Shark Tank Exercise
I met with a couple of guys a few weeks ago. They have a business idea they were pitching. As I started asking questions, I felt a little like one of the investors on the ABC television series Shark Tank, only without a big checkbook!
I wanted to find a way to add value, though. So thinking about Shark Tank gave me an idea. Instead of trying to think of all the questions they need to be asking themselves, I decided to try to let the show lead them in the right direction. So I sent them this email.
Hi Guys!
Thanks for inviting me to meet with you today. I found the concept you’re exploring very interesting, and I hope that I can help you guys take next steps.
Here’s some more information on your “homework.” Again, the goal of this exercise is to watch some episodes of Shark Tank to get a feel for the kinds of questions investors ask. Right now, you guys are the investors in your own product, so this will help you understand the kinds of questions you should be asking yourselves before investing another dollar. Then, as future ideas and opportunities come your way, you should have a good handle on the kinds of questions you’ll want to ask before getting involved. We’ll want to brainstorm product questions that would be specific to your product or products, but that’s a different exercise. For now, let’s focus on the business model questions.
Here’s a link where you can stream the show for free: https://abc.go.com/shows/shark-tank/episode-guide
As you watch, you’ll notice that the Sharks will ask a lot of questions. Don’t get bogged down with completely irrelevant questions, or questions that are hyper-specific to a product. It’s still a good exercise to write them all down, but if you try to catch every single question, it’s going to take you a LONG time to get through an episode, much less five. (I did that, or tried to, on my test case, just so you guys would have an example to follow. It took me about 15 to 20 minutes, I think.)
So, go ahead and watch five episodes, because you can glean a lot just by watching. Then instead of writing down the questions from every pitch in all five episodes, just pick five total pitches (about one per episode, or every pitch from an entire episode) and write down the questions from those. If each of you does that, it should give you enough question samples to get a good feel for the kinds of questions we’ll need to be able to answer about your product/business.
It was helpful to write them down all together, as a list, then categorize them afterward by copy/pasting them under the appropriate heading. Here’s how you should group them:
THIS QUESTION DOESN’T APPLY TO OUR BUSINESS AND OTHER GENERAL STATEMENTS
THIS QUESTION MIGHT APPLY, BUT I DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER
I DON’T UNDERSTAND THE QUESTION (We can discuss these)
THIS QUESTION APPLIES OR MIGHT APPLY TO OUR BUSINESS AND HERE’S MY ANSWER
Does this all make sense to you guys? Are you up for it?
Please let me know if you have any questions. Then let me know when you’re ready to have another conversation.
I hope this is a fruitful exercise for you. And maybe a little fun!
Talk soon!
The resulting discussion was interesting, to say the least.
Maybe this exercise would be worthwhile in your organization? Even as a nonprofit, we still have to think about our customers and investors (donors), and see things from their point of view. Maybe this approach could help you find your next breakthrough?