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Tenikle founder walks into 'Shark Tank' with ONLY $39, walks out with $200K deal

Hans Dose's tenacity and honesty resonated with Daymond John, who made him an offer of $200K for 30% equity

When it comes to taking the perfect photos or videos, having a tripod on hand certainly helps. But as handy as tripods can be, they are bulky and a pain to carry. Enter Tenikle, a multipurpose tripod inspired by tentacles! Made to imitate to flexibility, mobility and suction of tentacles, this tiny nifty device can stick to any surface, allowing you to take stable images and videos.

But now the question is, will Tenikle be able to impress Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec? Hans Dose of Tenikle walked in, hoping to score a $200,000 investment for 10% equity. Dose's numbers impressed the sharks instantly -- with 40,000 units sold to date, Tenikle had made $1.3 million in sales.

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Selling for $45, the cost of production was $6 and 8 cents. Dose explained that he wrote the patent in 2015, but has constantly improved the design since, based on feedback. However, the more the sharks probed, they soon found out that he had only made $9,000 in sales recently and was $270,000 in debt. Dose candidly admitted that he and his wife Lydia were living in an RV on his mother's property and were determined to make Tenickle work. He even admitted to having only $39 in his account at the moment, as he made $3,000 monthly payments towards his debt. 

Fans hoped for the best when they found out the truth. ""I have $39 to my name." On the bright side, he's an octopus so he has extra appendages to hitchhike home with. #SharkTank" tweeted a fan. "MAN ON SHARK TANK WENT ALL IN WITH HIS BUSINESS… & HE ONLY GOT $39 TO HIS NAME. I HOPE HE GET A DEAL "tweeted a fan. "I'd recommend blowing up TikTok with this product. Show folks how to use it. #SharkTank" suggested another. "This guy will get a lot of sales just for appearing on the show. That alone would wipe out some of the debt. But a nice move by Robert so far. #SharkTank" noted a fan, as Robert Herjavec was the first to make an offer.

Herjavec was willing to give him $270,000 to clear his debt entirely with an additional $100,000 as seed money. However, in return, he wanted 60% of the company. He then suggested that they would need to bring in more partners covered using Herjavec's shares. 

The next offer came from Daymond John, who mentioned that his story was not too different from Hans, seeing that at one point, he too had only $500 to his name while trying to build his business. So he offered Dose $200k for 33.33%, but then came down to 30%. Dose rejected Rejavec (in classic 'Shark Tank' fashion, no less!) and made a counteroffer for 25% to Daymond John. However, John refused to budge, with Dose finally taking up his 30% offer. 

'Shark Tank' Season 13 Episode 9 airs on ABC on December 17, 2021, at 8 pm ET. Catch the latest episode featuring products like Liberate, MAXPRO Fitness, Tenikle, and Banana Loca.

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.