Define Bottle Update | Shark Tank Season 5
15-year-old Carter Kostler claims his flavor-infusing water bottle can help Americans kick their canned soft drink habit. Will the sharks agree, and give him a deal on
Shark Tank Define Bottle Update
- Entrepreneurs: Carter Kostler
- Business: Water bottle with fruit infusion feature
- Ask: $100,000 in exchange for 20%
- Result: No deal
- Sharks: None
When Carter was 13, he created a water bottle for his mom that infused her water with fruit, so she could hydrate healthfully on the go. His Define Bottle product features a re-freezable disk in the bottom to keep the beverage cold, a separate chamber to keep the fruit at the bottom, a vessel for the water, and a flip cap.
In the four months prior to filming, Carter had $65,000 in sales, both online and in retail stores, including Whole Foods. His bottles retailed for $30, and cost him $10 to make. Carter said he acquired the retailers by cold-calling them himself. When he first spoke to Whole Foods, they invited him to sell his bottles at their upcoming farmer’s market. There, Carter sold $1,000 worth of bottles within three hours.
Carter’s online traffic came from his infused-water recipe blog, which he strategically created to draw potential customers and sell them on his bottle. Of those 2,000 daily visitors, though, only 5% become customers.
The sharks asked Carter if his sales were low because he had competition, and while he admitted this to be true, he said his bottle was a better product. Lori Greiner told Carter that there were many competitors selling bottles with the same function for much less, so she was out. Kevin O’Leary went out for the same reason.
Barbara Corcoran told him the company was not investable for her, so went out next. Robert Herjavec made Carter an offer of $100,000 in exchange for 40% equity, due to the high risk. Carter went backstage to talk to his parents, but they told him that the company was worth more than that due to the money they already invested in tooling and inventory, coupled with the $65,000 in sales.
Carter came back and told the sharks that his company was worth $500,000 and asked Robert to come down to 30%. Robert declined, saying the company was already in a precarious state. Mark Cuban told Carter he was trying to find a way to say yes, but because Carter hadn’t done much homework on the competition, he was the last shark out.
Carter walked away without a deal, but what do you think became of his company? Keep reading our Define Bottle update to find out!
We have mixed news to share. Carter’s company really took off after the show, selling his product on HSN, at Target and Dick’s Sporting Goods. The company even earned enough money to repay his parents’ $300,000 mortgage, and have some left over. Despite this, becoming a local celebrity in high school had its drawbacks, and in 2016, Carter shut down his company, going on to serve as a U.S. Marine. This will be our final Define Bottle 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!