all five sharks will give you a million dollars five hundred thousand from our Cuban for fifteen percent and five hundred thousand split amongst the four of us for the other fifteen percent so one million dollars for thirty percent ah Shark Tank it's the show where daring entrepreneurs present their innovative ideas for the chance to make it big and it's also the home to some of the most hilarious moments in television history from a guy wanting to capture hurricanes and use them for energy production to people touting pyramid schemes peddling socks sold in three three and
even suggesting drilling a hole into your skull so that Bluetooth earpieces can stay in place of all the ridiculous and wacky ideas throughout the show's history most just make for some quality entertainment for both the viewers and the Sharks alike some ideas however seem plausible at first glance only to turn out to be a complete waste of time later down the road and perhaps one of the most infamous examples of a pitch that initially captured the shark's attention is the Breathometer it's a no-brainer that driving while Under the Influence can have catastrophic consequences not only
for the person who's doing the driving but for anyone in general with that being said a product that lets you know if you're good to go after a night of partying or if you're better off calling an Uber for a late night pick me up it seems like a great idea introducing the Breathometer a pocket-sized device that you can plug into your cell phone's headphone jack if you're worried about alcohol levels simply exhale into it and receive an accurate measurement of your blood alcohol content on your screen it even tells you whether or not you
can can legally drive with a gadget like that you'll never have to worry about getting pulled over for DUIs ever again right well to figure out the answer to that question all we have to do is take a look at the guy who owns the company behind it meet Charles Michael Yim Charles Yim was a self-made entrepreneur from Silicon Valley who's best known for appearing on season 5 episode 2 of ABC Shark Tank where he pitched his product on the show Yim was full of confidence and tackled all questions from the Sharks effortlessly he also
claimed the device could call a cab for you with the touch of a button if it looked like you had a little too much fun that night he even let the Sharks test his device after serving them a little bit of champagne in a nutshell the product was an instant success with the sharks they all wanted to be part of it right away billionaire Mark Cuban especially seemed enthusiastic more than anyone else at least even offering 500 000 double what Charles was originally asking for in the end Yim managed to convince all five sharks to
invest total of one million dollars into Breathometer with Cuban taking a Lion's Share of the investment by putting up half of that one million bucks as for Yim the deal made him the first ever Shark Tank contestant to pull in all five sharks into a joint investment one might say they uh they took the bait [Music] with five shrewd business that seemed as though the Breathometer success was inevitable however reviews of its Effectiveness were conflicting customer reviews began to pop up describing the Breathometer as nothing more than a fun party game and stating that no
one should rely on its results as proof that they're safe to drive and sure enough in 2017 the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against Breathometer for allegedly misrepresenting their products efficacy They concluded that Breathometer lacked any scientific evidence to support its bold advertising statements stating that the product had a habit of understating the blood alcohol content levels and that despite learning of these issues in late 2014 Breathometer continued selling their product also Breathometer was marketed to Consumers with reportedly false claims that it had gone through government lab grade testing and was a law enforcement
grade product according to the FTC both of these statements were unfounded needless to say overstay stating the accuracy of a product like this was pretty reckless can you imagine if someone went to jail or worse yet hurt somebody all because this little smartphone doohickey told him he was gonna be good to go after Downing five glasses of champagne Breathometer eventually settled with the FTC after being ordered to stop making up accuracy claims and less rigorous testing is there to back it up oh and they had to refund everybody who bought any of their products the
question is while all of this was going on where was Charles him well he was partying mostly in Vegas and hanging out with Richard Branson on Necker Island long story short after looking up Yim social media the Sharks were not happy at all Mark Cuban in particular you know the guy who initially wanted the pitch all to himself was the angriest of the bunch I texted him like what the are you doing you're supposed to be working yim's reply would be that he was networking on behalf of the business you heard that right networking meanwhile
yim's company was losing money like crazy which was all exacerbated further by the FTC Fiasco that we discussed earlier next thing you know all the money's gone Mark said in response to Cuban's allegations Yin publicly stated that all the partying was in fact part of his ingenious networking strategy even claiming that his trip to Necker Island was to pitch his product to Richard Branson a pitch that according to Yim at least was successful I wouldn't put down the pitchforks and call him a goody two shoes just yet because apparently he had already begun his plans
of abandoning Breathometer all the way back in 2016. before his product line was taken off shelves when the whole FTC lawsuit thing unfolded Yim was partnering up with Phillips to work on another product called mint this time the goal was to create a device that could let you know whether or not your breath stank by measuring levels of sulfur in your mouth the mint was released in mid-2016 and five years later it was taken off Amazon all right now that our story here has reached its final chapter let's talk about the reality of shark shall
we look in my opinion shark tank is more of an ad that is masquerading as a TV show you get on the show you sell some of your products but in no way is it guaranteeing any sort of success it's really just for entertainment in fact you don't have to take my word for it in a 2016 survey by Forbes it was discovered that 73 of people who appeared on the show and actually secured a deal rarely got what they originally bargained for as the Sharks would often change their minds about a deal or sometimes
just cancel it entirely naturally this Edge Cuts both ways and the Sharks would also get screwed over on occasion by some of the contestants today's video being a clear example Mark Cuban estimates that only about 25 percent of his Shark Tank Investments became wildly successful 50 of them performed adequately and 25 percent were colossal failures the billionaire Mogul made a staggering 200 deals worth over 61 million dollars on the show as estimated by an online line source and in July of 2022 Cuban told the full send podcast that all in all he come out of
all those Investments he made on the show with a net loss I mean hey every investor inevitably encounters Investments that just don't pan out it's just part of the game but even when a billionaire business Mastermind is getting screwed over left and right like this by random nobodies really makes you think about how it's a doggy dog world out there and no one's safe anyway that about wraps it up folks I guess the moral of the story is uh don't drink and drive or something [Music] foreign [Music]
