Shark Tank stands tall as the number one patron saint of the American dream.
Many founders see Shark Tank as a fast track to success. They step onto the Tank, share their story with confidence, hope to shake hands with an investor, and walk out thinking they have unlocked the next stage of their entrepreneurial journey.
While it is proven that an appearance on the show warrants free marketing and a spike in sales, the real test of a business begins after the pitch.
Some offers that look solid on TV never make it through the follow-up phase. Sometimes the business is not built to handle a jump in demand or the long grind that comes with scaling. A deal can open the door, but the business still has to be strong enough to sustain it.
Shark Tank Investments That Turned Into Total Nightmares
On the contrary to popular belief, the deal-sealing handshake on the show does not mean much. The real process starts when the filming stops. Each agreement has to go through a long stretch of checks and paperwork. This due diligence drags on for quite a while. And many deals never make it past this stage.
The ones that do make it through have a high propensity to fall apart once real challenges arise. Here are ten such Shark Tank deals where the investors later wished they had bowed out.
10. CateApp
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 4 Episode 2
- Deal Result: $70,000 for 35% equity
- Sharks Who Invested: Kevin O’Leary and Daymond John
Starting from the number 10 on the list, we have CateApp.
Neal Desai walked into season 4 of Shark Tank with CateApp, a tool designed to hide calls and texts from chosen contacts. The Sharks jokingly tagged it as an app for cheaters, but Kevin O’Leary and Daymond John still saw enough potential in the privacy angle to take a gamble.
They offered $70,000 for a little over a third of the company and seemed ready to help push it forward.
Things went downhill fast once the spotlight faded. The app picked up a wave of criticism, and not just for its purpose. It was glitchy, limited to Android and struggled to run smoothly. Users posted rough reviews, tech issues piled up, and the controversy around the concept didn’t help its reputation.
Any momentum it gained from the show disappeared, and the company faded out completely. The site and its social accounts have been silent since 2013. Other privacy apps have shown up since then, but CATEapp has been left behind.
9. Foot Fairy
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 5 Episode 29
- Deal Result: $100,000 in exchange for 40% equity
- Sharks Who Invested: Mark Cuban
Foot Fairy showed up in Shark Tank Season 5 as an iPad tool designed to size children’s feet. Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks hoped it would help parents avoid buying shoes that could cause discomfort.
The idea sounded friendly and simple, but the plan behind it had cracks. The founders expected to earn money through shoe retailers that paid commissions when parents bought footwear through the app.
Since neither founder had a background in tech, they brought in outside developers to build it. The finished product struggled. It didn’t run smoothly, and the system that was supposed to track commissions never worked. That left the company with no real path to steady income.
Mark Cuban agreed to work with them on the show, but luckily for him, the deal didn’t survive the backdoor due diligence. Foot Fairy closed a few months after the episode aired in 2014.
8. HyConn
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 2 Episode 8
- Deal Result: $1.25 million and 7% royalties in exchange for 100% equity
- Sharks Who Invested: Mark Cuban
HyConn made its appearance in season 2 with a connector that promised to speed up the way firefighters attach hoses to hydrants.
Jeff Stroope showed how quickly it worked, and Mark Cuban stepped in with a large offer that included buying the entire company while giving Stroope a small royalty. It looked like a life-changing moment, but things changed once the cameras were off.
Stroope later explained that the agreement unraveled because the terms shifted during follow-up talks. Cuban wanted to license the design to bigger companies so the product could reach fire departments faster and at a lower cost. That plan would have taken Stroope out of the picture completely, and he chose not to move forward.
Even though Stroope secured a patent, the connector never reached full production. Without the money or industry experience needed to bring it to market, HyConn eventually came to a halt after its time on the show.
7. You Smell Soap
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 3 Episode 3
- Deal Result: $55,000 investment + $50k salary for 30% equity
- Sharks Who Invested: Robert Herjavec
You Smell Soap graced the screens in season 3 as a boutique soap line created by Megan Cummins. On the show, Robert Herjavec agreed to invest $55,000, along with a salary for Megan, in exchange for part ownership.
