"You're Gonna End Up Working For Me As An Employee" - EcoFlower | Shark Tank US | Shark Tank Global

[Music] I'm Megan Bowman I'm from Ogden Utah I live with my husband Wes and our two beautiful daughters entrepreneurship has always been inside of me ever since I was a little kid I was doing bake sales and haunted houses and any other way I could raise money for myself since childhood my life has been a little tough finding a career path was tough and I fell back on welfare being on welfare was humiliating it was one of the first times in my life I haven't been able to take care of myself I came up with my product idea because I had a phone call with my dad and he reminded me of an idea that I had when I was a teenager so proud of you yeah you know you got this entrepreneur site for me right I've been watching Shark Tank since season two and just watching the other entrepreneurs live out their dreams pushed me to finally take that plunge I started trying out for Shark Tank and I failed each time and then something told me that's a phone call that I would get the opportunity to pitch in front of the sharks this business means so much to me because it is one of the first successful things that I've done outside of having children and I just wanted to be around for a really long time for us [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] hi my name is Megan Bowman I'm from Ogden Utah and I'm the founder of a company called ecoflower I'm here today seeking four hundred thousand dollars in exchange for ten percent of my company let me share a little secret with you women are growing tired of the gift bouquet cycle get flowers watch them die procrastinate the trip to the garbage and then wait for the day when somebody gives her another vase full of plant carcasses There's A Better Way introducing Eco flour I found a floral solution that provides my customers with a beautiful bunch of flowers that not only last forever but are also made with recycled and sustainable materials we create with burlap jute twine bamboo book pages beer bottles wine bottles lots of other materials that create Timeless gifts stunning bridal bouquets and decoration for your home and businesses sharks together we'll Captivate the hearts of the women who will start to love getting flowers again and I got each one of you gifts that I wanted to hand out before we start so Robert oh thank you very much wow fancy this is Croatia this would be Croatia over here this is Kim's home country Australia and this is a farm sniffle Lori I got you one of our bouquets okay beautiful thank you Mr Wonderful I was like oh he has the whole uh something wonderful platform and I wanted to show you what I can do with weddings okay and so this is a bridal bouquet and that's a matching boutonniere and all of your stuff is scented so yours is lemon that's black raspberry oh that smells so I smell bad Barbara I got you a spring bouquets I love our Springtime and then Damon I got you lapels for your jacket cool and Mr Cuban those are lapels yeah this has 140 in it and if I don't get a deal today you got to give it back because I'm a little tight on cash thank you so much look at that that's made with real money I'm spending this you visually make these Megan I used to make them and it got out of my hands and so now a good sign yeah we have two manufacturers that make them for us Megan it's very pretty but let me ask this question to the ladies up here Lori Barbara if a man sent you this instead of real flowers how would you feel about that oh my oh you want an honestly it's a lack of sensitivity it's a good point I should feel precious I would rather have a real flower so Lori would rather have real flowers Barbara would rather have real flowers what does that say my customers have a completely different story I don't know what women say when you're in a wealthy community but in the community I come from if a man buys you flowers spends 50 on it you're upset with him like wow a lot of women are upset they're like that 15. towards groceries or a lot of other things when they can keep it forever the women here's how you can prove what's wrong okay what are your sales lifetime sales are 2.8 million wow it's only been open for a year and a half it's all direct to Consumers through our website nice what do you sell your bundle for so it's about 59 for a bridal bouquet that's really good yeah that's very really good how many I don't even let you started this business so I saw an episode of Shark Tank and I'm like I wish I had an idea so I called my dad and he said Remember the wood flowers that used to sell when you're in high school this is an idea you could do for Shark Tank and so I literally tried out when I was only two weeks into business of course I didn't make it very far but without Shark Tank I wouldn't have thought awesome on my past you have a lot of competition I know nobody's selling them in the masses by the bouquets they're for crafting people are getting them on Etsy like six at a time to put them in little hair bows for their kids but nobody has a bouquet that you can buy online for a gift what I can tell you is they're not used heavily in the wedding industry because people want live flowers the industry is set up because we pass a lot of contacts it's more to take commissions off selling flowers I just started wedding months ago that was in 25 000 of those weddings wow what caused that um we have a big problem at my shop with production and so we purposely hold our marketing department back but yesterday I said throw four thousand dollars at the ad and I want to see what it is okay so you spent you spent four thousand dollars yesterday I love her and what was a