Pitching a Business to Investors

Shark Tank
The type of business that Jake is pitching to the sharks is a restaurant business that is a cultural blend of Asian (Korean) and Mexican food: Jake calls it Chi’Lantro and it serves Korean BBQ tacos out of food trucks and restaurants. The entrepreneur’s offer is 15% of his business for $600,000.
4 of the 5 sharks passed on the offer. One said that he was not into growth capital but rather was into helping to launch a new idea: he did not see Chi’Lantro as really being a new idea, so he passed. Another said he did not like investing in restaurants because of the constraints on the business model—such as location (if location is not good, the business suffers and that eats at the investment). Two others said they did not like investing in restaurants because there is too much risk, too much involvement that is required, and just not something they were into doing. Finally, the last shark—Barbara—had had some positive experiences with investing in restaurants and had helped franchise a successful restaurant in the past. She liked Jake’s attitude, his drive, his food, and his concept—so she invested and was the only one of the sharks to bite. She did, however, ask for 30% of the company.
Barbara was thanked by Jake for her offer, but 30% was too much for him to yield up, so he countered with 20%. Barbara thought about it for a minute and accepted. So Jake got his $600,000 investment for just 5% more than he was initially prepared to offer—all in all, a good deal for him—especially considering Barbara’s experience and background in successfully franchising a restaurant. In Barbara, he was not only getting an investor but someone who knew how to grow a restaurant and make it very successful for everyone.
The most interesting thing about the pitch of Jake’s proposal was his food, which was a nice blend of Asian cuisine and fast food: it had a hip, urban, street vibe to it that was also cultured and appealing. Jake showed that he had experience, was able to save money and grow his business (Mark commended him for this, in fact). I also found Jake’s enthusiasm to be honest and pleasant and it showed that he was willing to work hard and do a good job. From his pitch, I learned that integrity and authenticity are what really help to sell a product to investors—and Jake had integrity and his food was authentic. His business looked attractive to Barbara who actually knew a good restaurant concept when she saw one, and so she bought in. Undoubtedly, this will be a good investment for her—especially since she walks away with a 20% stake for only $600,000.
If I was an investor, I would have invested in this business prospect—and I especially would have invested (or even doubled my investment) once I saw that Barbara was on board, too. Her background in helping to run a successful franchise would give me confidence that my investment was in good hands—but even if she did not bite, I liked the truck model concept and view this as a great way for a restaurant to reduce overhead while launching its brand across a region.
I would recommend that Jake go further with the truck model concept because, as one of the sharks mentioned, location really is everything in the restaurant business. The brick and mortar concept locks you in to a single place, whereas the truck concept allows you to roam around a region and find the best spot for business (plus it cuts down on red tape that must be followed with the brick and mortar business model). Instead of sinking all of that $600,000 into a new brick and mortar location, I would use it to buy two new trucks and send them out into two new regions to help spread the franchise brand.