'Shark Tank': Why did Better Bedder's founders take Lori Greiner's deal and not Barbara Corcoran's offer?
If people had to vote for a daily chore that they hate doing every day, you'll most likely see making the bed emerging as the winner. This tedious chore involves lifting up the mattress, tugging and pulling the sheets, folding, etc and to make things even worse, this is the first thing you're expected to do as soon as you wake up. Judy Schott experienced this first hand when her son decided to sleep on the couch instead of making his own bed.
So, Judy and her friend Nita Gassen teamed up to come with a solution that would turn the task of making bed in into a simple and fuss-free experience. This gave birth to their business, Better Bedding. Better Bedding is a large elastic band that can be attached to the side of the mattress like a frame, and after which you just have to tuck the sheets into the Better Bedder frame. Nita and Judy entered the tank with the hopes of seeking $150k for 10%. But what they didn't expect was three sharks getting into a bidding war to close the deal with them.
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After Nita and Mary pitched their unique product and shared the story of how they came up with Better Bedder, the sharks were intrigued, but not completely sold on it. Daymond John asked the ladies for their sales numbers and profit margins, which is when things became interesting. The ladies had impressive numbers, which piqued the interest of almost all sharks, aside from Mark Cuban and Kevin O'leary, who felt that the product wasn't compatible with their portfolio.
The first shark to put down an offer was none other than Barbara Corcoran, who was extremely impressed by the duo's dedication and personal story.But she made a counteroffer of $150k for 20%.But Babara seemed so interested in the product that alongside her offer she even gave out three reasons why the entrepreneurs should pick her as their shark. Barbara's passionate speech was followed by Lori and Daymond too making individual offers of $150k for 25% stake.
The ladies were very happy but overwhelmed by all the interest they were receiving from the sharks. The ladies wondered if the sharks would be ready to bring down their share of equity in the company to a bit lower and suggested 18% as opposed to the 20 and 25% stakes they were asking for. Both Lori and Barbara agreed at the same time, but unfortunately, Nita and Mary decided to close the deal with Lori. A very confused Barbara was still not ready to give up and informed them that she was willing to do the deal for just 15% too, but unfortunately, Nita and Mary weren't willing to budge and decided to go with Lori as their shark.
While Barbara was fuming at the entrepreneurs and Lori over not getting the deal, Nita and Mary explained their reasoning behind choosing Lori over Barb. They pointed out how Lori would be able to sell their products at QVC while also help with bringing the production cost down significantly. Aside from Barb, everybody else seems to be happy with how things panned out. Maybe Barb should take a page from fellow shark Mark Cuban's book and give an ultimatum to entrepreneurs while giving her offer.
'Shark Tank' Season1 2 airs every Friday at 8/7c only on ABC.
