Two South Florida entrepreneurs said they learned a valuable business lesson after they rolled out their stand-up battery-operated watercraft called HydroBlade on the premiere of the 17th season of "Shark Tank" and came away without a deal.
The lesson: Relationships matter, and even if you believe your product is worth big investor money, the art of negotiating can be filled with landmines.
Pelagion CEO Jamie Schlinkmann, from Lighthouse Point, had joined Boca Raton's Mike Terry, the company's head of business development, in pitching their product to five sharks — Robert Herjavec, Lori Greiner and Kevin O'Leary (a.k.a. Mr. Wonderful), as well as guest sharks jeweler Kendra Scott and Rashaun Williams, financial literacy advocate and founder of Harbinger Sports Partners.
The duo had sought $800,000 for 4% of the parent company Pelagion, not just the HydroBlade product. The price, along with the layered aspect of the deal, turned off the investors, particularly O'Leary, who sparred with the two over the concept.
Now that he's had the opportunity to watch the episode, which airs again at 10 p.m. Oct. 29 on WPBF-25, Palm Beach County's ABC affiliate, Schlinkmann, 55, wishes his tone wouldn't have been as confrontational.
“I didn't feel like I felt mad," he said. "I felt excited because it's very intense. But looking at myself, I just looked mad. I don't want to look mad, but I'm the kind of person whose face shows emotion.”
The two found themselves on "Shark Tank" after a casting agent approached them in January during a trade show presentation in Las Vegas.
It's manufactured by a Plantation-based machine building company called Pelagion. Founded more than 25 years ago by Schlinkmann, Pelagion has manufactured machines that go into factories that produce everyday items such as ovens, computer hard drives, double-sided tape and nametags, as well as machines used in medical laboratories. HydroBlade is their first direct-to-consumer product.
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