'Shark Tank': Why did Daniel Lubetzky change his mind and invest $600,000 in Do Amore?
Sometimes a product pitch and the backstory of the entrepreneur and his business is so good that the Sharks make the risky decision of investing in the business even if it isn't their domain of expertise, and this is exactly what happened when Krish Himmatramka, the founder of Do Amore pitched for his ethical jewelry line on 'Shark Tank'. While there is no dearth of jewelry businesses including ethical jewelry businesses, what sets Do Amore apart is its mission to divert a portion of their profits to solving the water crisis in developing countries.
The entrepreneur came in seeking $600,000 for a 6% stake in his business. After he explained his business model and shared how watching a child die of drinking unclean water, pushed him to work on providing access to clean water, the Sharks were impressed. Mark Cuban however decided to sit out on the offer as he felt that there was no barrier for entry for Krish's competitors. On the other hand, the guest Shark Daniel Lubetzky praised Krish's work and business model but he too decided to sit out as jewelry wasn't his area of expertise. Barbara Corcoran and Lori Greiner followed suit, leaving only Kevin O'Leary. Kevin took advantage of the situation and rolled out a royalty deal which he believed was fair.
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Kevin said he would invest the $600,000 for the 6% stake, but added the royalty clause as well and stated that he would have to be paid $100 for unit of jewelry sold until $1.8 million was paid off. Needless to say, Krish wasn't too happy with Kevin's royalty clause and tried to negotiate but the Shark wasn't willing to budge. As a last-ditch effort, Krish explained that he invested $18,000 into the business and grew it to a company with $11,500,000 in annual sales without raising funds from any external sources. This piqued all the Sharks' interest, but Kevin was still unwilling to tweak his offer, so Kris politely declined the deal and declared that he was looking for the right business partner.
Krish's impressive boot-strap story and his bold decision to turn down Kevin's offer grabbed Daniel's interest. So Daniel changed his mind and decided to jump back in and made an offer. The guest Shark was willing to invest the $600,000 but wanted a 15% stake instead. Krish once again tried negotiating it to 12%. Even though Daniel felt that his offer was fair, he tweaked his offer further and said that the 3% difference over which they were haggling, he would donate it to Krish's water cause. Krish finally agreed to the offer and left the tank with a deal from Daniel. While Krish was glad to have found the right shark, Daniel was feeling impressed and inspired by Krish's entrepreneurial skills and care for social causes.
'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.
