Lifebelt Update | Shark Tank Season 1
Robert Allison developed the Lifebelt because it is capable of warning drivers about wearing their seatbelt before ever turning their vehicle on. Robert hopes that a safety device like this can help save lives by reminding people to buckle up before driving a car. Let’s see whether Lifebelt was able to secure an investment of $500,000 dollars in exchange for 10% equity. We will also give you an important Lifebelt update to see what happened to the company after
Shark Tank Lifebelt Update
- Entrepreneurs: Robert Allison
- Business: Vehicle Safety / Belts
- Ask: $500,000 for 10% equity
- Result: No deal
- Sharks: None
The first thing that the sharks wanted to know was why Robert wanted to build a business rather than license the product to vehicle manufacturers. Robert said that he had initial conversations but he wasn’t confident whether those would move forward. After this, Barbara Corcoran dropped out because she had no interest in the product and didn’t see a vision for selling it.
Kevin O’Leary believed that the only asset that Robert had that contained any value was the patent. Questions still lingered between the remaining sharks on whether the patent was worth a valuation of $5 million dollars. Since that was the major point of concern, Kevin admitted that he wanted to buy the patent. He offered $500,000 dollars in exchange for the patent that was granted to Robert Allison and Lifebelt.
Robert Herjavec made an offer of $1 million dollars for the patent, doubling the value that Kevin had placed on it.
After considering the offers, Robert Allison decided to reject the offers and did not want to sell his patent. The sharks were interested in learning whether there would be any price that he could sell it for, but he declined unless his brand became a national household company installed in millions of vehicles every year.
In our Lifebelt update research, we found that Robert Allison secured a million-dollar deal with a brand known as Gillman Automotives. Lifebelt was to be produced and installed in millions of cars in exchange for millions of dollars.
However, at the time of writing, there’s no longer an indication of whether that deal is still in place. Further, it seems that the company has since gone under, as its website has been taken down and the product is no longer for sale. It looks like this will be our final Lifebelt update.
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Jeremy is a regular contributor at Shark Tank recap. He has a ton of passion for the show and enjoys researching information about what all the companies are up to now. His favorite Shark Tank companies are The Cookie Dough Cafe and Kronos Golf!