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  • #1

    Shark Tank!

    New Australian season started last night and I'm super happy to watch it.

    Good lord some of the things that people will try to pitch are bizarre though! Last night was actually fairly tame, considering that the four shown were a guy who made bowls out of coconut shells, a craft brewery, a kid who had opened up his own donut store and a lady who sold "inappropriate" gifts online (to give you an idea of what she sells, one of her items is a wooden spoon with the phrase "World's greatest shit stirrer" printed on it).

    And yes, I've actually bought stuff from one of the businesses that appeared on the show - it was a plus-size hosiery manufacturer who makes some really damn good tights and stockings. (I've now got four pairs - two footless, one footed and a pair of stockings)

    Anyone else watch this or their overseas counterparts?
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  • #2
    Given I'd quit watching TV before the show came on, when I hear Shark Tank, I still think of this column, which I've been reading since before the financial guys were around. And I do have one of their T-shirts, from telling a story on myself.

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    • #3
      Quoth Mental_Mouse View Post
      Given I'd quit watching TV before the show came on, when I hear Shark Tank, I still think of this column, which I've been reading since before the financial guys were around.
      The show itself is known as Dragon's Den in the UK and "Money Tigers" in Japan. Australia has had both Dragon's Den and Shark Tank - the former patterned itself off the UK version and flopped after one season, while the latter is patterned off the US version and is still running.

      Fittingly since you mentioned computers though, one of the current sharks on the Australian version is Steve Baxter.

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      • #4
        Ooh Steve Baxter? Oh wait, that's not Stephen Baxter the SF author.

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        • #5
          Quoth Mental_Mouse View Post
          Ooh Steve Baxter? Oh wait, that's not Stephen Baxter the SF author.
          I recently read Baxter's The Massacre of Mankind, the sequel to The War of the Worlds. It was an excellent read, but I didn't care for the deus ex machina ending. Overall, I thought The Time Ships was a better book.

          I have always spend many hours over the past few days reading the Shark Tank articles.
          "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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          • #6
            Ooh. I wonder if that will be available for streaming. I love Dragon's Den and Shark Tank. Though I prefer the Dragon's Den format because I don't like getting to know the entrepreneur until after they get the investment.
            Don't waste time trying to convince someone that the sky is blue.

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            • #7
              Quoth TheWolfEmperor View Post
              Ooh. I wonder if that will be available for streaming. I love Dragon's Den and Shark Tank. Though I prefer the Dragon's Den format because I don't like getting to know the entrepreneur until after they get the investment.
              Channel 10 down here does do streaming, but I'm not sure if it's geoblocked or not. You may need to do some Googling otherwise.

              They tend to be a bit mixed down here - they do spend some time getting to know the entrepreneur before they get into the nitty-gritty of things (eg they'll ask "Where did you get the idea from? What sort of market does this tap into?" etc.). There have been some really WTF ideas though and good god those investors have the patience of a saint

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              • #8
                Yeah, I don't really care to hear that the Entrepreneur is a disabled war veteren supporting a family of 12 whose parents just died in a horrific accident and they will be financially ruined if the Sharks/Dragons don't invest in their pyramid scheme selling karma rocks.

                Just throw them in the Tank/Den, make their pitch and see if its worth investing in or not.

                I love both Shark Tank and Dragons Den, maybe loving Dragons Den a hair more mainly because they don't do the backstory as much.

                I do miss that Dragons Den doesn't do the Gong show portion of the show any more. 3-5 quick pitches in the middle of the episode that are clearly failures, but usually a chance for the Dragons to cut loose a bit and ask what the hell the entrepreneurs are thinking.

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                • #9
                  Quoth Jetfire View Post

                  I do miss that Dragons Den doesn't do the Gong show portion of the show any more. 3-5 quick pitches in the middle of the episode that are clearly failures, but usually a chance for the Dragons to cut loose a bit and ask what the hell the entrepreneurs are thinking.
                  The Australian version is starting to do that - typically they'll do the quick pitches in between "confession cams" of the Sharks talking about some aspect of being in the tank. Last night's one was about laughter - more the Sharks being genuinely amused by something and not mocking them.

                  This of course transitioned quite nicely into one of the Sharks picking up an indoor AFL goal pole (basically long, white stick, this one was about as tall as he was) and swinging it around pretending it was a lightsaber. THEN the guy revealed that they glowed in the dark... He got the deal! (And is the ONLY one of those quick pitches that's actually done this)

                  Our version has quite a few pitches that are downright awful and some that are funny but effective. My personal favourite was the guy who came on the show with an automated lollipop control sign for construction sites. What was he asking for? A carton of beer and someone to help him launch the product! (I am not kidding) And yes, he got all five Sharks going in.

                  (And yes, I've bought at least one product that appeared on the show - Sonsee tights are fantastic )

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                  • #10
                    I don't think I ever bought a product but I have seen a few of them that I recognized from Dragons Den UK and Shark Tank US. There was a store I worked at that bought lots. And there was an episode of Shark Tank where this guy was trying to market a line of coffee related kitsch, including a board game called Barista. He never got his investment because, to quote Kevin Oleary, "People like coffee. They don't want to buy a shirt that says coffee."

                    I saw the board game in that store about a year or two later.
                    Don't waste time trying to convince someone that the sky is blue.

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                    • #11
                      Quoth TheWolfEmperor View Post
                      I don't think I ever bought a product but I have seen a few of them that I recognized from Dragons Den UK and Shark Tank US.
                      One of the items from the US Show appeared on The Checkout over here at one point (the "Uroclub" - basically a golf club that men could pee into. The segment on The Checkout was mocking its existence as being an example of crap that you don't really need when golfing).

                      One of the Sharks over here is Naomi Simson, who founded and runs RedBalloon (you can gift "experiences"). She also has a blog with an online shop where you can buy some of their products

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