deal for $400,000. for 4% and then

16:29

$2.50 a unit until they hit $4

16:31

million and then 25 cents into perpetuity

16:33

after that point. So a bit of

16:35

a more complicated one, but they did

16:37

walk away with a shark tank deal

16:40

and I was kind of surprised, especially

16:42

when Mark started raising red flags, that

16:44

they got a shark tank deal at

16:46

all. This whole episode five of the

16:48

season was so many surprise deals. So

16:50

many surprises on this episode, but chocolate

16:53

is very much still around. You can

16:55

get it at chocolate. Yeah, please

16:57

fix your packaging. Because it 100% looks

16:59

like pre-workout. It looks edible and it

17:01

looks like it's a spice. This is

17:03

a liability waiting to happen. I think

17:06

someone's going to eat it. It's going

17:08

to be made out of something that

17:10

we find out is not environmentally friendly.

17:12

But it says non-toxic on the bottle.

17:14

They thought to include that, but do

17:16

not consume. Yeah, non-toxic and consumable are

17:19

often very different. I think it would

17:21

be an issue if someone ate this.

17:23

Who knows what this mystery powder is?

17:25

Watch it just be chalk. It's just

17:27

like just really finely ground down like

17:30

chalk. Yeah, it's like chemically enhanced chalk.

17:32

Time will tell. But Shark Tank gave

17:34

chocolate as a shark tank deal. Production

17:43

for today's episode was brought to

17:45

you by Ari DeSarma. Eddining comes

17:47

from Robert Hartwig and support from

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Alfred Schultz. Subscribe on Apple Podcast,

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Spotify Podcast, or wherever you subscribe

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to the greatest podcast ever. That

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does it for me. See you

17:57

next week in the tank for

17:59

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