‘Shark Tank’ contestant brought pogo sticks to the set to prove a point — but still walked away with no deal
It's not a piece of cake for the budding entrepreneurs to get a deal on 'Shark Tank.' Sometimes, the contestants fail to impress the Sharks with their business ideas, and they end up walking empty-handed from the ABC business program. During an episode of 'Shark Tank' Season 2, which was released in March 2011, an entrepreneur named Brian Spencer presented his pogo stick business named Vurtego Pogo Sticks, in front of the esteemed Sharks, including Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Kevin O'Leary, Daymond John, and Robert Herjavec. Following his pitch, Spencer failed to get a single offer from the judging panel.
In the episode, Spencer was seeking $500,000 in exchange for 20% of her company. During his pitch, Spencer even asked a few professionals to hop on the pogo sticks to win over the hearts of the judges. Spencer also told the Sharks that he believed that pogo sticks could be the future of extreme sports such as cycling or skateboarding. The Sharks liked the product, but they weren't happy with the pricing.
At the time of filming, Spencer revealed that he had sold over 7,000 units, and the cost of one pogo stick stood at $330. Soon after, Spencer shed light on his goal with the polo business. "There is a competitor that uses rubber bands. The biggest pogo stick company in the world, by the way. They sell millions of pogo sticks every year. We plan on replacing them as the world’s largest pogo stick manufacturer,” Spencer said on the episode, as per Market Realist.
Then, Herjavec pointed out that $330 was cheap for a specialty item. In his defense, Spencer went on to say, "The same reason why most kids don't buy a $5,000 mountain bike. You know their parents buy them a $500 BMX bike. Umm, in order to make money with this, we do have to approach the masses." Shortly afterward, Cuban told the entrepreneur, "Look, I'll just tell you, you can be a victim of your own success. I mean, when you're cool and hip, I bring down to a MAV game," to which Spencer replied, "We are already cool and hip." Cuban further added, "Right, that's the point, when you go mass market, you lose a little bit of that to be able to maintain your coolness and segregate into an entire different type of company that goes mass market and to do it with you know $500,000 only, that's not an easy task."
Corcoran was the first Shark to back out, as she didn't believe that the product was safe. After that, Cuban dropped out because he felt Spencer was trying to please everybody. O'Leary and John also refused to invest in Vurtego Pogo Sticks. Herjavec also didn't make an offer to Spencer and told him, “Brian, you are the ultimate in cool. Cool product, your hair is cool, you got the whole look. Everybody’s right. The minute you try to go mass market, it’s a guy in a suit selling on Wall Street." In the end, Spencer went home with empty hands.
