‘Shark Tank’ contestant was turned down by 4 Sharks — until one investor made a life-changing deal
'Shark Tank' investors don't do any sugar coating when it comes to investing their money in new businesses. At times, even experienced entrepreneurs are left heartbroken by the harsh criticism given by the Sharks. During an episode of 'Shark Tank' Season 4, Lani Lazzari, the founder of 'Simple Sugars', presented her line of sugar-based scrubs in front of the esteemed Sharks Mark Cuban, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, and Robert Herjavec, and they were impressed by her story. However, some Sharks had certain doubts about her business, but Lazzari still walked away with a $100,000 deal.
In the episode, Lazzari revealed that she began working on her skin care products at the age of 11. "Since infancy, I've suffered from horrible eczema, and I couldn't find a single product that I could safely use on my sensitive skin, let alone one that actually smelled," Lazzari shared on the episode, as per Market Realist. Then, Lazzari did extensive research to come up with a product that worked for her skin. Ultimately, Lazzari used some high-quality ingredients and created sugar scrubs that helped exfoliate her skin.
Soon after, Lazzari mentioned that she joined the Powerlink Protégé program at Pitt’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence in 2008, and her company did $80,00 in sales. Then, Greiner tried out the sugar scrub and confirmed that it was effective. Following that, Lazzari stated that 60% of the sales came from the company's website, and the rest were sold through wholesalers. Lazzari's numbers were good, but the Sharks were still not convinced.
John said, "I'm really questioning do you really need us or me because you're doing great, you can grow yourself, and I would not complement your business, and I think it would be counterproductive for us to partner up in that sense. So with that said, I'm out." Then, Greiner chimed in, "Lani, I love you, I think you are amazing. The quality is great, it smells great, but for me, I think there's too much competition with scrubs out there, so I'm not going to offer you any money for this. I'm out."
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O'Leary also backed out by saying, "What really strikes me is that you think it's worth a million dollars. Not a chance in hell! No matter how wonderful your story is, I'm not interested. I'm out!" Shortly afterward, Herjavec quipped, "I think, if the measure of success in a business was drive and passion, your business would be successful. I think my challenge with it is, it is a very, very difficult task that you're trying to take on for me to give you the $100,000, I would have to negotiate such a value from you that's inequitable to you. It becomes inequitable to me, and you don't want to do that, and I don't want to do that to you, so in this investment. I'm out."
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At last, Cuban said, "I'm not an expert in this market, obviously, all I know is the suffering my kids go through, so I want you to explain to me for my three-year-old son, he's got it all right here where his eczema is. What should he do? What product should he be using?" to which Lazzari responded, "Eczema is a scaly, dry skin condition so gentle exfoliation is really important to helping alleviate it so the scrubs with the sugar and the blend of essential oils that are in there that's especially what's good to use on eczema." Then, Cuban asked Lazzari to name her biggest competitor, and Lazzari said it was "Fresh" as they had comparable but expensive products. Lazzari mentioned that the cost of her large-size scrub was $15.95, meanwhile Fresh charged $74 for the same. Ultimately, Cuban offered Lazzari $100,000 for 33% equity. Lazzari asked Cuban if he would lower the equity, which he declined. At the end, Lazzari accepted Cuban's deal.
