Monday, October 5, 2009

Courageous Ideas - Cactus Jack!

Do you watch Shark Tank?


Shark Tank, a reality show, premiered on ABC on August 9, 2009. The series is the U.S. version of the Japanese program Dragons' Den, which has spawned numerous local versions in other countries. The series stars five "Sharks" — multi-millionaire business tycoons — who hear investment proposals from entrepreneurs and consider whether to invest in the businesses.
The series is produced by Mark Burnett who signed a deal in 2008 with Dragons' Den format-holder Sony to produce an American version.

I watch the show from time to time and enjoying hearing about and seeing the many entrepreneurs and their creative ideas. When I don't have time to watch the show I sometimes record it and watch it later. It just happens that I had a bit of time on my hands this past weekend and I was running through episode 5 which featured a character who goes by the name of Cactus Jack. Now some of you may have heard of him - he's been around the block once or twice and has patented a few products. One product is a cleaning tablet fashioned in the shape of a .45 cartridge(bullet). Anyway, Cactus Jack jumped into the Shark Tank first with his product Body Jac. According to Cactus Jack, Body Jac makes it easier to do a pushup by using rubber bands to lighten the load. Two of the investors were immediately out of the bidding. But Barbara Corcoran, a self made real estate millionaire who sold her company The Corcoran Group for $70 million in 2001 and Kevin Harrington, a pioneer in the Infomercial Industry who banks tens of millions of dollars in sales each year, offered to invest in the product but wanted 50% of the equity in the new venture and added one additional requirement. Cactus Jack would have to lose 30 pounds thus making himself a better and more influential advocate of the Body Jac.

And that's when it got interesting. Daymond John, founder of FUBU (his company has made record sales of approximately $6 billion dollars) jumped into the bidding but added a twist. My thought is he tuned into the marketing, entertainment value, and appeal of this character - Cactus Jack - and eliminated the 30 lb. weight loss requirement but wanted a piece of all of Cactus Jack's products!


See below what happened:


Did you catch that?

"You can trade hours for dollars or you can trade ideas for millions! Guess which one I chose?"

Cactus Jack, I like your style..... But I like your Dad's a lot better! My thinking - Lose the weight, market your product, and then retire on the beach somewhere and drink delicious tropical drinks topped with rum!

Good Luck!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

JACK BARRINGER HAS SCAMMED MANY OF PEOPLE INCLUDING ME INTO BUYING HIS WORTHLESS FRANCISE/

intrepidideas said...

Interesting.... Tell us more. I haven't been following Him since I made this post.