Richard Branson loved this thrill-seeking pitch on ‘Shark Tank’ — but turned it down for one smart reason
In addition to traditional household products, the high-stakes arena of 'Shark Tank' has also showcased the wonders of technology. In one such instance, the Sharks were left stunned by a unique business idea of indoor air wakeboarding. The pitch grabbed their attention, and interest skyrocketed when Richard Branson tested the product himself. But in the end, Branson opted out, and his reason made total sense.
Entrepreneur Aaron Wypyszynski pitched his indoor air wakeboarding concept, the WingBoard, on ‘Shark Tank.’ He asked the Sharks for $500,000 in exchange for 20% of his company. The Sharks were intrigued, especially after seeing a thrilling video of the WingBoard flying behind a plane. But their excitement faded when Wypyszynski revealed that the video featured a robot, not a real person, per Shark Tank Update. He said, "That one was a robot… but we've actually got some video of one of the GoPro skydivers in a wind tunnel flying this exact board."
After watching the video, the judges were unimpressed to learn that no human had ever actually ridden the WingBoard, only a robot. Soon, Branson expressed his interest in trying the wakeboard, saying, "Mind if I have a try?" Wypyszynski expressed his gratitude, saying, "Yes, definitely. Have fun!" He guided Branson through the controls, saying, "Put your index fingers here, and that’s what allows you to do the barrel rolls." While Branson expressed his satisfaction with the trial ride, Griener still backed out, saying, "The thought of that physically to me is just not appealing. I'm out."
Robert Herjavec pressed for the business model, asking, "You're not trying to get us to invest in something behind an airplane?" Aaron explained, "You use the airplane to drive the marketing; you pair with someone like Red Bull or Virgin to do a big marketing campaign." He further added that they would charge $80–$85 per person for the experience, but building a location would cost $4–$5 million. To open the first, he planned to raise $2–$3 million and finance the rest. Mark Cuban responded bluntly, "It's going to be expensive… tough to borrow… And most importantly, I'm terrified of heights. So for those reasons, I'm out."
Then came Branson, who said, "As you know, I love adventure. People thought we were mad for doing Virgin Galactic. People will think you're mad for doing this. This is intriguing to me, but investing half a million dollars with what you've presented to me today, I just can't get to that. Good luck, but I'm out." Harjeveic chimed in, saying, "Like Richard, if it goes fast and it’s slightly dangerous, I want to try it… But as a business where you've got to raise five to six million per location, I don't know about that. I'd love to be the second one to try it, right behind Richard, But for now, I'm out."
Wypyszynski thanked the Sharks graciously as he exited the tank with parting words, "Thank you. Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to talk with you." Despite the buzz surrounding his pitch on 'Shark Tank,' Wypyszynski's WingBoard concept never took off commercially, per the Shark Tank blog. Although he initially promoted plans for a unique retailtainment wind tunnel experience, the project failed to launch. By 2019, Wyp Aviation had quietly gone out of business. Since then, Wypyszynski has pivoted back to his aerospace roots, now working as an engineer at Dynetics, a company that develops aeronautic prototypes for government contracts.