typical day prior to yesterday in sales a typical day is anywhere where from six thousand to thirteen thousand okay so you created another ninety thousand dollars in sales right you're killing it how much your own money is in this like 700 dollars oh my God but but I have a business partner who helped me um I was living in a one bedroom apartment about to be homeless and I was on the news because I was trying out for a shark tank for my first time and they like did a whole new story on it this guy saw me on TV and he called me up and he said I want to invest what do you need and I'm like I need my rent to be paid and I need groceries how much did you sell to him and for how much he only put it 25 percent for three thousand dollars and paying your rent for a year unbelievable have you taken on any other investors um I tried to protecting got denied and The Business another investment so we found a local investment firm that gave us thirty thousand dollars for how much two guys so they each took 25 percent so 50 that leaves 25 so you own 25 so in total you sold 75 of your business for roughly thirty five thousand dollars Hard Times Yes wow that was a year and a half ago Megan one of the reasons we started a business is to retain Equity right and you want to see it grow and that's your payback I give you 400 000 I would never do it for 10 let's say I did it for 30. who is going to give me that stock because you're going to end up working for me as an employee my secretary is going to own more stock than you do that's ridiculous you're getting wiped out foreign all six sharks are still in while everyone is impressed with Megan's big sales in her faux flower delivery business Eco flower they're concerned that she already gave away 75 percent of her company to other investors only a year and a half into her business I give you 400 000 I would never do it for 10 let's say I did it for 30. who is going to give me that stuff because you're going to end up working for me as an employee you're getting wiped out it'll come from equal shares we have a Max that we're willing to go up to so we can't I mean and my investors are Tech guys this is not their area I want to get them out at some point and so I mean later you don't want to use my money to buy them out I don't want to be smart I feel like you guys would have the contacts that can make that happen I feel like um that Equity could be used differently with people that know my industry well Megan you know you've heard the saying it's spread your own 10 of a billion dollar company than 100 of a that's why I'm here well the challenge is it's very hard to build a billion dollar business so when you're starting out in a small business you should try to retain as much Equity as you can for as long as you can but you have 25 ownership you don't control the business you don't have the final say in the business who am I going to get into business with those beautiful people they really are you got to hang on to the equity so I'm out thank you Megan I spent and I'm embarrassed to admit that most people spend on groceries they just love flowers I don't get these I see these all over Manhattan and bathrooms usually I don't even understand why people buy them honestly I get it I have to love what I invest in right so I am okay thank you look at you I mean amazing amazing you deserve so much credit but this just is not me right this is not my area of expertise thank you I just see these so readily available out there everywhere you're doing a great job yourself right right there's not competition though but I don't have it I'm first and best I just don't see it as the right investment for me so I'm sorry thank you it makes it virtually impossible invest in you without deluding you to a place where you are basically an employee I'm still doing a really great job there's no reason it's not investable for me I'm out everyone in this space come on Damon I'm gonna do four million this year come on I have the same exact concerns that the other guys have that you know you started this whole business to not work for anybody now you're working for the company so have you talked to these Tech investors and they have they confirmed that they are willing to sell their shares as well they're willing to share the right price for sure I need you to be vested in this business so I want to attempt to buy them out down the road and give you a bigger piece of this business so I'm going to offer you four hundred thousand dollars for 25 percent wow that wipes you out you'll have no equities it dilutes everybody about six percent but you do 20 percent that is coming from all four-year Partners to make me a fifth partner yes foreign [Music] [Music] I started this business watching Shark Tank and to actually be here and get a deal is incredible and I'm not trying to become a billionaire I'm trying to create jobs and I'm trying to feed my family and not struggle again and I think I can still do that with 20 David I didn't get that deal cash flow cash cash cash it's clear cash flow this stuff is a commodity we put the stuff on cards we buy it for pennies yeah exactly I don't even want to sell it to you here David it's only 399 999 now thank you I'll take that

Channel: Shark Tank Global

Views: 693,990

Keywords: Shark Tank, Shark Tank US, Shark Tank Australia, Kevin O’Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Daymond John, Robert Herjavec, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Dragons’ Den, Money Tigers, Entrepreneurship, investment, reality tv, ecoflower, ecoflower shark tank, ecoflower daymond john

Id: eqnZFd-pKFc

Length: 12min 46sec (766 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2022