Pluto Pillow Update | Shark Tank Season 12

Kevin Li and Susana Saeliu appeared in Season 12 of Shark Tank, seeking a $400,000 investment for a 5% stake in their company, Pluto Pillow. Unfortunately, despite receiving an offer from a shark, the two walked away without a deal. We’ll talk more about what happened and what has happened since in our Pluto Pillow update.

Shark Tank Pluto Pillow Update

• Entrepreneur: Susana Saeliu and Kevin Li
• Business: Customizable pillow for different sleeping styles
• Ask: $400,000 for 5% equity
• Result: No deal
• Shark: None

After waking up with a stiff neck one morning, Susana decided it was time to look for a new pillow. Unfortunately, she just could not seem to find the right one, so she decided to ask for Li’s help. One thing led to another and Pluto Pillow was founded in 2018.

Using data from sleep experts, physical therapists, and of course, the consumers, Susana and Li sought to create the perfect pillow. The result was a company that used a patented algorithm to create custom hand-made pillows based on what their customer needed and wanted with a 100-night return policy.

After they presented their own custom pillows to the sharks based on each shark’s pillow preferences, the two decided to get into the nitty and gritty parts of the business. According to their presentation, the return rates of their products were low and the company had sold an increasing amount of products per year. In 2018, Pluto Pillow did $197,000 in sales. In 2019, it was at $473,000, and halfway through 2020, Pluto Pillow was already doing $490,000 in sales.

Naturally, this got the shark’s attention, until they revealed that it cost around $18 to ship each pillow and around $25 to $30 to manufacture. Following this revelation, Lori Greiner said that it was a very competitive space and dropped out. Mark Cuban also went out but did advise the two to try and build pillows ahead of time using previous sales and data collected. Daniel Lubetzky also went out after saying that he felt the business was not unique enough, followed by Kevin O’Leary who did not like the valuation.

The only one who made an offer was Robert Herjavec, who offered $400,000 for 20% equity. He said that believed that the two could overcome the current problems that the business was facing and suggested that he could help Pluto Pillow get to where they want it to go in the future. But, because of the high equity ask, Susana and Kevin declined the offer.

Despite walking away from Shark Tank without a deal, we do have some good news in our Pluto Pillow update. It seems that consumers are loving the product, as it has an average of 4.8 stars based on 1,186 reviews. So it seems like things are trending in the right direction. Also, there is no doubt that the company got a surge of sales and publicity when they aired on Shark Tank.

We can only imagine that Susana and Kevin’s company is only going to get bigger by the time that we do our next Pluto Pillow update.

For more updates on companies featured on Shark Tank Season 12 Episode 24, be sure to check out:

• Fling Golf Update
• Float ‘N’ Grill Update
• The Original Stretchlace Update

For more on Shark Tank Season 12, be sure to check out our Season 12 Products page!