Zoobean Books Update | Shark Tank Season 5
Felix Lloyd and Jordan Lloyd Bookey are educators who have curated a large selection of children’s books that can be sorted by out-of-the-ordinary filters. Will they earn a deal on
Shark Tank Zoobean Update
- Entrepreneurs: Felix Lloyd, Jordan Lloyd Bookey
- Business: Children’s book subscription service
- Ask: $250,000 in exchange for 15% equity
- Result: $250,000 in exchange for 25%
- Sharks: Mark Cuban
Two things set Felix and Jordan’s company Zoobean apart from other online booksellers. For one, users could enable unique filters that other platforms didn’t have. For example, there was a filter for books with interracial families, and a filter for little girls who weren’t into the pink princess-y scene. Once the user tweaked the profile to their liking, they could then subscribe to books within those parameters.
It cost the company about $6 to acquire a customer, with most of the end consumers being kids between the ages of 3-8 years-old. At the time of their
Lori Greiner told the couple that the only difference between their service and a company like Amazon was that their filters were more specific, so she was out. Though Barbara Corcoran could relate to the concept, as she struggled to find books on adoption for her adopted daughter, she agreed with Lori and also went out.
Robert Herjavec was the next to go out, as he didn’t see a need for the product. Kevin O’Leary felt customer acquisition would eat too much into the company’s revenue stream, so he was out.
Luckily Mark Cuban was interested, and offered $250,000 in exchange for 30% equity. Felix got him to come down to 25% equity, and the company walked away with a deal. What happened next? Keep reading our Zoobean update to find out!
We have great news to share in our Zoobean update! We’re happy to report that the company is still in business, and in 2022, they hit $2.4 million in revenue. The company’s technology has adapted to accommodate the changing market, and they named their new technology Beanstack. Today, Beanstack boasts 8.9 million young readers, and the platform is used by 2,400 library systems and 3,000 schools.
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Andrew Smith is the founder and owner of Shark Tank Recap. He is a longtime Shark Tank fan that has been watching it for years and has seen every episode multiple times. His friends know him as the Shark Tank expert, because he can answer any question about the show! His favorite Shark Tank products are Bertello's pizza oven and Bug Bite Thing!