Safe Grabs Microwave Mat Update | Shark Tank Season 8
Back in
Cyndi Lee would come into the
Safe Grabs Update After Shark Tank
- Entrepreneur: Cyndi Lee
- Business: Multi-purpose BPA free kitchen tool
- Ask: $75,000 for 12% equity
- Result: $75,000 for 25% equity
- Shark: Lori Greiner
Proving that necessity is indeed the mother of invention, Cyndi Lee, who hails from Houston, Texas, created Safe Grabs to address a problem that she has always had. She created a versatile kitchen accessory that anyone can use for a variety of purposes. If you’re like her, you can use Safe Grabs as a towel substitute when getting hot dishes out of the microwave. Safe Grabs can also be used as a splatter guard, trivet, pot cover, and a gripper to open lids on jars!
- AS SEEN ON SHARK TANK: Safe Grabs is the ORIGINAL heat-resistant multi-purpose silicone microwave mat.
- SAFE & EASY: Made from food grade silicone, BPA free, dishwasher safe, heat resistant to 475°F, non-slip and naturally non-stick.
Heading into the
Soon after Cyndi handed out the samples, the sharks took no time chomping down on the nitty and gritty of Safe Grabs. All throughout her presentation, Cyndi appeared upbeat, enthusiastic, and professional. However, despite the 10-inch version selling for $12.85 and costing only $2.75 to make, Cyndi revealed that she was barely breaking even.
What made matters worse was Cyndi was also still in the process of patenting the flexibility of Safe Grabs. Although it was the only product of its kind made out of silicone on the market, there were already other similar products.
With that said, four out of five sharks dropped out in relatively quick succession. Mark Cuban reasoned that he felt like Safe Grabs lacked growth potential. Soon after, Barbara Corcoran also dropped out after agreeing with Mark’s sentiments. Meanwhile, Kevin O’Leary offered some advice about the packaging of Safe Grabs. He also added that the product would be great on QVC before backing out followed by Robert Herjavec, who threw praise at Cyndi before explaining that he just wasn’t personally interested in the product.
With four sharks out, it all boiled down to whether or not Lori was interested. Lucky for Cyndi, Safe Grabs did pique Lori’s curiosity. In particular, Lori believed that she could help Cyndi get Safe Grabs into large retail outlets like Target and Bed Bath and Beyond. She also explained how she was willing to provide the necessary funding for future purchase orders. But, she felt that she needed to ask for a 30% stake as compensation for the value that she could bring to Safe Grabs.
After going back and forth, Lori and Cyndi eventually agreed to a 25% equity deal for $75,000.
Fast forward today in our Safe Grabs update, and it seems like the other sharks were right. Lori and her connection with QVC made her the ideal shark for Safe Grabs. It didn’t take long after securing the deal for Cyndi to appear on QVC. She went on to sell more than $300,000 worth of silicone mats in 10 minutes.
A year later, Cyndi provided a Safe Grabs update in her return to
Thanks to her Safe Grabs update, we found out that Cyndi no longer lives with her parents and she no longer has debt.
In the meantime, be sure to check out some of our other Season 8 Episode 5 company updates:
For more Season 8 company updates, be sure to check out our Season 8 products page.
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!