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This show is so ri-goddamned-diculous that it is entertaining. Maybe two of the "sharks" have any experience running actual businesses day-to-day and as such, t
by dkrich 14y ago
This show is so ri-goddamned-diculous that it is entertaining. Maybe two of the "sharks" have any experience running actual businesses day-to-day and as such, the questions they ask (or at least the one's shown) are completely idiotic. I know, they are all insanely wealthy, but there is a big difference between being a real estate broker or selling a billion trinkets on QVC and running business operations for a company on an ongoing basis.
Not to mention the fact that half the time people go on the show with massive sales in major outlets but desperately need $60k from Damon John to get over the hump. The other half they have no sales but turn down an offer from Mark Cuban because it is 15% more of their crappy company than they want to give away. Is there any struggling entrepreneur in the real world who would actually turn down ANY offer from Mark Cuban?
I've also heard that a lot of the deals don't close because the contestants lie about sales or something of the like.
All that said I do watch the show. After all it is entertaining and Kevin O'Leary's quotes are hilarious.
- ktizo 14y agoLooking on it as more than entertainment seems to be a bad idea though, as it seems to have about as much to do with good investment practices as 'The Apprentice' has to do with good hiring practices. I wonder if you could use something like this as a platform to promote an open source project. Might be worth doing just to annoy them when asked what sort of IP protection you have on the idea you are telling them about.
- dkrich 14y agoI agree. I'm actually worried that it sets a bad example for people who think it's okay or necessary to go hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to make some kind of trinket to sell. There should be some kind of warning in between segments about that. Although in today's market I don't think most people can get bank loans. Credit cards on the other hand...
- brown9-2 14y agoIs there any struggling entrepreneur in the real world who would actually turn down ANY offer from Mark Cuban? He comes off as a bit of a scumbag on the show - he frequently makes exploding offers that will expire if the entrepreneur doesn't accept them within 30 seconds, or he'll state that he'll withdraw his offer completely if they even talk to another one of the "sharks" about the possibility of another offer. After watching the show I'd be very wary of working with someone who negotiates with people like that unless there was a more equal footing.
- dkrich 14y agoMark Cuban is a clueless publicity whore. But he does have a lot of marketing ability because of his fame. There is a pervasive misconception that if somebody is wealthy, then whatever they say is right, regardless of their domain expertise. You can tell by some of the questions he asks that he has no clue what he is talking about. Put him in a room of PE analysts and he'd get eaten alive. But the reality is that most people who go on the show need sales, and having Mark Cuban willing to advertise for you on Twitter and such is very valuable for a growing business. His "expertise" is of little to no value. I certainly agree with you there.