Cougar Limited Energy Drink Update | Shark Tank Season 3
Entrepreneur Ryan Custer, pitched his beverage company during
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick overview of what happened to Cougar Limited after
Ryan Custer appeared on
| Shark: | Result: |
| Barbara Corcoran | No offer |
| Daymond John | No offer |
| Robert Herjavec | No offer |
| Mark Cuban | No offer |
| Kevin O’Leary | No offer |
Shark Tank Cougar Limited Update
- Entrepreneur: Ryan Custer
- Business: Energy drinks for women
- Ask: $150,000 for 30% equity
- Result: No deal
- Shark: None
Founder of Cougar Limited, Ryan Custer, walked into the tank and introduced the sharks to what he calls the first female-specific, functional beverage. Joined by his girlfriend on the set, Ryan explains all of the benefits of his product, Cougar Energy Drink For Women.
He says that Cougar Limited contains 13 super-fruits, which he says helps with stronger hair and nails, hormonal balance support, along with other anti-aging benefits.
Additionally, he claims that the drink gives a nice boost of energy throughout the day.
Further, Ryan says that he’s trademarked ‘Cougar’, so that he can grow the business, and launch into lifestyle brand. He ultimately wants to expand beyond his energy drink, into a whole line of products.
On the set, he displayed clothing with the name on it, as an example. Daymond John expressed concerns because Ryan said he wanted to launch the brand. He questioned whether or not Ryan actually had any sales.
Robert Herjavec also wanted to know about sales at this point, and Ryan said he’d done around $60,000 in sales. However, this was ultimately during a time period of three years.
In terms of the market, his products were in the Dallas-Fort Worth area at the time of filming.
This took the sharks aback, and Daymond went out because he just wasn’t interested, and he didn’t want to waste Ryan’s time.
At this point, Barbara Corcoran took a moment to sample the product. Because there was an unpleasant, and chalky aftertaste, she immediately dropped out.
Ryan responded that the chalky taste could be the Niacin in the product, and that sometimes you have to trade taste for effect.
Mark Cuban wanted to know more specifically where the energy drinks were being sold, and Ryan said he didn’t have a permanent distribution deal. However, he had products in some 7-Elevens, a Smoothie King, where the chains were trying them out.
He also recently learned that a store in Pennsylvania had picked some up off of Amazon.
Kevin O’Leary didn’t like the fact that the drink was geared only toward women, and he didn’t like the Cougar branding either. He eventually dropped out because of the way Ryan had limited his market.
Robert wondered if women would even want to invest in the product, especially with associations behind the name.
Mark went out, because he didn’t think women would want to invest.
Robert thought it was more of a gag gift, and he couldn’t understand the valuation. He went out, and as he was the last shark in play, Ryan had to leave without a deal.
This didn’t seem to bring him down, and he said that he would continue fighting for his product, despite the sharks’ lack of enthusiasm.
Do you think he succeeded despite that? Keep reading our Cougar Limited update to find out more.
Our Cougar Limited update reveals that the product never managed to achieve widespread success, and the business closed in 2014, after clinging on to its presence online and in various retail outlets.
Since then, Ryan has moved on to other professional ventures, particularly in real estate. Hopefully he’s equally passionate about his current career since leaving behind his beverage brand.
However, this will be our final Cougar Limited update.
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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!