Top 30 Worst Shark Tank Pitches of All Time

How do you know that your pitch went poorly? Well, getting kicked out of the tank is a pretty good indication. Maneesh Sethi pitched Pavlok, which is essentially a dog collar for humans. Cleverly named after the famed scientist Pavlov, Pavlock is a wearable device meant to break certain bad habits. When the user presses the button, the Pavlock gives them a small shock, thereby preventing them from doing said habit. Yes, the Sharks laughed too. Not only is the product ridiculous, but Sethi gets angry when he’s confronted. Lori says he just wanted to get on TV, and Kevin calls him an a-hole before kicking him out. So, yeah, it didn’t go well.

Parents might buy anything if it means making life just a little bit easier. But maybe not the Squeeky Knees. This product is made by Ivan Barnes and Lisa Evans, who asked for $80,000 for 20%. It’s a small pad placed on a baby’s knees, thereby preventing their knees from getting hurt as they crawl around. The pads also make an annoying squeaking noise, which alerts the parents to the child’s location. No one liked the product, and the couple even argue with Mark when he questions their dedication to the company. But the worst sting probably comes from Mr. Wonderful, who says the product “sucks” and quickly bows out.

George Conway strolls into the tank with BedRyder, which is essentially a toddler’s car seat for pickup truck beds. Yep, these bad boys are drilled directly into the truck, thereby allowing adults to safely and legally ride in the back. But not only do they look a little off-putting, they cost nearly $800! While Robert and Barbara are more receptive to the idea, Lori and Kevin make their displeasure known. Lori calls out the product for possibly being dangerous. Kevin thinks along the same lines, claiming that the BedRyder is just asking for legal trouble. Maybe they’re right. Maybe we just aren’t meant to sit in the back of pickup trucks.

Who doesn’t cringe in embarrassment when a presentation goes horribly wrong? Enter Clay Banks and Alex Bertelli of Haven, a special lock that is meant to secure doors better than a standard deadbolt. It’s a fair idea, but the presentation is an iconic disaster. Bertelli hopes to prove the flimsy nature of a deadbolt by kicking down a prop door. It does not go well. He continuously kicks the door to no success and even grabs a nearby stand to ram it, still to no success. Meanwhile, the Sharks howl with laughter, drowning out Banks’s desperate attempt to continue the presentation. Mark calls it the “best pitch ever” and later called it the funniest pitch in the show’s history. We can’t argue with that.

There’s a market for everything. Or so Amanda Schlechter hoped. She brought in the Ledge Pillow, a small memory foam pillow meant for women with large breasts. This small cushion is placed underneath the woman’s stomach, allowing her to comfortably sleep on a bed. The presentation gets off to a bad start, with snickering through the demonstration and sarcastically calling out the “big problem.” They also joke and laugh their way frequently through the whole thing, even while trying to talk business with Schlechter. It’s clearly not going well, and that’s before Mark calls her a “wantrepreneur” and declines the offer. Was this sexism in action?

People like feeling alert and energized, and for many, that means coffee. But there are tons of products out there that purport to provide energy boosts, including what are called nootropics. The companyNootroBox presented a chewable coffee called Go Cubes, which supposedly, among other ingredients, contains the same caffeine content as a standard cup of coffee. But the thing is, people like drinking coffee. And also, caffeine pills exist. None of the Sharks liked or even understood the product, with Kevin sarcastically calling them sugar cubes. They also gawk at the company's overall $40 million valuation and yell over their attempts to justify themselves. You’re asking for it when you go up against Big Coffee.

The fitness industry is probably worth, like, a zillion dollars. Enter Stacy Erwin, who hoped to get a small slice of that big pie. He made the Fitness Stride, aimed at getting people into shape without going to the gym or even putting aside time for exercise. The Fitness Stride is basically a resistance band that users wear while walking around or doing chores. None of the Sharks bite on this one. Some complain of the valuation, arguing that $900,000 is way too high for a resistance band. Barbara doesn’t understand it. And Kevin calls it a “marketing nightmare,” as there are a billion similar products. Erwin strode away empty-handed.

