The 15 Worst Shark Tank Pitches You Have To See To Believe

The novelty of each pitch is one of the main draws that makes Shark Tank such a compelling show. However, not every pitch leaves the Sharks impressed — at least not for the right reasons. 

There are some ideas that are just so bizarre and outlandish, and presenters who are so poorly prepared or delusional about their ideas, that their pitches go down in history as spectacular failures — you have to see them to believe they were ever presented at all!

In this article, we’ll share 15 of the worst Shark Tank pitches that left the Sharks bewildered (or even angry) and audiences cringing. From the downright impractical to the hilariously absurd, these bad Shark Tank pitches serve as cautionary tales for aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere.

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15 Worst Shark Tank Pitches

1) Licki Brush

What Was Licki Brush: A tongue-shaped cat brush designed to be worn on a person’s tongue and used to brush the cat in a licking motion, imitating how cats groom each other

Season Appearance: Season 8, Episode 12

Ask: $300,000 in exchange for 15% equity

Licki Brush’s founder starts off her pitch by stating that there is some evidence suggesting that cats think their owners are just giant cats. She goes on to ask, rhetorically, “Why should you be left out of their intimate bonding ritual?” Elaborating, she then explains that Licki Brush allows cat owners to lick their pets with the brush placed over their tongue, just like mama cats lick their kittens. 

The prospect of this unconventional display of affection raised more than a few eyebrows among the Sharks, who expressed their disbelief that the founder was going to actually stick the tongue-shaped brush in her mouth and lick a cat in front of them! Needless to say, they didn’t offer a deal.

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2) Skinny Mirror

What Was Skinny Mirror: A full-length mirror designed to help build self esteem by making the person standing in front of it appear skinnier

Season Appearance: Season 7, Episode 5

Ask: $200,000 for a 20% stake

Skinny Mirror’s founder came on Shark Tank pitching a pantentless mirror made from a special type of glass that would make anyone look slimmer when standing in front of it. The idea behind the product was to make people feel better about their bodies.

It was immediately clear that the Sharks were not impressed by the Skinny Mirror pitch, with Kevin O’Leary combatively calling the market validity of her business idea into question, saying, “Anybody can order that piece of glass.” 

The founder tried to let the comment roll off, asking O’Leary to come take a look in the mirror before making a decision, but he wasn’t having any of it, going on to call her business a “sham” and even going so far as to say he forbade any of the Sharks from investing in it.

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3) Ionic Ear

What Was Ionic Ear: An implantable Bluetooth headset designed to replace wearable Bluetooth earpieces

Season Appearance: Season 1, Episode 1

Ask: $1 million in exchange for a 15% stake

Darrin Johnson, creator of Ionic Ear, appeared on the very first episode of Shark Tank seeking a million-dollar investment for his implantable Bluetooth earpiece invention, which was intended to replace wearable Bluetooth headset devices and eliminate issues with them falling out of wearers’ ears. 

When asked by the Sharks exactly how it would work, Johnson explained that the device would require surgery to implant inside of users’ ears, and people with the implants would be able to charge it nightly by inserting a charging needle into it while they slept.

The Sharks all appeared to be shocked by the proposal, expressing serious concerns about the safety of such an implant and even calling his sanity into question. They all quickly proceeded to opt out of a deal.

4) PavLock 

What Was PavLock: A wearable watch-like device designed to help users reduce unwanted behaviors and break bad habits by shocking them on the wrist

Season Appearance: Season 7, Episode 29

Ask: $500,000 for a 3.14% stake

Maneesh Sethi, the entrepreneur behind PavLock, came into Shark Tank pitching his wearable shock aversion therapy-inspired product, intended to help wearers get rid of bad habits, such as addictions, by emitting a small shock when they performed undesirable behaviors. 

The Sharks seemed to strongly dislike Sethi’s pitch, heavily questioning his use of statistics from scientific studies on aversion therapy to promote his product’s effectiveness. Mark Cuban got particularly heated about Sethi’s lack of real product-related data, and Barbara Corcoran called his presentation “exhausting.” 

However, Kevin O’Leary actually offered Sethi a deal, with a few additional caveats, to which Sethi responded that he wasn’t interested in dealing with O’Leary specifically, but would take an offer from any of the other Sharks. O’Leary fired back with a few expletives and insults, and with that all of the Sharks were officially out.

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5) Chill Systems

What Was Chill Systems: A portable beverage cooler with built-in freezing gel, designed to eliminate the need for ice

Season Appearance: Season 12, Episode 17

Ask: $150,000 in exchange for 15% equity

Chill Systems’s founders had a rather humorous pitch, focusing around the inconveniences and unsustainability of having to constantly buy and use ice to keep traditional coolers cold. AT one point they comically spilled ice all over the floor of the presentation room.

