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'Shark Tank': Why did Robert Herjavec refuse to close $300K deal with Deux?

Robert Herjavec was so impressed by her pitch that he declared Sabeena's pitch as one of the best ones that he has seen on the show since its inception

Sabeena Ladha, an entrepreneur from Dallas, Texas, walked into the tank seeking $300,000 for a 10% equity stake in her enriched cookie dough brand called Deux (pronounced dough). Sabeena's pitch left the Sharks mighty impressed. From explaining how she got the idea of coming up with Deux to revealing the extremely impressive sales numbers and profit margins, Sabeena's pitch was beyond perfect.

Robert Herjavec was so impressed by her pitch that he declared Sabeena's pitch as one of the best ones that he has seen on the show since its inception thirteen seasons ago. Despite being complete in awe of Sabeena and entrepreneurial skills, the tech mogul decided to sit out of making a deal with Sabeena as he didn't eat sweets and felt that Deux wasn't a product for him. Lori Greiner and Kevin O'Leary too sat out of the deal as they didn't feel that the product was for them. Nirav Tolia praised Sabeena's skills, but felt that he couldn't add much value to the brand as he's a tech guy, so for that reason he too sat out. Finally, it was Mark Cuban's turn.

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Mark too decided not to make a deal with Sabeena as he felt that there was a lot of unhealthy eating habits prevalent in the country among children and he didn't want to promote it by investing in a brand that didn't pay attention to calories. But Sabeena wasn't ready to give up just yet, she tried convincing Mark by pointing out how she can take her business to the next level. Unfortunately for Sabeena, Mark was put off by her attempts at wooing him back into making an offer and declared that she couldn't 'read the room'. He explained how Sabeena didn't even make an attempt to let Sharks feel good about themselves and cited the example of her snide comment at Kevin saying he wasn't her target audience. Mark felt that Sabeena wasn't receptive.

Robert came to Sabeena's defense and felt that Mark was being unnecessarily rude and cold toward her. He defended her by pointing out how one can be respectful toward a person and their journey even though they aren't a big fan of the product. Robert decided to jump back in and told Sabeena that he believed in her and wanted to mentor her, so he was willing to invest in her. Robert then made an offer of $300,000 in exchange for a 15% stake in Deux. He made it very clear that it was purely a business investment and that he wouldn't be able to help Sabeena with her products. She was elated on receiving Robert's offer but felt that 15% was too high a stake to give away. Sabeen tried negotiating by asking Robert if he was open to 12.5% equity instead. Robert didn't really appreciate her attempts at negotiating but played along by saying he would do the deal for 15%. Sabeena once again tried her luck by checking with Robert if he was open to doing the deal for a 10% equity stake and 5% in advisory shares.

At this point, Robert got very offended and felt that Sabeena didn't value or need what he had to offer and took back his offer. Sabeena tried closing the deal with Tobert for 15% stake, but it was too late as the Shark was no more interested. So, Sabeena had to leave the tank with no offer despite her great pitch. After watching the exchange between Robert and Sabeena, fans weren't pleased with how it went down.

Several fans took to Twitter to call out the Shark. A fan tweeted, "I get the whole read the room thing but I thought that was cold. #SharkTank." "@abcsharktank #sharktank Robert was kinda a jerk to her imo," wrote a fan. Another fan commented, "@robertherjavec Cry baby on shark tank tonight. Rich guy gets his feelings hurt. And they then claim they want to help the middle class. #sharktank." Fellow Shark Barbara Corcoran too agreed with fans that Robert was hard on her in her tweet. "I have no doubt she's going places. Wow, @robertherjavec was tough out there! #SharkTank @ABCSharkTank #Deux." "She is incredible and she will do well without the #SharkTank," declared a fan.

'Shark Tank' Season 13 airs every Friday at 8/7c on ABC. Missed an episode? Been wanting to catch up? Episodes can also be viewed the next day on demand and on Hulu. Not just that, you can also watch old seasons and episodes on Amazon Prime Video and iTunes.