FuzziBunz Cloth Diapers Update | Season 4
Disposable diapers have a negative ecological impact, so Tereson Dunphy created eco-friendly, reusable diapers. Will she earn a deal on
Shark Tank FuzziBunz Update
- Entrepreneur: Tereson Dunphy
- Business: Eco-friendly, reusable diapers
- Ask: $500,000 for 15% equity
- Result: No deal
- Shark: None
Tereson has come up with a reusable solution to disposable diapers with her company, FuzziBunz. She brought a giant pile of trash to
The sharks inquired about her sales and learned that she had sold $24 million since the product’s launch 12 years prior, including an impressive $3.9 million just in the past year.
All of this was done with no marketing whatsoever beyond word of mouth.
Despite these incredible numbers, Tereson revealed that, of the $3.9 million, she would collect a mere $20,000 in profit. The sharks were stunned, and Robert Herjavec asked for an explanation.
At this point, Tereson shared that she had difficulties with her overseas manufacturer in China, who created an identical knock-off to act as her direct competitor.
As such, she was enjoying an estimated 30% of the market and was embroiled in various lawsuits trying to protect her intellectual property.
Kevin O’Leary chimed in that she would need a team of heavy-hitting lawyers to reclaim what was rightfully hers and license it so that she receives a take of every competitor’s product in the space.
Mark Cuban strongly contested this, saying that Kevin was wrong and that the only way to beat the competition was to outperform and “out-compete” them.
Turned off by the direction of the pitch, Mark went out, stating that Tereson’s been talking to “too many Kevins.”
Barbara Corcoran spoke up at this time, stating that she saw hints of herself in Tereson. Unfortunately, it didn’t offer her a strong position to become an investor, so she too was out.
Daymond John simply shook his head at this juncture and said that, like an onion, the more layers they peeled back on this legal fiasco, the less interested he was, and he was out too.
Robert was next to go out, citing that he prefers investing in businesses “on the upswing” rather than those searching for “a lifeline.”
As Kevin loves saying, all roads lead back to Mr. Wonderful, but there was nothing wonderful on his end either. He said he did not want to join her on the long and arduous road ahead, so for that reason, he was out.
Tereson may have left
In our FuzziBunz update research, we found that Tereson remained at odds with the competitors and hired a new patent attorney to help go after the knock-offs.
Unfortunately, it was a fruitless endeavor and never resulted in removing them from the space or coercing them to enter a licensing agreement as Kevin had suggested.
Sadly, FuzziBunz closed in September 2018. This will be our final FuzziBunz update.
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Jennifer is an avid Shark Tank fan that has been watching the show for years. She serves as Senior Editor at Shark Tank Recap and ensures that all our information is accurate and that our posts are up to date. Her favorite Shark Tank products are Le-Glue and Ring!