Kevin O’Leary was the first Shark to criticize their product, highlighting the inconvenience of having to make room in your freezer to chill the cooler, as well as the fact that it had a capacity of only 3 beverages. He finished by saying, “I hate it.”

The other Sharks were a little easier on the founders, while still calling their pitch “bad” and questioning their focus on sustainability for a product made of plastics. Although all Sharks opted out of the deal, Lori Greiner did say that she thought their company had a shot, and guest investor Daniel Lubetzky gave them a few kind words of encouragement in parting.

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6) Vestpakz

What Was Vestpakz: A backpack built into a vest

Season Appearance: Season 6, Episode 14

Ask: $50,000 for a 10% stake

Vestpakz’s CFO appeared on Shark Tank to pitch a special type of backpack invented by his daughter when she was 11, a backpack built into a vest in order to be more comfortable and stylish than a traditional backpack.

After the initial pitch, the Sharks started off their followup by asking the CFO how much the company had made in sales to date, to which he responded $10,000. The Sharks then asked when his daughter first invented the backpack, and burst into laughter when they found out it had been 16 years earlier, pointing out that it was a very long period of time to only have $10,000 to show for. 

Ultimately, the Sharks had no confidence in the entrepreneur's ability to sell the product, and chose to send him away without a deal.

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7) Rolodoc

What Was Rolodoc: A social network for the medical community

Season Appearance: Season 5, Episode 1

Ask: $50,000 in exchange for 20% equity

Richard Amini and Albert Amini, doctor brothers, pitched Rolodoc as an alternative to outdated forms of communication in the medical field. It was to function as a sort of social media network allowing patients to find and chat directly with medical professionals.

After hearing their initial pitch, the Sharks went in on the brothers, questioning what new value their product would provide doctors, how they planned to market it and attract users, and how they would actually make money. The general consensus among the Sharks was that the idea was a “liability nightmare” with no potential, and that the pitch was one of the “worst presentations ever” — they were out.

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8) Liftid Neurostimulation

What Was Liftid Neurostimulation: A headband that allegedly passed mild electric currents through wearers’ foreheads, stimulating the frontal lobe part of the brain to increase focus, attention, and memory.

Season Appearance: Season 12, Episode 5

Ask: $200,000 for a 10% stake

Liftid’s founders pitched their neurostimulator headband product as “the coffee of the future,” claiming it could increase users’ focus and productivity even better than caffeine. They provided each of the Sharks with a Liftid device and guided them through a “stimulation session,” drawing a range of sarcastic reactions from the investors.

The Sharks then began to question the validity of the science behind the product, asking if there was any real evidence that it could provide benefits to humans. Mark Cuban then read from the product’s user manual, emphasizing the disclaimer, which stated that it had no medical benefits.

Liftid’s creator tried to drown out the Shark’s concerns by talking over them, and Robert Herjavec called him out on it. All the Sharks then explained their varied reasons for not wanting to invest in Liftid, with Kevin O’Leary notably calling it one of the “craziest pitches ever on Shark Tank.”

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9) Sticky Note

What Was Sticky Note: A product to keep sticky notes in place and organized while working on a computer

Season Appearance: Season 1, Episode 1

Ask: $100,000 for 20% equity.

Sticky Note’s creator pitched her idea for a foldable pad that could be attached to laptops and desktop computers, intended to provide an additional surface to stick paper sticky notes to. The Sharks were not buying her half-a-million-dollar valuation, especially after they found out she hadn’t sold a single unit of the product and expected to charge nearly $10 a piece for “a sticky pad for sticky pads,” as Robert Herjavec put it.

Most of the Sharks expressed their belief that the product was a useless invention that wasn’t even worth patenting, except for Barbara Corcoran, who said she thought it was a decent idea and that it would be possible to sell, but that she was ultimately not interested.

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10) Amber Charging Station 

What Was Amber Charging Station: A public mobile phone charging station with fingerprint-secured charging docks

Season Appearance: Season 6, Episode 1

Ask: $200,000 for a 20% stake

The creators of Amber Charging Station pitched their secure public charging station as a solution for airports, bars, and other public locations where people frequently find themselves in need of a charger.

Robert Herjavec, the cybersecurity expert among the Sharks, questioned the invention’s use of fingerprint reading technology, citing the fact that all but the most high-end fingerprint readers tend to be very finicky and unreliable.

Once the Sharks found out that it cost $1,000 to manufacture one of the stations, and that its creators expected bars and other businesses to pay a whopping $2,000 for a unit when they could just as easily use something free, they ran the other way from a deal.

