Shark Tank Review

A couple years ago ABC had a little show called American Inventor. I was a fan of the show since I am a business student and have always found new inventions interesting. American Inventor ended up only lasting two seasons before being canceled. ABC appears to be taking another shot at inventing with their newest show Shark Tank. Does the Shark Tank sink or swim? It really depends on who you are.

In the Shark Tank entrepreneurs face a panel of business experts in order to pitch their small business/invention idea. The entrepreneurs are in desperate need of cash to expand their business or introduce their idea into the marketplace. The entrepreneurs pitch their idea to the five judges to try and get them interested. At the end of their sales pitch the judges decide if they are interested or not. If they aren’t they withdrawal from the bidding process. If any of the judges are interested they either take the entrepreneur’s offer or they make a counteroffer (more often the scenario). If an agreement is made the entrepreneur goes home with the cash to build their business or idea.

As I alluded to earlier, Shark Tank is not for everyone. Shark Tank is far from a bad show (I actually enjoyed it quite a bit) but after watching the pilot I can already tell that this show is not for everyone. This comes down to one simple fact; this is a business show. What I mean is that the Shark Tank is mostly a business show. The focus of the show is on the business side of the inventions instead of the development side like it was on American Inventor. Time is spent on the inventors and what they went through to get to the point where they are today but a majority of the show is spent on the judges deciding if the idea is a good investment and bargaining with the entrepreneur to make a deal if they are interested.

Since I am a business student I find the business side of the show to be quite interesting. I don’t know how much people who don’t care for business will like this portion of the show though. I personally think some people could find it to be quite boring. If this describes you, you won’t enjoy Shark Tank.

Since I mentioned it earlier I should address the fact that people will compare Shark Tank to American Inventor. It’s pretty obvious that at a quick glance the shows do seem pretty similar. Well I am going to disappoint American Inventor fans by saying that while Shark Tank shares some similarities, it is not as similar to American Inventor as you would expect. First the show does not exclusively feature inventions. It also features small businesses that would like to expand. I would say it is around a 50/50 split between inventions and small businesses. The second and biggest difference comes as I mentioned earlier in the business focus of the show. If you were mostly interested in the development of inventions you will be disappointed by Shark Tank.

I personally enjoyed Shark Tank. This is based off four things:

1. I like the pacing of the show. I honestly thought the show would progress pretty slowly. I was surprised since in the pilot the show got through between 5-7 investments in an hour. That gives you just enough time to understand the product and the people’s stories without being drawn out too long.
2. I enjoyed the fact that the stake are pretty high. These investments are expensive. Most range in the six digits with some even reaching seven digits.
3. I actually liked the judges/investors. While they aren’t the best reality show judges, they are far better than most of the recent reality judge/host choices. They seem to have some different personalities which should keep the bidding process and deliberations interesting. They also know what they are talking about since they made their millions in real estate, infomercial sales, technology security, clothing, and children’s software.
4. As I mentioned earlier I enjoyed the business aspect of the show.

While I enjoyed Shark Tank your enjoyment may differ. Are you at least slightly interested in business? If your answer is no you should avoid Shark Tank. If your answer is yes you should at least give Shark Tank a look on August 9, 2009.