Angel Lift: Raising the Upper Lip

Aaron Bruce and his wife entered the Shark Tank with their revolutionary product, Angel Lift. Angel Lift is a way to dramatically decrease face wrinkles without needing any injections or surgery. The piece is simply inserted under one's lips and within 30 days, most of the wrinkles are gone. Aaron was seeking a $500,000 investment in exchange for 10% of his company. But he didn't have an easy time getting it.

Although the product was not yet available to the masses when it appeared on Shark Tank, Aaron claimed that Angel Lift did $3 million in sales and generated $1.2 million in profit, in the smallest live shopping channel in the country. At that point, he pulled out the patent-pending product to perfect the product and build out the brand.

Huh?!


Let me repeat that: He pulled the product out of the shopping channel while it was generating millions of dollars.

Why?

Well that was Sharks' question. Most entrepreneurs come into the Shark Tank looking for help getting sales, not telling the Sharks how they cut them off. As Kevin O'Leary put it, it's sheer evil to pull something out if it making money. Because this seemed very shady, Robert, Kevin, and Mark all went out one after another. Barbara went out for a different reason, which was that she felt it would be way too expensive to market because of the fact that it would need demonstration and infomercials.

Lori though saw the huge potential Angel Lift carried, and although she was quite skeptical, she decided to make and offer of $500,000 for 25% of the company. Aaron countered for 15%, and Lori agreed with a few conditions: The money is strictly used to fund QVC orders, the patent is cleared, and she sees proof of the $3 million done in test market sales. This seems like a great deal, given the fact that if these conditions don't clear, the deal is off, and so Lori has nothing to lose.

The question is, why didn't all the Sharks make a deal with similar contingencies? If all they were concerned about was the shadiness and the unusual decision Aaron made to pull the product back, why didn't they just make the deal contingent on there being nothing unethical or wrong with the product? They all seemed amazed by the product's capabilities, so why not make the deal and do the due diligence?

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