11) His and Hers 

What Was His and Hers: An “aphrodisiac snack bar” full of ingredients alleged to get couples in the mood for some intimate time

Season Appearance: Season 12, Episode 9

Ask: $50,000 in exchange for 10% equity

Jennifer and Michael Gallagher, the couple behind His and Hers bars, started off their pitch with a catchy jingle, drawing some laughs and applause from the Sharks, before giving each Shark their own aphrodisiac snack bar to try.

As the Sharks sampled the bars, the founders explained some of the ingredients before going into their personal inspiration behind the bars. The Sharks weren’t too interested in their long-winded stories, and cut in to ask about sales, quickly learning that the couple had only sold 500 bars, to the tune of $2,000.

The Sharks kept questioning the founders about their business model and decisions, pushing Michael to tears and resulting in the telling of another teary-eyed story. The investors saw through the couples’ sob stories and determined that there was no real investment potential for their product.

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12) Track Days

What Was Track Days: A full-length action film revolving around a motorcycle world championship

Season Appearance: Season 4, Episode 24

Ask: $5 million for a 34% stake

This comically bad Shark Tank pitch aimed to secure money to produce a motorcycle racing movie and resulted in the quickest “I’m out” ever from Mark Cuban, who didn’t want anything to do with the project as soon as he heard the entrepreneurs say it was an action film.

Cuban’s fast exit didn’t deter the film’s creators from handing out popcorn to the investors and playing them a trailer for their non-existent movie, which looked like it was a Windows screen saver with nothing more than some 3D text and computer graphic effects. The Sharks proceeded to tear apart their pitch, highlighting the fact that there was nothing of substance in it.

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13) EyeBloc

What Was EyeBloc: A rubber webcam cover designed to prevent spying

Season Appearance: Season 5, Episode 13

Ask: $50,000 in exchange for 10% equity

CJ Isakow came on Shark Tank looking to secure an investment for his “webcam privacy shield,” emphasizing the dangers of Americans being spied on in their homes by hackers via their devices’ built-in webcams. Although Robert Herjavec agreed with him that this was a serious issue, he didn’t think that Isakow’s invention was the solution consumers were looking for. 

The rest of the Sharks just couldn’t see the value in investing in a small piece of rubber (or “little piece of crap,” as Kevin O’Leary put it) that essentially served the same function as a sticky note or another readily available desktop supply.

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14) The Sullivan Generator  

What Was The Sullivan Generator: An electric generator alleged to create electricity by processing salt water, turning it into vapor that would drive the generator’s turbines, while leaving behind precious metals, such as gold

Season Appearance: Season 3, Episode 11

Ask: $1 million for 10% equity

The Sullivan Generator’s creator, Mark Sullivan, claimed to have already made 1,000+ inventions that were making over $1 billion a year. He used a drawing and a lot of bold pseudo-scientific claims to try and convince the Sharks of his invention’s validity, and for a moment it seemed to work, as Daymond John and Robert Herjavec both initially made him offers.

Mark Cuban, however, made it clear that his “BS meter” was going through the roof and that he thought the generator’s “inventor” was a conman, even asking Herjavec at one point, “How could you be so stupid?” Cuban clearly wasn’t buying Sullivan’s snake oil salesman tactics and along with Kevin O’Leary was able to convince the other investors that it wasn’t a legitimate investment opportunity.

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15) No Fly Cone

What Was No Fly Cone: A non-toxic, cone-shaped fly trap that catches flies on the inside, designed to be placed over dog excrement

Season Appearance: Season 4, Episode 10

Ask: $25,000 for a 15% stake

The last of the worst Shark Tank pitches on our list was certainly a wild one. It started out with a cowboy hat-wearing entrepreneur pitching his idea for a fly trap that could be placed over a dog’s feces to catch the flies it attracted. Then, partway through, Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, made an appearance. Why? He took horse riding lessons from No Fly Cone’s creator and wanted to help his friend pitch the product.

Despite this strange turn of events, the Sharks kept their composure and continued questioning No Fly Cone’s inventor about the product. However, they ultimately didn’t want to invest in a product that required dog excrement to function. MacFarlane did have the Sharks laughing, though!

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Wrapping Up

To wrap up our look at 15 of the worst Shark Tank pitches ever, let’s just say that Shark Tank has certainly given us some unforgettable moments over the years! 

Although the pitches featured in this article stand out for all the wrong reasons and remind us that not every business idea is destined for success, they can also teach aspiring entrepreneurs a valuable lesson: pitch preparation, an idea’s practicality, and a product’s market viability are all important parts of securing an investment deal.

For more insights on the show, we've also compiled a list of the biggest failed products from every season. Check out the article here.