Best and Worst Shark Tank Pitches to Learn from for Your Next Presentation
Why do some Shark Tank pitches earn million-dollar deals while others flop? Sure, if we’re being honest, a lot of it has to do with people just having really dumb product ideas. In other cases, it’s a poor business plan. But the presentation itself can also play a major role.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’re presenting to potential investors, coworkers or your cat Oscar, the principles of a compelling pitch are universal. Truly game-changing products or services are rare, and unless you’re selling one, you’re going to have to earn your investment through a compelling and well-structured presentation. So, let’s take a look at the Shark Tank presentation format to see what we can learn from some of the best and worst examples on the show.
Understanding the Shark Tank Pitch Format
While there’s nothing wrong with making your pitch presentation unique to your personality or your brand, there are some common elements we usually see from the pitches delivered on the TV show. Ultimately, getting across the most important information clearly and concisely is in everyone’s best interest.
These are some of the common elements every pitch will usually include.
- Introduction: Who are you and what is your business/product?
- The problem and solution: Why does your business exist and what does it solve?
- Demonstration/product walkthrough: How does your service or product work?
- Market size and opportunity: Who are you selling to?
- Financials: What are your sales, what is the valuation of your company and how much of an investment are you asking for?
The magic of television means that the initial pitches you see on Shark Tank appear to be just a couple minutes long before getting into some back-and-forth questions and discussions with the sharks. In reality, a full pitch on Shark Tank can take anywhere from 45 minutes to one hour, and sometimes longer.
How much of that time is the initial product pitch outlining the details we shared above is unclear, but the point is, don’t feel that you need to cut down the most important details to just a couple minutes. Be concise, but don’t leave out anything crucial. Whenever possible, figure out how much total time you have for the pitch ahead of time and plan accordingly.
Visuals and Storytelling
The typical Shark Tank pitch format will almost certainly include some form of visuals and storytelling, which will go hand-in-hand in some cases.
Visuals can be used to anchor your narrative and demonstrate your product. You’ve probably seen the latter countless times on Shark Tank, which brings up a key point. A visual isn’t always an image or a graph, though it can be. But it can also be a live demonstration of your product or a video showing how your service works.
These visuals can be used for storytelling, which should be a key aspect of your presentation. Facts and figures matter, but they won’t always have the same impact when presented separately from a narrative. How you implement storytelling will depend on your personal business story, but here are some ideas.
- Open with a personal hook or relatable scenario.
- Build tension with a problem many people have experience with.
- Introduce your solution as the hero of the story.
- Use testimonials or user quotes to add credibility and emotional pull.
- Close with a vision of what success looks like 3-5 years down the road.
Best Shark Tank Presentation Examples
So, with all of the above in mind, let’s take a look at some Shark Tank pitches that were a huge success.
Scrub Daddy
We’ll start with what is perhaps the biggest success story in Shark Tank history.
Why It Works:
- Engaging demo
- Clear value proposition
- Memorable branding and energy
The Bouqs Company
While Bouqs did not instantly get a deal from the sharks, the pitch was so impactful that one of them remembered the company when planning their wedding and later became an investor.
Why It Works:
- Great storytelling and emotional connection
- Strong data and proof of concept
- Clear understanding of logistics and revenue
Bombas
These days, Bombas is a well-known sock brand, but it was their Shark Tank pitch that helped get them there. It wasn’t perfect, but they hit on enough of the key elements to get them a deal.
Why It Works:
- Impact-driven mission with numbers to back it up
- Authenticity
- Clear product-market fit
Worst Shark Tank Pitch Examples
Of course, for every success story, there is a complete and utter failure. While we won’t judge these companies based on what they did outside of Shark Tank, we will judge their pitches on the show. And for that reason, “we’re out.”
I Want to Draw a Cat for You
To be fair, this has to be one of the more memorable pitches on the show. From a business standpoint, however, the pitch fell flat.
What It Got Wrong:
- Lacked business depth
- More of a novelty than clear business model
Wake ’n Bacon
While it had potential as a gag gift, this particular product didn’t get a deal due in part to a poor demonstration of how the product worked and understanding of the money needed to take it to market.
What It Got Wrong:
- Poor prototype/product demonstration
- Poor understanding of market
Throx
Maybe it’s an unpopular opinion, but you can never have enough socks. In the case of this pitch though, the product was too much of a gimmick than a seller
What It Got Wrong:
- Leaned too much into the gimmick with jokes
- Lacked a display of scalability and future planning
Shark Tank Presentation Template
Now that we’ve seen what has worked and what failed miserably, we can put our takeaways into somewhat of a Shark Tank style presentation template. From a design perspective, your presentation should include your company’s branding or at least have a modern, professional slide design. But here is how you will want to consider organizing those slides to ensure your presentation is a “Shark Tank success.”
Slide 1: Introduction and Company Overview
Name, tagline, founder info
Slide 2: The Problem
What issue are you solving
Slide 3: The Solution
Product/service overview with demo or visuals
Slide 4: Market Opportunity
Target market, size, trends
Slide 5: Business Model
How you make money, scalability
Slide 6: Traction and Financials
Revenue, growth, margins, investor history
Slide 7: The Ask
How much money are you asking for (and why) and how much equity are you selling
Slide 8: Closing
Restate the vision, thank your audience and open things up to questions
Of course, if you use this outline for your Shark Tank style presentation template but don’t want to spend all the time necessary to build out slides, we can help you. We might now know what your sales were last quarter or what your 5-year plan is, but if you give us the information, our AI PowerPoint add-in can put it all into a presentation for you. Try it out for free.
Create PowerPoint
Slides with AI
Build AI-powered presentations from
any prompt, doc, or video