What did we just tell you - don’t compete with Big Coffee! Roger Sullivan hoped to get in on the energy-boosting business with his Wired Waffles. These are standard breakfast waffles infused with caffeine, the rough equivalent of two cups of coffee. There were numerous questions raised here, none of which got truly satisfactory answers. Is it safe? Not according to Lori, who feared young children eating 200 milligrams of caffeine. Is edible caffeine even a good idea in the first place? Not according to Daymond. Most importantly, do the waffles taste good? Not according to both Mark and Kevin, both of whom criticize the flavor. In other words, this pitch was a complete disaster.

We don’t know what’s worse - the ArKeg itself or its silly name. The device is a combination video game arcade machine and beer dispenser. It comes pre-equipped with dozens of classic arcade games and a beer keg sits under the console, allowing players to dispense themselves a drink. There were deemed to be countless problems with this. The $4,000 price tag is a big one. Another is practicality - why not just pour yourself a beer beforehand, then play the game? Are you really saving yourself that much time dispensing it from the machine? Unsurprisingly, all of the sharks hated the ArKeg, with Lori calling it a gimmick.

Have you ever thought to yourself, “man, I really wish I had a device that could attach post-it notes to my laptop”? No, you probably haven’t, because - well... post-its are already perfectly capable of sticking to things. It’s kind of a big part of their job description. Mary Ellen Simonsen, the woman pitching this wonderfully useless product, was asking the Sharks for half a million dollars in funding. Can you say delusional? To top it all off, she had made zero sales and didn’t even have a patent on her invention - which if you’re a regular “Shark Tank” viewer you’ll know is a recipe for a quick rejection.

Okay… so we get that the product/company is called Eyebloc, but rocking sunglasses inside is rarely a good look. So we were already skeptical by the time entrepreneur Craig Isakow suddenly started yelling and took them off. Granted, all of the concerns he raised about laptop and phone cameras are valid, and there’s admittedly something appealing about the simplicity of his invention to cover your laptop camera. Unfortunately, that same simplicity also significantly diminishes the worth of the product. Worse, Isakow himself oversold the device, coming across like a bit of an eccentric conspiracy theorist in the process. And people don’t like to get into business with eccentrics, especially when people can get the same results they’re selling with a simple piece of tape.

Heads up, crappy idea coming your way. Entrepreneur Bruce Gaither had an idea that involved using dog poop to attract flies to his trap. To bring his idea to life, he asked for $25k for a 15% stake. Sure, he gets points for bringing his adorable golden retriever onto the show with him, but a cute pup wasn’t enough to change the Sharks’ minds. Aside from the fact that this product can only be marketed to dog owners, the Sharks made the legitimate point that no one would want to use the device in their homes for obvious reasons. Even “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane’s endorsement couldn’t save this doomed pitch.

Here is a simple fact of food marketing: if you can come up with an alternative version of a popular treat that tastes great but has fewer calories… people are going to buy it like crazy. The most crucial part of the phrase, however, are the words: “tastes great”. This low-cal substitute for ice cream had many selling points, including it being dairy-free, soy free, gluten free and vegan. But as the Sharks were quick to point out (much to their dismay, because some of them seemed genuinely interested), it didn’t taste good. And so all its virtues became somewhat moot. It’ll still sell, sure, but only to a much smaller demographic. And for that simple reason… the Sharks walked.

Any pitch that involves hurting woodland creatures deserves a great big NO, and that’s exactly what this one got. Michael DeSanti marketed his product as the world’s first “interactive squirrel-proof bird feeder.” The “interactive” bit is what’s key here. You see, the bird feeder isn’t exactly “squirrel proof” so much as it’s an opportunity for sadists to torture the small fluffy-tailed animals. Animal cruelty aside, the obvious problem here is that you’d need to be sitting around all day holding your zapper at the ready for this product to work. Unless this is a pitch exclusively for the unemployed or infirm, it didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to anyone. Don’t worry: no squirrels were hurt in the making of this episode. We think.

Were we charmed by London the bulldog? Absolutely. Bring any animal into a room and you’ll almost immediately grab the attention of everyone in it. Three animals? Even better! But… founder Abe Geary might’ve been better off had he just let the animals do the talking. His opening attempt at hype was very over-the-top. And unfortunately, his wordplay wasn’t much better. The way he mixed metaphors was a real turn off, especially his big finale. When you force two sayings together, you often wind up saying nothing at all. The unfortunate thing is, the paint-you-can-safely-use-on-your pets product isn’t terrible. And when Geary speaks outside the Shark Tank, he’s a businessman who actually inspires confidence. His cheesy pitch was just a major misfire.

