The Seventy2 Survival Kit

If disaster strikes, what would you need in order to survive for 72 hours?

Christian Schauf and Mike Escamilla have that all figured out.

The two entrepreneurs walked into the Shark Tank on the second episode of Season 9, to seek an investment for their product, the Seventy2, otherwise known as the world's first fully-integrated survival system. The Seventy2 is a bag packed with survival essentials including food, lights, gloves, a blanket, an air filtration mask, a water filter, and a shovel that converts into a pick-axe. The idea is for people to keep these bags in their homes (and wherever they go) so they are prepared in case of an emergency situation. And in times where hurricanes and other severe weather patterns are forcing people out of their homes, this product can literally be a life-saver.

The entrepreneurs came in seeking $100,000 in exchange for 5% of their company, which imputes a $2 million evaluation on their company. While this evaluation seems high at first glance, Christian and Mike did have numbers to show for it. After six months of business, the product has already sold $700,000 of product in 64 countries. And to get the business off the ground, they raised $400,000 through a crowdfunding campaign in just one month!

Very quickly it became obvious to the Sharks that these entrepreneurs have the tools needed to survive. But for this very reason, Mark went out because he doesn't like being "dumb money" for businesses that don't really need more than just cash. Barbara didn't seem very interested in the business from an investment standpoint, and she dropped out as well. Robert though offered a proportionate $200,000 for 10%, and gave them just a brief window of time to make a decision. And before Lori could even get her offer out on the table, the entrepreneurs used their survival instincts to act quickly and take Robert's deal.

Robert Herjavec: The Road Not Taken

Here is an article written by Robert Herjavec for LinkedIn a few days ago about hustling. It is short and to-the-point, yet very inspiring.

The Road Not Taken: The Moment I Realized I Needed to be the Supplier, Not the Seller

By: Robert Herjavec

The story of my family immigrating to Canada when I was eight is relatively well known. A quick Google search turns up a number of results about how I’m the "son of an immigrant factory worker” as they say on "Shark Tank." What many people don’t know, is that my road to success was not always uphill.

After graduating from college, I began working in television production. I was one of the youngest producers to cover an Olympic Games and thought perhaps I could make my mark in TV. After the Sarajevo Olympics, I returned to Toronto and auditioned for acting gigs while waiting tables. I quickly realized this wasn’t the life that was going to provide for my family. My parents had shown me what it was like to sacrifice absolutely everything — money, family, security — for the opportunity of a better life. I knew I could do more to deliver for them.

I had a knack for talking to people and an insatiable drive to achieve — so sales made sense. Like so many young salesmen, I was a bit of a hustler. I was the go-getter, the yes-man, the whatever-it takes-to-make-a-deal guy. I was 150 percent committed to getting the deal and my boss and customers knew it. Problem was—I was the man for someone else’s bottom line.

A turning point in my career came when Warren Avis, founder of Avis Rental Car, and my boss at the time, took me aside and told me I was working way too hard to achieve my goals. “You’re putting so much pressure on yourself. You’re never going to scale that way,” he said.

He brought me to the window in our office and we stared down at the hot dog vendor selling on the edge of the parking lot.

“You’re the hot dog vendor,” he said. “You’re pushing your product, you’re doing all the work and you’re sweating it to make a living. You need to be the guy supplying the dogs to all the vendors if you ever want to scale.”

His words took me by surprise, I was doing it wrong. I had huge dreams — and I mean HUGE — but I had the wrong approach.

That day was a turning point in my professional career. I realized that I couldn't do it alone. I needed to leverage the resources around me and dedicate myself to an opportunity that had the potential to scale.

When I started Herjavec Group in 2003 with George Frempong and Sean Higgins, we were three guys in an office with big dreams of dominating the information security industry in Canada. Over the past 11 years we have scaled to $150 million in annual sales revenue and more than 200 team members. Today we are one of the largest independently-owned information security firms in North America, and recently expanded into the U.S. with presence in NYC, Dallas and Los Angeles. We have the ability to serve customers globally and plan to formally establish a presence in Europe in early 2015. That type of success doesn’t come from pushing hot dogs from a stand. We had to become the service provider — the go-to supplier — the trusted advisor to our enterprise customers.

When you’re deciding what path to choose — think about what’s important to you and to your family.

What will it take to get there? How can you scale? Don’t set a goal to build a $100 million business, build ten $10 million businesses.

Break up your goals so you can almost grasp them.

Now get out there and hustle.

You can read the original article here.

Spy Escape and Evasion: Flashback and Flash Forward

"The name's Hanson. Jason Hanson".

Just a few episodes ago Shark Tank fans all around the country watched as former CIA officer, Jason Hanson, covertly stood and mouthed these words in front of the Sharks before pitching his extremely unique business. Spy Escape and Evasion is a seminar for everyday civilians to go to learn safety and survival secrets from a man who has needed to use them to survive his career.

