A VC’s take on the Season 5 premier of Sharktank

Post by gfodor » Sun, Sep 22, 2013, 1:47 AM UTC

cehrnrooth wrote: post #17

gfodor wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a pretty cool idea. I had considered it but not deeply enough in that it would likely increase the rate at which customers ended up returning which is the key metric. I might give it a shot, since it's easy. The only reason I'm skeptical is that I'm already contacting people after a few days to follow up with them how their order went, so I'm unsure how much more upside there is to interacting with senders mo…

Additional thought, you could put a unique promo code on the senders copy (code tied to their account) where if they buy X credits they get Z free.

Post by mhb » Sun, Sep 22, 2013, 5:26 AM UTC

gfodor wrote: post #15

cehrnrooth wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming the marginal cost of printing an extra card is fairly small, have you considered sending a copy of the card to the sender? Unless the recipient provides some sort of feedback the sender doesn't really get anything to show for it. This could also let the sender see the quality of product sent. You could limit it to just the first card sent to limit your cost increase.

This is a pretty cool idea. I had considered it but not deeply enough in that it would likely increase the rate at which customers ended up returning which is the key metric. I might give it a shot, since it's easy. The only reason I'm skeptical is that I'm already contacting people after a few days to follow up with them how their order went, so I'm unsure how much more upside there is to interacting with senders mo…

Post by dham » Sun, Sep 22, 2013, 2:05 PM UTC

jonnathanson wrote: post #30

adventured wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've watched Shark Tank from the first season. The radical majority of Cuban's deals in fact are minority positions. He very rarely buys controlling stakes. His most valuable asset is time, and he's already loaded up on investments. He doesn't want to run the companies, so most of the time he prefers to retain the entrepreneurs or not invest, and he makes that clear routinely on Shark Tank. Kevin is the shark that mo…

You're probably right. I thew Cuban's name out there as a random example, and I probably shouldn't have. That said, I've seen most of the show (perhaps not much of the first season, but most of the series since then), and I would guess buyout -- or at least buy-to-flip -- deals are the majority and not the exceptions.