Every great entertainment enterprise has an annual awards show. ESPN has the ESPY Awards, Broadway has the Tony Awards, and TV has the Emmy Awards. The Shark Tank TV show now has The Sharky Awards (click http://wp.me/2Bdpz to see this year’s winners and losers).
Each week in Season 4, Sharky Awards were given to the best performing entrepreneurs appearing in each episode. These winners were not necessarily the contestants receiving funding from the Sharks, they were the entrepreneurs that gave the best presentations, had created the best business models, had gained the most traction, etc.
Since the objective of my blog is to educate current and future entrepreneurs, I am highlighting “the worst of” in several categories…… not to demean or belittle the participants, but to point out opportunities for improvement. We all learn more from our weak performances than from our strong ones. Becoming a successful entrepreneur is much the same……an ongoing learning process.
Season 4 of Shark Tank featured some excellent entrepreneurs, but this season was somewhat predictable. For example, 20 of the 26 episodes had exactly two entrepreneurs receiving investments. Also, to use a baseball analogy, there were lots of singles’ hitters but not as many Homerun hitters as in previous seasons. Big-time, established entrepreneurs such as James Martin with Copa Di Vino and Scott Jordan of Technology Enabled Clothing (Season 3) were nowhere to be found.
That said, Season 4 featured a “much deeper bench” of entrepreneurs than in Season 3. There were more entrepreneurs/contestants that had actually started businesses and had generated some revenue. In fact, many of them were profitable. Having some actual sales and profit/loss history is very important to the Sharks or any other investor.
One of the great aspects of Season 4 was the introduction of more young entrepreneurs (in some cases with help from parents) who have started real businesses and have shown results. They added a lot to Season 4.
With 26 episodes in Season 4, I had no problem finding candidates for my Best and Worst of Shark Tank Awards. The Best will receive Season 4 Sharky Awards. The Worst will be left with Shark Chum.
Season 4 Sharky Awards
The Season 4 award categories are:
-Best Presentation by an Entrepreneur
-Best Presentation by an Entrepreneur (Youth Division)
-Worst Presentation by an Entrepreneur
-Best Shark Tank episode
-Worst Shark Tank episode
-Most Intriguing Entrepreneur
-Best Performance by a Shark
-Worst Performance by a Shark
-Season 4 Shark of the Year Award
Any comments or suggestions? Who was your favorite (and least favorite) entrepreneur and Shark in Season 4? It’s not too late. I’d love to hear your ideas!
The results will be announced and the presentations will be made to the winners (and losers) on Friday, August 30th. Stay tuned!
TimMcEneny 