Ice Shaker
Ice Shaker is a company from Dallas, TX, founded by an athlete that makes a new kind of shaker bottle designed to keep drinks cold.
The Ice Shaker is a double walled, insulated sports bottle that can keep ice for up to thirty hours. In addition to keeping drinks cold, the entrepreneur also claims that it will not sweat even when outside in hot weather. It's also claimed that it will not retain taste or scent of previous beverages.
The entrepreneur is one of five brothers in the Gronkowski family, each of whom sports either a Super Bowl or World Series ring. Given this, Lori Greiner rightly questioned why the family name wasn't on it. "Why isn't it called the 'Gronk?'"
Ice Shaker has sold $80,000 in the previous six months, $35,000 in just the last two. It costs $5 landed and sells direct through their own site or on Amazon for $25/unit.
Sold $80k in 6m. $35k in last two months. Sold for on site and amazon for $25/cost $5 landed. Lori questions why family name not on it. $100k is just price to partner with sharks.
This deal aired on Episode 9.04.
Making A Deal
The entrepreneur claims that he doesn't need the money but is asking for the $100,000 in order to partner with a shark. Both Mark and Arod bit and went in together on the deal, each contributing $75,000 instead of the full $100,000 for a 15% in equity. The $50,000 additional investment and the 5% additional equity balanced each other out and make this one of the rare deals where the entrepreneur walked out the the same valuation that they entered with.
From the Stats Shark's perspective though, one wonders why the Gronkowski's weren't criticized in the same way that the founder of Simple Habit was when she appeared. While Daymond wasn't present this episode, his criticism would still hole, the Gronkowskis, a famous and (by now, if not before) rich family could easily use their own wealth and fame to promote whatever product they would like. Is their appearing on the tank not "stealing" a slot from someone more deserving? Given that Mark seemed to agree with Daymon's previous comments, it's interesting that he both said nothing and invested in the deal.
Obviously, there might be specifics that make this deal materially different than the Simple Habit deal but it is disturbing to see charges of "stealing" leveled at an ordinary person attempting to justify their (unjustifiably high) valuation while not so much of a peep is made about rich sports stars taking a slot on the show when it's completely unnecessary for the success of their product.
Updates
In the sixth episode of Season Ten, Ice Shaker received a short update stating that in less than one year since airing, the company had seen $300,000 in sales. Additionally, they are in a trial with thirty-five GNC stores with the hope of rolling out nationwide to all 1,100. Alex Rodriguez also stated that he intended to bring the product in to the 150 UFC gyms that he owns or is partnered in.
The sales figures presented aren't exactly impressive. Doing the math, in the pitch, the entrepreneur stated that in the last two months the business had done $35,000 in sales. Projected out and assuming sales stay flat at that level, that equals $210,000 in sales for a full calendar year. $300,000 in sales in the year since airing represents only three additional months of sales or a boost of 25% from where the company was, hopefully something the company could have achieved on its own if the product really is any good. Adding two sharks to the mix, including one of them a minor Major League Baseball player, one would presume, should add fuel to that fire and really take off. Alas, the numbers here, as they also did with Sand Cloud, do not appear to show that being the case.