All was going a little too well, and the deal never reached the finish line. Robert ended up literally ghosting Megan for six months. When he finally came back with an updated offer, the terms were very different. He wanted half the company for $50,000. Megan (obviously) turned it down.
It’s normal for investors to adjust terms once they look deeper into a business, but long gaps in communication can create real trouble for a small brand that suddenly has national attention and rising demand. A clear answer matters, even if it’s a turn down. But what else can we expect from figures called “Sharks”?
Megan found a different investor, and that person later bought the entire company. Be that as it may, the brand shut down nonetheless. It leaves us fans wondering whether things might have played out differently with quicker communication from the original deal partner.
6. Invisiplug
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 5 Episode 14
- Deal Result: $125,000 for 10% of the company + $1 per unit royalty until investment is recouped. After that, 25 cents per unit in perpetuity
- Sharks Who Invested: Lori Greiner
InvisiPlug featured in Shark Tank Season 5 Episode 14 with founders Michael Barzman and Bryan O’Connell. Their idea centered on a power strip designed to blend in with wood floors. An everyday product like that with mass appeal obviously caught Lori Greiner’s attention the most.
She put in $125,000 for a 10% share, and sales took off right after the episode aired.
Things went off track once Barzman became the focus of a slew of legal issues. In 2016, he was arrested after an incident involving a firearm outside his home. The case was dropped later that year, but the attention pushed the company into a tough spot. The company shut down in late 2017, but troubles for Barzman did not stop there.
More problems followed for Barzman, including another arrest in 2020 and later admitting he misled federal agents about forged artwork tied to the name of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Each new headline made it harder for the brand to bounce back.
The product rode early waves of the Shark Tank effect, but the never-ending bad press shattered consumer confidence. The brand essentially collapsed because the person behind it kept drawing the worst kind of attention.
5. ToyGaroo
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 2 Episode 2
- Deal Result: $200,000 for 35% of the company
- Sharks Who Invested: Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary
ToyGaroo showed up in season 2 with a pitch built around a toy rental subscription. Families could rotate new toys each month while sending back the ones their kids were done with.
The founders presented it as a fresh way to save money and reduce clutter. The Shark Tank poster boys, Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary, decided to put in $200,000 at the time.
The company wasn’t prepared for the wave of customers that followed the episode. Shipping costs were steep, the promise of free shipping drained cash quickly, and the team couldn’t source toys at prices low enough to keep the model sustainable.
Growth that should have helped them instead pushed the business to a breaking point. Within a year of its show appearance, ToyGaroo shut down and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
One of the founders later said the company would have been in a stronger position if it had expanded slowly at its natural pace. The Shark Tank effect did more harm than good.
A gradual pace might have given them time to fix supply issues and set up a workable shipping strategy. The team also clashed over how to handle the shipping problem, which created extra friction behind the scenes.
ToyGaroo became an example of how attention from the show can hurt as much as it helps when a business isn’t ready for a sudden rush of demand. The idea was good, but the structure behind it wasn’t built to survive the surge.
4. Body Jac
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 1 Episode 5
- Deal Status: $180,000 for 50% equity
- Sharks Who Invested: Kevin Harrington and Barbara Corcoran
In the first season of Shark Tank, “Cactus” Jack Barringer introduced the Body Jac. It was a device made to help people do push-ups with less strain. Barbara Corcoran and Kevin Harrington agreed to invest $180,000 in exchange for a 50% stake in the company.
They added one condition: Jack had to first lose thirty pounds using his own product.
The product never found lasting traction, and the website closed down around 2012. No clear details were ever shared about why the company failed. Barbara later called this investment the worst one she ever made on the show.
3. ShowNo Towels
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 3 Episode 4
- Deal Status: $750,000 for 25% equity
- Sharks Who Invested: Lori Greiner
Shark Tank Season 3 featured Shelly Ehler and her ShowNo Towel, a kid-friendly poncho towel she created to make changing at the pool or beach easier.
