Shark Tank investors have a few soft spots that entrepreneurs can sometimes hit, but none of the wealthy Sharks ever invest on emotion alone. Yet there are some stories that have just about everything–emotion and market potential–the Sharks want. Bottle Breacher is one of them. Ingredients: a married couple with two children staking their future on a business they invented. The married couple, Eli and Jen, are both ex-military. He’s a Navy SEAL, but not one of those no-scars types. He’s humble, but determined. He didn’t make it in SEAL training the first time. Spent two years at sea before he nailed it on his second chance. He served three tours in Iraq. What’s the product? A bottle opener. That’s it? Yes, but there’s a catch: it’s beautifully crafted and made of 50 caliber ammunition, the same stuff these entrepreneurs used to use on the job–defending America.
Okay, say the Sharks, that’s a beautiful story, we’re impressed and thank you for your service. Now what about sales? Lots of stories go limp right at this moment. But not Bottle Breacher: how about they did a half million dollars so far this year, just on the Internet? Now Mark Cuban and Mr. Wonderful are really listening. It’s a niche product–not for Lori Grenier–but the entrepreneurs just proved there’s a market for it. Groomsmen’s gifts and such. The personalized engraving is a winner. And the name–that’s cool too. A breacher is a real job for a SEAL. It’s the guy that goes in the door first, the guy that opens things, the dangerous position of breaching the enemy’s stronghold. “Breacher is a real job, like a sniper,” Eli the SEAL says. That SEALed, so to speak, the deal. Bottle Breacher, it turns out, opens more than just bottles–it opens the investors’ wallets. Cool. Shark Tank at its best. Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary invested in the business.
[Related: 27 All-Time Favorite ‘Shark Tank’ Products at Amazon]
