The story of Pinblock on Shark Tank
This Shark Tank episode is truly dark: Why I hated Kevin O’Leary and loved Vladislav Smolyanskyy
I often use Shark Tank clips in my classes on creativity and entrepreneurship.
Shark Tank is an American business reality TV series on ABC. The show is the American franchise of the international format Dragons’ Den (or ‘Tigers of Money’ in Japan). Shark Tank showcases entrepreneurs making business pitches and presentations to a panel of five investors. These investors are called “sharks” — they decide whether to invest in the company or not.
I have a love and hate relationship with Shark Tank.
On the one hand, I see it as a fascinating teaching tool. I believe students can learn tremendously about entrepreneurship, negotiation, pitching, and business just by watching 10–15 minutes of this program.
On the other hand, the show demonstrates cruel power dynamics, inequalities, and the worst kind of human greed — all that is wrong with capitalism gone off tracks.
The following video is a good demo and showcase of this.
This is Pinblock on Shark Tank.
You can watch it now — it is just 10 minutes:
Vlad, the entrepreneur behind Pinblock, is from Kiev (Ukraine) but currently lives in Brooklyn New York. He and his mom lost his father at a very early age. They literally lost everything and they are trying to rebuild their lives in New York.
Vlad is a very passionate entrepreneur — you can see his passion, curiosity, and enthusiasm in his eyes. He is just 21, but he is very talented and entrepreneurial. He is the inventor and creator of Pinblock — building blocks to build creativity for kids. Using Pinblock, he wants to put learning into playtime for kids.
Vlad requests $100,000 in exchange for 20% of his company. He brings the Sharks personalized gifts made out of Pinblock.
You can see the tension building up in the pitch. It is rather discomforting to see the sharks roast Vlad. They ask him about his background, revenues, packaging, costs, starter packs, toy fairs, and major retailers.
Kevin O’Leary dominates the discussions. As he sold his company to Mattel, he knows about the brutal competitive dynamics of the toy industry. Kevin offers Vlad $100,000 in exchange for 30%.
Then, all sharks declare that they are out — this is quite puzzling since they seemingly love the business and the entrepreneur. Only Kevin is left on the table.
Kevin comes up with an evil twist which adds to the drama. Since he is the only one left, he says he now has a lot more leverage. That damn Kevin. He modifies his offer. He says the only way that it would work for him now is to be a 50–50 partner with him. Devil, evil Kevin.
Watching this drama unfold, I have several thoughts at once.
- Capitalist greed is the worst kind. I want to (metaphorically) punch that evil-laughing Kevin. Mr. Wonderful — my ass. How dare he exploit the dreams, hard work, creativity of this wonderful kid?
- When you have no power, you do have no leverage or choice. The whole system is designed to exploit you. As an entrepreneur, you are dancing with the devils. Your dreams will be crushed so many times. Yet, you need to be resilient and continue your journey.
- When you do have power, your character is defined by how you treat people who are less powerful than you. Kevin has lost the battle of the soul in this case. There were some other cases/pitches where Kevin acted more graciously and generously — this dark episode was not one of them.
- We need to take Shark Tank with a grain of salt. It is aimed at attracting and capturing attention. This is show business, and I know I should not trust what my eyes see and take it for granted. Some of the elements in this show might be scripted or exaggerated. There are a lot of unknowns. We still do not know how this deal turned out to be for both sides.
- After I watched the episode, I wanted to help Vlad with all my heart. He was the underdog here. He had all the talent, creativity, and hard work. Yet, he ended up being the one exploited by the Sharks. Nevertheless, after the episode, I learned that Vlad received skyrocketing orders. This Shark Tank pitch might have done some good for him after all.
What do you think?
What did you learn from this episode?
What are your thoughts?
Further Resources:
Website: www.Pinblock.com CEO: Vladislav Smolyanskyy
Video explaining Pinblock:
ABC Press Release on the episode
Sincerely;
Fahri