Flashback:

Jason asked the Sharks for $100,000 for a 15% stake in his company, which as of then had gross sales of $306,000 and profit of $128,000. As part of his presentation, Jason called upon a couple of volunteers from the Shark audience to try out some of his tactics. First, Barbara went up and tied Jason's hands tight with duct-tape, only to see him break out of it a few seconds later - without breaking a sweat. Next, Robert went up to serve as the victim, as Jason tied his hands together with a strong zip-tie. But Robert was also able to break out of this with the parachute-cord shoelace Jason was wearing.

While all the Sharks watched with amazement, Kevin's mind seemed to be thinking of ways to destroy this entire business. He asked Jason how he was allowed to be sharing these secrets with regular civilians. But to his surprise, Jason answered that he already spoke with the agency and got clearance. Roger that Kevin?!

With an investment from the Sharks, Jason was planning on opening a huge training facility in Utah where people will come in for a two day course. Day 1 would be learning the skills (getting out of ducktape, picking locks, detecting surveilance, etc,), and Day 2 would be actual missions with enemies and obstacles. The Sharks though didn't like this plan. They argued that people would not take the time to fly over to Utah to learn these skills. Instead, they proposed that Jason continue with his current business model (which seemed to be working) of flying to heavily-populated cities and giving the seminars there. Jason made it clear that he was definitely open to changing his business model, and with that, the Sharks were quite interested in partnering with him. Well, at least Robert, Daymond, and Mark were.

Robert was the first to make an offer, offering $100,000 for 50% of the company. He felt that this was a reasonable deal because the business model had to still be perfected, which would require more of his time and effort. Daymond insulted this offer calling Robert a greedy savage, and then made a competing offer of $150,000 for 45%. Because Mark was still on the fence and the other Sharks were out, Jason accepted Daymond's time-sensitive offer and walked out of the Shank Tank, mission accomplished.

Flash Forward:

After making a deal with Daymond, Spy Escape and Evasion has been unstoppable. In the first week after airing on Shark Tank, the company did $200,000 in sales, which previously took over 8 months to do. Since then, Spy Escape and Evasion has done a $1.2 million royalty deal with a survival company, been featured on the Rachael Ray Show, and is in the process of publishing a book and creating a TV show. Talk about the Shark Tank Effect! Daymond has clearly been instrumental in helping grow this business and is in touch with Hanson and his team on a weekly business. The company has also improved its online presence with their brand new website, http://www.spyescape.us.

Jason Hanson will be flying to many different cities to give his seminar and teach regular civilians the secrets he was taught as a CIA officer. It is the chance of a lifetime to learn from a true master in espionage, so be sure to sign up!

@ Cinnaholic: The Sharks just Changed your Business Model

By: Pete Troshak
Twitter: @Shak74
Website: www.Shak74.com

Florian and Shannon Radke are the owners of Cinnaholic, a cinnamon bun company that offers a unique boutique retail experience featuring delicious cinnamon buns (judging by the reactions of the Sharks) with over 30 frosting and 30 topping choices for customers to customize their cinnamon buns. Their buns are safe for people with food allergies; they contain no dairy or egg products and are cholesterol free. This makes their product safe for the over 50 million Americans with an intolerance for dairy, and 5 million people with severe food allergies. Cinnaholic’s buns are also 100% vegan, which is a popular buzzword in food today and a consistently growing market. The have one retail location and did $260,000 in sales last year, and were asking $200,000 for 20% of the company to open up another retail location. They have a minor online sales presence but seemed to have their hearts set on expanding through more physical locations, and not cyberspace.

Cinnaholic: Feed the Sharks, or They will Feed on You

By: Darci Phillips, 
Writer & Entrepreneur

On last week’s episode of Shark Tank, the luck seemed to be with the entrepreneurs as three of the four of them made deals with the Sharks. It is interesting to note that two of those three deals were for food and drink products, which can be a very tricky and temperamental market.

The Radke’s waded into the tank with their custom cinnamon roll business, Cinnaholic. The moment they entered the Tank, many of us watching fully expected these two to go the way of so many others with food offerings that have appeared on the show – out the door with no deal. But it turns out they knew that to avoid being eaten alive, they had to give the Sharks something else to satiate their vicious hunger.

Define Bottle and iReTron: A Tale of Two Pitches

By: Pete Troshak
Twitter: @Shak74
Website: www.Shak74.com

Last week's Shark Tank featured entrepreneurs ranging in age from six to sixteen who have invented items to make the world a better place. Two of the pitches featured inventors of roughly the same age who displayed business savvy combined with an impressive level of social and environmental consciousness beyond their years. Only one walked out of the Tank with a deal, and we are here to analyze why.

Revolights: A Wheel of Fortune?

Kent Frankovich, mechanical engineer and co-founder of Revolights, walked into the Shark Tank seeking an investment of $150,000 for 10% of his business. Revolights are revolutionary bike lights which mount to the front and back tires to always provide safety and visibility for both the rider and the cars sharing the road.
Revolights has two patents, no real competition, and sells for $229 retail.

According to Frankovich, 70% of night bike collisions are due to poor side visibility. Revolights are designed to prevent these accidents by synchronizing light with the bike's speed. Furthermore, due to Revolights' circular design, they are not easily stolen and don't just fall off. In under 12 months, Revolights has sold over $600,000 of the product, though it has yet to turn a profit.