Pair Eyewear Update | Shark Tank Season 11
Kids hate wearing their glasses. Worse, they often get lost or broken, which is a shame considering how expensive kids’ glasses are. Thankfully, entrepreneurs Nathan Kondamuri and Sophia Edelstein have set out to change that with Pair Eyewear. Will the sharks love this stylish Season 11 pitch? Find out in our
Shark Tank Pair Eyewear Update
- Entrepreneur: Nathan Kondamuri and Sophia Edelstein
- Business: Customizable children’s glasses
- Ask: $400,000 for 10% equity
- Result: $400,000 for 10% equity and $1.50/unit royalty until $400,000
- Shark: Lori Greiner and Katrina Lake
Nathan Kondamuri and Sophia Edelstein met at Stanford and quickly came up with the idea for Pair Eyewear after discussing how much Nathan hated wearing glasses as a child. The goal is to create a customizable pair of glasses that kids will want to wear, with stylish options that clip right on top of prescription eyeglasses.
They also want to make them at a lower cost than most large optics retailers, and sell them completely online. The $95 base frame price includes anti-glare and anti-scratch coating, and each magnetic ‘top’ sells for about $25.
The product is rock solid, but the sharks are more concerned with the numbers, of course. Kevin O’Leary is particularly concerned about the eyeglass market, as about 80% of the market is monopolized by a single company. The entrepreneurs respond by talking about their market tests, how they’ve raised money, and how they’ve bootstrapped the company from the beginning.
They have $100,000 in the last eight months, but they are dangerously low on funds. They explain to the sharks that their money went to development, operations expenses, legal costs, FDA costs, and patents.
The funding situation scares a few of the sharks off immediately. Robert Herjavec doesn’t think it’s a stand-alone company, so he drops out. Kevin doesn’t think the concept is safe even with a patent, and he doesn’t like the sales numbers. He drops out as well.
Mark Cuban is the next to go because of the capital issue. They’re already fundraising again, and he isn’t down for a potential fight with venture capitalists.
That leaves guest shark Katrina Lake and Lori Greiner, who decide that they might want to go in on a deal together. They offer $400,000 for 10% equity and a $2 royalty per unit until they earn back their investment. The entrepreneurs don’t want a royalty deal and offer a 2% advisory share instead.
Katrina and Lori aren’t thrilled with this idea. Due to the risk, it’s not really realistic to take advisory shares. Sensing that they are about to lose their deal, the entrepreneurs respond with a $1 per unit royalty instead. Lori counters to $1.50 royalty, and the entrepreneurs agree. Is this a great deal, or will the entrepreneurs be struck with the old ‘hindsight is 20/20’ situation? Read on in our
Pair Eyewear is actually doing quite well for itself after
During our Pair Eyewear update research, we found that the company is doing about $9 million per year. Those are great sales, even with the debts they have from investors. Still, there are plenty of frames and ‘tops’ available, and the licensing was a solid move for them.
You can find the other company updates from Season 11 Episode 14 here:
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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!