I watched over 100 episodes of the reality show Shark Tank (known in our country as “Posel mojega življenja”) in which entrepreneurs present their ideas.
The goal of the show is for contestants to convince successful entrepreneurs and investors to invest in them and help them with their knowledge and experience.
Who are the investors?
- Kevin O’Leary founded a software company worth $4.2 billion
- Barbara Corcoran – originally a waitress from Manhattan who founded a real estate empire
- Robert Herjavec – sold his first internet companies for $350 million
- Lori Greiner – owns over 100 patents and is also known as the queen of the QVC television network
- Daymond John – founded the brand Fubu and is considered one of the most well-known brand experts in the fashion world
- Mark Cuban – successful businessman who is also the owner of the Dallas Mavericks team
I have written down the investors’ questions that everyone thinking about starting a business, or those who already have a business and would like it to be even more successful, should ask themselves. I noticed that what matters most to investors is the person who created the product or service, and the industry in which the product or service competes. So even if you have an average product, according to the investors you can still succeed if you are willing to do something about it and can prove it.
The most common investor questions:
- Tell us more about yourself?
- Where did you get the idea for the product/service?
- Why do you need the investment?
- What were your product/service sales for the last three months and the last twelve months?
- How much does it cost you to make the product and how much do you sell it for?
- What is special about the product?
- Where do you sell the product?
- Do you have a distributor, and which one?
- How long have you been selling your product/service?
- How do you manage to do this while working a job, if you have one?
- Explain the way to make money – so how will we make money?
- How many products can you make and in how much time?
- Why can’t your product be “quickly copied”?
- Do you have competition that makes similar products?
- How did you arrive at the valuation of the company or product/service?
Important comments from investors:
- Entrepreneurship means risk.
- If we invest in something, we need to like the product or service.
- Sales don’t lie.
- It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, you only need to succeed once.
- You don’t believe in your product if you are doing something else alongside your business.
The most successful products according to Investopedia that received investment on Shark Tank were:
- natural cream for sensitive skin Simple Sugars
- guitar learning tool ChordBuddy
- a product that helps prevent and detect bed bugs Buggy Beds
- gourmet cupcakes named Wicked Good Cupcakes
- a health measuring device that connects directly to your mobile phone Breathometer
