Shark Tank US | Sharks Fight For Equity Over Cat Amazing Product

[Music] first in the tank is a business to entertain board felines [Music] hello I'm Andre I'm from Fort Lee New Jersey and I'm seeking two hundred thousand dollars for ten percent of my company cat amazing now imagine for a moment you're not sharks but cats modern house cats in fact your life is awesome you're safe indoors there's climate control couch to scratch food loving on demand fantastic problem is you're bored out of your ever loving mind you want to hunt clever prey not Lounge all day with a food bowl what it's impossible to hunt indoors until now introducing cat amazing a line of interactive puzzle feeders that brings the thrill of the hunt to indoor cats treats go in and the hunter comes out cat amazing puzzles activate their Natural Instincts to explore scratch Sniff and retrieve hidden rewards engaging their paws and their brains for hours these are the only puzzles designed to be a match for cats intelligence and dexterity and veterinarians love them because they slow down eating for better digestive health and weight control the three different sizes the classic the sliders the mega increase in difficulty so your Kitty's always being challenged and every sale helps us donate toys to shelter cats awaiting adoption so what do you think can cats and sharks get along so right now you guys can get the full feline experience right I actually put some treats inside there so you guys are going to be cats oh my gosh but but no cheating put away the opposable thumbs we can get it the fastest let's go [Music] I am one with the cat you got the panther inside what made you decide to start this so I originally came to America when I was eight years old um I didn't know anyone I didn't know the language and we got here I moved around constantly where'd you come from I came from Russia and so um that was a recipe for not making friends very easily so what actually ended up happening is that my closest friendships my my deepest friendships ended up being without household pets now fast forward 15 years my wife and I are moving into our first apartment together and what's the first thing we do we adopt a cat mookie problem was keeping mookie active and engaged in their Studio that we lived in which was basically the size of like a litter box um so it was actually mookie that came up with this product he started taking a little red ball and putting it inside of a folding book stand that kind of was sitting on the floor and getting it out and when I saw him do that I grabbed a box that was sitting around grabbed the box cutter and I started making little mazes for him um he kept getting the balls out kept making more mazes and as we built build built I realized you know what we can do we can build this into a business and that's how cat amazing was born so does mookie get a royalty um yeah I I wish you did mookie was diagnosed with kidney cancer and he didn't get to live to see the launch but he lives on in all of this he lives on here he's here Andre tell us the sales Journey yeah so yeah so the sales Journey so basically from 2011 to uh 2017. it was pretty much like a hobby project it was something about like 20 000 a year so in 2017 I finally broke out of my sort of first generation immigrant mentality of you know get a job hunker down get the paycheck be grateful um then I heard that sort of second generation voice calling that you know my parents didn't bring me here um to not seize opportunities I quit my six-figure job yeah to go work on this um I bring in a whopping thirty four thousand dollars everyone close to me was very concerned as to what I was doing in my life so we kept hustling 2018 was north of 300 000 in sales wow so we 10 accidentally one year okay 420 000 the following year 550 000 of the year after that was last year yeah 720 with 40 years so what does it cost to make it uh and what are you sell them at um so landed um they range between four to nine dollars they sell for 16 for the smaller one 23 and then the third one's gonna be launching a 30 range where do you sell this so most of my sales come from Amazon I actually deliberately drove people to Amazon because of Amazon's ranking so I wanted people to actually buy on Amazon so it goes up in the category and it gets more visibility and do you have profits today oh yeah the business profitable so I make they're a cost in between so um I cover all the shipping for the customers okay so the margin so the profit margin at the end is about 20 it's about 20 it's about 20 like all in one why twenty percent though so I'm just so close um I I keep my profit margins low on purpose um to be honest I mean this is a product that's close to my heart it's a cat enrichment product and it brings happiness to people um so it would really break my heart if somebody born afford it but Andre you see a problem there don't you because you know we want to be one with the cad and you know give cats all the exercise they need but if you're going to take in an investor they're going to want you to at least not necessarily maximize profits but at least optimize profits yeah get a bit more more buffers yes if we're going to give you