44 Failed Shark Tank Ideas That Had The Sharks Regretting Everything

Many Pandas are probably familiar with how Shark Tank works, but just in case, let’s briefly run it by again to refresh our memory.

The show starts out with entrepreneurs bringing their ideas to the sharks (successful business owners) and asking for an investment in return for a share of their company. Then, the investors listen to their pitch, analyze the potential, and decide whether they want to give them the money.

For example, in season 10, on average, an investment deal offered 23% of the company in exchange for $286k. While this show was created for entertainment, some product owners were able to gain money and publicity and launch their business to success. Unfortunately, it also featured some flops that made the viewers cringe, but it definitely taught the entrepreneurs some valuable lessons.

These lessons can be very beneficial and should be used to improve their business. That's why it's so important not to give up after facing a failure.

"Giving up as an entrepreneur after experiencing failure would be like a baby giving up on walking after they fall down the first time," says April Shprintz, business accelerator, leading sales expert, and founder of Driven Outcomes.

"Failure is part of the process of learning, and the value of going through it is often underestimated. As an investor, when I'm going to put my money into a company, I first check that the entrepreneur has already had a failure or two because it's not if they'll ever fail, it's when, and have they learned from it."

Becoming a business owner and getting your product out there isn’t as easy as it might first seem. It’s enough to make just one little mistake, and your product fails to reach a wider audience.

"Many businesses run out of funding before they start generating meaningful revenue. Others are started by folks who don't really know much about the business or industry they start in and aren't able to learn quickly enough to become successful," Shprintz says, explaining why so many startups and young businesses fail.

"Lastly, many people 'want to start a business' the way they 'want to get married' or 'want to have a baby' their desire is centered more around the beginning or the event, not the day-to-day realities of living the life of an entrepreneur."

In Shark Tank’s case, the entrepreneurs often failed to convince the sharks because they lacked a fully developed business plan or didn’t research the market and the target audience enough. Some other mistakes they made were not identifying the target audience, not assessing the competition, not coming up with an expansion strategy, and not testing the viability of their product.

Even those that succeeded and got an investment couldn’t keep their business afloat. Like, for example, ToyGaroo, aka “The Netflix for toys”—a subscription service that allowed parents to rent different toys every month.

However, there are ways to recover from failure and come out the other side.

"Recovering after a major setback or failure in business is all about mindset. Entrepreneurs should ask themselves, 'How is this happening FOR me instead of TO me?" and "What can I apply from this to what I do next in order to succeed?'" says Shprintz.

"On a more tactical level, I always advise my clients to ask themselves how they can best serve their clients from where they are now. Usually, in looking to provide clients value, they'll find hidden answers to questions they may not have thought to even ask yet."