When it comes to outrageously awful ideas, it’s hard to beat the Original Man Candle. These candles were created to market exclusively to, well, manly men. The idea is not only sexist, the smells are ridiculously silly, bordering on offensive. Silly comes in the form of smells like “fart” and “football” (whatever that smells like), and offensive in the form of “beach babe.” The Sharks didn’t care for the candles, and they made their opinions known. None of them believed there’s any money in the product, and Kevin was quite harsh towards the candles themselves, calling them “crap for tourists.” Once a Shark calls your product “crap,” you know you’re done for.

There’s something about the idea of selling packs of three socks that seems more creepy than practical. What do you do with the extra sock until you need it? We’re kind of torn on this one because on the one hand, the mysterious loss of individual socks is a real problem in our contemporary society. On the other hand, though, a simple solution to this problem would be to just buy your socks in bulk so that they all look the same and the concept of “pairs” becomes irrelevant. While Edwin Heaven’s presentation was certainly magical, somehow this product seems like it would cause more problems than it would solve.

Andy Humphrey, creator of the Ecomower, is another entrepreneur who should have chosen his words more carefully. Though his manual lawn mower has curb appeal, the way he went about selling it rubbed some of the Sharks the wrong way. Yeah, Daymond John was NOT onboard. And as soon as he started tearing apart the pitch, even Sharks who initially seemed open to the concept began to express similar doubts. The major selling point was that this is a push mower that doesn’t require sharpening, but when Daymond and company grilled Humphrey about this supposed advantage, it quickly began to lose its competitive edge. To the surprise of few, Ecomower is no longer in business.

Pitching a feature length film to the Sharks seems ambitious to begin with, but when it sounded as bad as this, the creators were bound to get eaten alive. Making up the pitch team are a former stuntman, a writer and a producer. When they made their pitch, they had no script, no actors and no financial backing. The guys made sure to stress that this is not a movie about the popular sport of motocross, since they were told there’s no viable U.S. market for a motocross movie. No, this is a film about MotoGP, a lesser-known sport given little to no attention in the United States. They also mention that there’s never been a movie made about the sport but... maybe there’s a reason for that.

Honestly, we didn’t even need to hear a pitch to be sold on this electric watercraft. A still image with a description would have been enough. So… how did such a promising product sink so hard? Well, though the sharks seem onboard with the concept, the more they heard about inventor Jason Woods, the more obvious it became as to why the Kymera board wasn’t already a success story. He had no sales history and had apparently been at it for 10 years! Rarely has such a compelling product received a worse pitch. Thankfully, Woods went out and found himself a more business-minded partner, and years later, the Kymera board returned seeking redemption. Sure enough, Woods and partner Adam Majewski walked away with a deal.

If we’re being completely honest, we’re just as baffled by this guy’s pitch as the Sharks were. He claims to have invented an electric generator that harnesses the spin of the earth to create electricity. Conveniently enough, the waste that this machine supposedly produces is...gold? Entrepreneur Mark Sullivan (who also markets himself as a songwriter and ladies clothing designer, among other things) says he has invented over 1000 products that make over a billion dollars a year in profits. Even so, it looks like the Sharks have a hard time believing anything this guy says, because it all sounds straight up crazy – especially if you know even a little bit about science.

“Let’s address the elephant in the room”. Hey, we can appreciate the initial hook here, but apart from co-opting a popular saying, this business model just doesn’t have that much going for it. Acknowledging that you’re having issues in your relationship is difficult enough as is, but bringing a stuffed animal in to help… Well, it’s not hard to imagine many partners being very put off by the idea. It’s undeniably cute, but its application elicits eyerolls from a number of the sharks almost immediately. And we’re pretty sure that most viewers at home had a similar reaction. Communication is the key to a good relationship, we’re just not convinced this elephant needs to be part of it.

Because what the world really needs is another energy drink... especially one with such a small – and kinda derogatory – target market. Not to mention, women between the ages of 35 and 55 hardly seem like the prime demographic of energy drink consumers. Also, how many women can there possibly be out there who self-identify as cougars? Okay, in case you’re unclear on the concept: this is an energy drink for women of a certain age who like to date younger men. The inventor, Ryan Custer, claims this is “the industry’s first gender specific functional beverage” but even that doesn’t seem to be true. This product pretty much has nothing going for it. And it really doesn’t help that according to Barbara Corcoran, the drink tastes like chalk.

