Qball
Qball is a company from Raliegh, NC, that has created a ball for outdoors and in the classroom that acts like a speaker.
The ball also contains a wireless microphone and can be connected to a Bluetooth enabled stereo system to boost someone's voice. Despite the electronics, it can still be fully played with like a ball. There are also sensors to put the electronics to sleep when being thrown so as to not broadcast sounds. The device has a patent pending.
The Qball retails for $179 and costs $52 to manufacture. Year to date, the company has had $177,000 in gross sales. 90% of all sales are to schools for a the teaching and learning environment. The entrepreneur projects to have $650,000 in gross sales by the end of the year and believes that this scale will occur through teacher sales that encourage schools to buy.
The entrepreneur stated that they appeared in the tank in order to acquire money necessary for building inventory.
This deal aired on Episode 9.02.
Making A Deal
Lori stated that she liked the possibility of selling for use in a corporate environment, an area the founder admitted had been pursued "very little". Despite this, Lori, Mark, and Rohan each offered to put up $100,000 for 30% of the company. This represented $100,000 more than was originally asked for but the additional equity meant a bite of $333,333 to the company's value.
Bringing three sharks onto a single deal is still a rare event and the founder chose to accept.