Lori Greiner loved the idea so much that she wrote a check on the spot for $75,000 in exchange for a quarter of the company. It felt like one of those big TV moments where everything lines up.
The vibes of the deal took a 180-degree turn once the camera stopped recording. Shelly shared that Lori Greiner asked her not to cash the check the next day. Deal terms were also changed during follow-up talks. Lori wanted a significantly larger share of the company (70%).
When Shelly obviously refused, the offer was turned into a loan that could only be used for sales-related expenses.
Shelly commented on the whole matter disdainfully, and how collaborating with a Shark taught her more about trust and communication rather than business strategy.
The company ran into more trouble in the meantime. They had deals with Disney World’s water parks and Franco Manufacturing, which later collapsed because the numbers didn’t work.
Sales stayed low, and the margins were thin. All of this eventually brought the business to a stop.
Shelly later brought the product back with a focus on people with disabilities who could benefit from a simple, modest towel design that met their needs. That ship could not sail for long, and all operations ceased by August 2020.
Shelly Ehler now works in hypnotherapy.
2. Sweet Ballz
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 5 Episode 1
- Deal Status: $250,000 for 25% equity
- Sharks Who Invested: Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran
Shark Tank Season 5 Episode 1 brought Sweet Ballz into the spotlight when James McDonald and Cole Egger pitched their fast-growing cake ball business.
Founders arrived at the Tank with impressive early numbers, and that success rate drew in Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran. The Cuban-Corcoran partnership committed $250,000 for 25% of the company. It looked like everything was lining up for a national rollout.
Customers loved the product and sales kept climbing, but trouble started brewing behind the scenes. Shortly after the episode aired, the two founders ended up in a legal battle. McDonald claimed Egger was secretly building a competing brand called Cake Ballz.
The fight escalated to the point where a restraining order was issued.
The dispute hit at the worst possible time. Interest from the show was high, but the Sweet Ballz website went offline. At the peak of the drama, the Sweet Ballz domain even redirected to the competing Cake Ballz page.
When the case settled, McDonald regained the brand and the site. By that point, the wave of interest had faded, and the cake ball craze had cooled. James McDonald still sells the product, but only as a small side operation.
There isn’t much public detail on how the Sharks were affected. But it’s safe to say that they probably don’t look back on this investment fondly.
1. Breathometer
- Appeared On: Shark Tank Season 5 Episode 2
- Deal Status: $1 million for 30% equity
- Sharks Who Invested: Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Daymond John
Breathometer is universally seen as the biggest nightmare to come out of Shark Tank. If you are wondering why, it is because it managed to make a fool of all five Sharks from the episode.
Charles Yim introduced a phone-connected breath tester that he claimed could help people check their alcohol level before driving. The pitch was smooth, the concept sounded helpful, and every Shark joined in. Together, they invested $1 million in the company.
Everything looked too good to be true, and that exactly was the case. The company struggled almost immediately. They couldn’t keep up with incoming orders, and customers began reporting that the readings were inaccurate.
The device showed numbers that were far too low from the accurate reading. Ergo, it created an obvious safety risk to the driver as well as the pedestrians.
The situation escalated when the Federal Trade Commission stepped in. The company was ordered to issue full refunds and remove the product from the market.
To make matters worse, it was revealed that Yim had spent the investor’s money on travel and partying instead of building a working device.
Mark Cuban later said in an interview with Vanity Fair that it was the worst follow-through he had ever seen on the show.
With a product that claimed to protect people from danger and reeled in all five Sharks on the panel, this Shark Tank nightmare sits in its own hall of fame/shame as one of the worst Shark Tank investments.
Beyond the Pitch: Lessons from Failed Shark Tank Investments
Shark Tank can launch a business into the spotlight, but the stories above show that the real world doesn’t bend for TV magic. Securing a deal is only the first step. The deal only matters if the business can carry the weight that comes after and if the Sharks don’t flake out on you once the cameras are gone.
The stories in this list show how quickly momentum can fade when those pieces aren’t in place. The dream is still worth chasing, but it needs more than airtime to hold together.