all that money we need to get a return back on that how are you going to support that um so with volume yeah look Andre you know your motivation is great and honorable but it's not motivation to take in an investor I don't agree with that we'll make it up in volume approach so for those Reasons I'm out I appreciate it thank you you're welcome so the primary reason that I'm here is actually not the money it's the partner um it's the partner who gets the brand who understands what I'm trying to do here with this and who's willing to guide and take it to the next level so I'm very much open to guidance and advice as to how to increase that margin and to make that investment worthwhile for you you know Andre I love cats I love cats it does not I'm gonna make you an offer in in honoring Mookie's short life but inspirational one I'll do it for two dollars a unit until I get back my two hundred thousand then it drops to one dollar in perpetuity I don't want any Equity the reason that works for you I'll just point out uh Wicked Good Cupcakes we've just sold to Hickory Farms I never had Equity but we were so incentivized to make the sales grow because I was getting a royalty off every jar then we turned it into the number one brand brand cupcake gift in America so it became huge and it was all social media telling the story there's millions of cat lovers you're not getting to them right now I can help you do that that's my offer thank you very much everybody knows I'm the pet lover up here I love animals I think where you need some guidance is what price to sell that how to sell it but I think you have a major good offer I'll make you the same offer I'll give you the two hundred thousand dollars two dollars a unit and then once I get my money back a dollar a unit from there on mm-hmm I have a question why haven't you gone to retail I'm on the Petco Foundation I'm on the board and I like the retail aspect so that that's a great question I actually tried to get into retail I went to smaller Stores um it was a tough nut for me to crack that's one of the reasons I'm really hoping for a partner who can open those doors all right I'll I'll give you 200 000 for 25 percent that's not horrible Lori what are you doing do you want to make an offer so before you make your offer let me just let me say one one more one don't do that don't do that yeah I want to just level with you on guys on one other thing uh-oh okay and I was really hoping that um one of you guys would just take my initial offer and I wouldn't have to go here but um so I've never said this a soul and now National Television when mookie died um I buried him with a note and the note made a promise and the promise was that one day I would commit all of cat amazing to helping shelter cats now I understand completely that promise binds only me and my share of the business and I certainly understand that giving away a part of something big is better than giving away part of something small yep I get all that but when you're talking about a royalty perpetuity or 25 it starts to feel like I'm going back in a promise to a friend [Applause] you said 25 right yeah can I make you a slightly weird counteroffer and just consider it it's your company I would be willing to part with 20 of the business 10 to you and ten percent we commit to going towards shelter cats in whatever way we can what would you say to that you're coming in with me you're offering me you're offer me exactly what you came in here with clever what are you talking about well I'm giving I'm still giving up you're giving away my 10 yep yeah I'd be willing to give up 15 you know what 20 so total is 25 I give up I would give up so 10 to you 15 to the shop advance I just want you to know that which is exactly well let's not let's not compare history of helping animals I'm on a board of Petco to save animals so don't make this end up looking like I'm the cruel one no no no no no and so why don't we do this I'll give you the 200 000 I'll give you that for twenty five percent five percent uh my portion goes towards this cause and you match that with five percent of your portion wait a minute I'm gonna make you an offer I'll give you the 200 000 for 22 that's it no royalty just straight Equity wow [Music] would you be willing to do what Damon just said to give five percent of yours and get five percent of mine and we commit that to helping shelter cats whatever we can so we give 10 to the shelters together foreign I really appreciate it thank you so much you got to deal with the shark that I was here to get and we got to deal with Lori and I'm fulfilling a promise to a friend I give up a little more Equity but I think it was worth it to fill a promise to Mookie

Channel: Sony Pictures Television

Views: 1,775,495

Keywords: Sony, Sony Pictures Television, Shark Tank, Shark Tank US, Shark Tank USA, Shark Tank America, American Shark Tank, Shark Tank Pitches, Shark Tank bad pitches, Shark Tank Best Pitches, Shark Tank Covid, Shark Tank Season 12, Mark, Blake Mycoskie, Kevin, Lori, Daymond, mark shark tank, kevin shark tank, lori shark tank, daymond shark tank, mr wonderful

Id: Bt_igQZPEaI

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2022