As the old saying goes, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. This product, pitched in season 7, takes that to a more literal conclusion by offering to trick your eyes into seeing yourself as being more slim than you actually are. Voila! The, uh, Skinny Mirror, even if it’s a not-so-skinny you. Entrepreneur Belinda Jasmine pitches her invention as a tool to help boost self-confidence, but Kevin O'Leary isn’t having any of it. Not only does he take issue with her lack of patent and blind faith in her brand identity, but he also appears to be offended by the concept. Jasmine, for her part, tries to keep the momentum going and a smile on her face, but the pitch quickly falls apart, and the tension in the room is palpable.

Didn’t Michael Scott have this one covered? When you want to wake up to freshly made bacon you just set up a George Foreman grill at the foot of your bed...right? Clearly this inventor isn’t a fan of “The Office” because he came up with a pig-shaped device with the exclusive purpose of bedside bacon making. This is the first idea on our list that actually seems kind of appealing...until you think about the logistics of it. You have to put the bacon in before you go to sleep, and leaving raw meat unrefrigerated overnight seems like a recipe for disaster. Not to mention the whole thing seems like a serious fire hazard. But those problems notwithstanding, Matty Sallin should keep working on this one… We ARE intrigued.

Where to begin? We get that people looooove their pets, but we draw the line at holding a giant fake tongue between your teeth and using it to lick a cat. And apparently, the sharks feel similarly. Husband and wife team Tara and Jason O’Mara know their stuff, and they’ve successfully gotten another product backed via Kickstarter. But when you start licking a cat during your pitch… it becomes really hard to take you seriously. The sharks are at once horrified — and more thoroughly entertained — than we’ve ever seen them before. We’ve no doubt that there are customers out there who love this product, but it’s just too niche.

Aren’t doctors supposed to be smart? Well, brothers and doctors Albert and Richard Amini manage to give a bad name to a well-respected profession – at least in the eyes of Mark Cuban. Their idea for a mobile app that connects doctors and patients isn’t fundamentally stupid in theory, but their pitch was so bad that there’s no way anyone would trust their business sense. They keep throwing in buzzwords like “social media” without an actual plan to back any of it up. It sounds like what they want to do is create a LinkedIn for physicians, but they have no idea how to get doctors to use their app or how to monetize it. The Sharks are understandably a bit harsh with their criticism.

For every problem, there is a solution. But when it comes to the problem of needing to pee while on the golf course, there MUST be a better solution out there. Presented by urologist Dr. Floyd Seskin, the uroclub is a hollow golf club that you urinate into. In Seskin’s defense, he does a lot right in his presentation. He’s professional, has a good sense of humor and has put in the work. And against the odds, he actually secures an offer - albeit a small investment for a majority share. But that doesn’t make this any less silly. This is a novelty product through and through. Plus, leak-proof or not, the idea of carrying a tube full of fresh urine around with you is seriously off-putting. Or is that off-putting?

One of the all-time worst pitches comes from “Shark Tank”’s very first episode all the way back in 2009. Apparently, back in the old days, Bluetooth earpieces were the must-have tech gadget, but this guy took it one step further so that you and your Bluetooth would never have to be apart. Pitching a surgically implanted Bluetooth device that’s inserted into the wearer’s ear canal, Darrin Johnson manages to creep the Sharks out and get some of the fastest “I’m outs” in the show’s history. The fact that the device has to be charged nightly by inserting a large needle into one’s ear definitely doesn’t help his cause. And neither does the fact that he didn’t actually get any doctors to approve his product. Surprise surprise, this product never took off.

Oh boy. Where do we begin with this one? It’s just a fake plastic phone! We agree with the basic point that the omnipresence of smartphones is problematic. Glance away from your phone for a second and look around - most people within sight are likely staring at one. But this “placebo” type approach of giving people something to just hold in their hand completely fails to address any of the key factors that drive people to their phones: the hunger for communication and the promise of distraction, whether with entertainment or information. With all that being said, we have to give credit where credit is due. For an utterly useless product, Chris Sheldon and Van Gould put together one heck of an attempt to sell it.


Would you actually buy any of these? Let us know in the comments below!