Transcript

00:00 First into the tank is a product that proves the old adage practice makes perfect hey sharks. My name is thomas fields and I'm the founder and ceo of grind today. I'm seeking 250 000 in exchange for 5 stake in my company. Now millions of kids each year dream of playing in the nba mark. I'm sure you were one of them. I was but whenever you get to high school. Coaches usually expect you to shoot up to 500 shots every day. But usually this takes about six hours at a time and good luck trying to find somebody to chase down your rebounds mr wonderful. It's not gonna happen that's why we created the grind machine. The world's first portable shooting machine that captures your made and missed shots automatically passes the ball back out to you and collapses down into the size of a duffel bag within 90 seconds simply set up our shooting machine under any basketball goal and bam you're ready to lock in our shooting machine rotates. 190 degrees manually pass into five positions on the court so you can train like a great athlete from anywhere along the arc. Unlike professional machines that are sold to the mavericks. Grind is made for the consumer being the lowest cost machine on the market today. So sharks who's ready to help grind develop interactive game changing products one sport at a time mark. You wanna try yeah love to now. It's uh. It's powered by pneumatics right. So this is a completely new way of passing the ball out.

01:53 So if you can stand like right there. That's about right oh oh he sucks ready sit faster. There you go what is up with that rim. I hope the league doesn't see this wow he does suck thomas. What does it retail for we retail right now for 14.95 1495 1495 okay so thomas tell me a little bit about your backstory. You wanted to be an nba player yeah absolutely so. I grew up always wanting to be a nba player and ultimately get my family to a better means right growing up. I saw my mom and my dad always you know working 5 a.m jobs night shift jobs. So my goal was to get a d1 scholarship right and go to the nba just like all the other kids well. I blew out my acl four times before. I graduated in high school wow and wow. I soon realized that that dream of getting to that next level was not gonna happen and throughout this whole process um. I realized that I was knocking on the door at the gym at five o'clock in the morning trying to use the shooting machine that my school purchased. That was six thousand dollars right and 400 pounds and I couldn't get in the gym. It wasn't accessible to me at the time right.

03:23 I tried to buy one for our house and it was like five six grand so there was no way my family was purchasing one and at that point I realized that these companies are really overlooking the market so we came into the market for 14.95 and we're the first company that started payment plan solutions for for individuals. How much money did you put into it to get it up off the ground fifteen thousand dollars and how did you earn that fifteen thousand thomas ymca shoveling mud everything that you can think of like. I was putting it all all in thomas what are your sales uh we launched march 1st of 2020. So in five months we uh pre-sowed 215 000 worth of units so that was on a kickstarter. No so we actually launched pure ecommerce on our website so what were you doing to get people to know about your product. We started completely word of mouth and as you know I in in basketball. It's a community where if somebody says something or there's a video out about it. It goes pretty viral right right so all the kids on instagram who are shooting right. They put this into an instagram video to show how they're working out all the kids that watch that think okay if they're using it. Then it's cool for me exactly.I'm not clear have they actually been shipped and are being used or is this pre-order stuff. This is pre-orders so everybody has paid us up front okay and we're delivering how many units uh 125 units and not one has been delivered yet right. This is our testing unit. We've gotten here with 215 000 in sales through a pandemic with no working capital all with one unit. Why cost you to make a unit 977. Oh wow wow right so we have roughly 35 margins.

05:01 We think that at scale we could bring that margin down and what about power if I take it to the the park yeah and just want to shoot yeah what about power so how long does the power last. It doesn't need to be plugged in but version two that's exactly okay so that's a challenge right yeah. You know that makes it more for the backyard or the bucket you have in your driveway yep right and it really doesn't help you in terms of going to the park. Some some parks actually do have outdoors yeah yeah you'd be surprised how many do look. I go out and I still shoot right because you're quarantined right. That's how I clear my head sure didn't show and shooting those baskets. Yeah trust me that's a clutter your head. I can shoot but you know there are other options that are low cost right. So there's there's just the metal rack that just yeah you know if you're just shooting and it just rolls right back down that cost a lot less now. Every basketball player will tell you they hate that well yeah. But I like fifteen hundred dollars more than I hate mark. What do you guys have with the mavericks do you have something so let me give you the comparison right so if you're outside shooting by yourself. It's gonna take about six hours to get up to 500 shots right in right versus our machine. You can do that within an hour so thomas let me take a stab at this when I you know first saw the pitch and watched mark miss basket after basket.

06:12 I thought to myself you know this is a crazy idea without any merit. But the more I heard the story and the fact that you actually sold over two hundred thousand dollars worth of them that is more impressive. This isn't a product for me though I mean but we do have a token mba owner. We keep on the side here in shark tank but I applaud you. This is a cool product means a lot not coming from you when I'm out um listen thomas. I think it's a great idea um. I think it's very useful. I'm just not a sporty girl. You know so um as an investment. It's not the right one for me so for that reason. I'm out thank you thomas i. I I got to tell you I love your story and it's so inspiring it reminds me of when I grew up a kid from the boys and girls club. I think it's fantastic.I love the name grind. I love your grit um for me. I'm having a problem with those margins and the price for those reasons. I'm out thank you look the challenges right now one the valuation okay right yeah. I'm gonna go to your margins and how many you can actually make and how many you can actually sell yeah. I love that you know just grinding all your life. That's who you are and I respect that what you've been able to accomplish is awesome um. I'm just yeah let's negotiate mark. Let's let's let's figure this out because I think this can easily go to a five to ten million dollar company. I'm not sure that's the question. I'm not sure of that right. I am. I know what no entrepreneur doesn't think so that's right yeah absolutely.

07:40 It's kind of scary to sit next to him and he's not sure and he's not buying and I'm warning him. No no let me just tell you the minute. You walk out that door with or without a deal. I'm going to buy one from my backyard. He's not here. Three sharks are out and mark is undecided about. Thomas's basketball shooting aid grind look the minute you walk out that door with or without a deal. I'm gonna buy one from my backyard. He's not here for here are you going to make an offer because I would like to address it such a good item mark yeah thomas. I think your price point is too high. I think your product is too ugly all right if my neighbor put that in their driveway. I'd kill them that's the truth. So. I don't know what you could do to make it look better. But I think it's got to look better. We're going we're going for a very mechanical well. Yesterday it looks mechanical but I'll tell you um.

08:36 I think you're a phenomenal entrepreneur. You got the whole package. I would like to uh make you an offer but I don't want to go in without. One of these sports guys okay one because I want to use their money and two because they know what they do in the sports field and I don't so. I'm anxious to see if what do you have in mind barbara. So I'm thinking. I would offer 250 for 20 percent that's not enough you don't think that's yeah. It's not hold on. I agree with my partner here mark he's going to ask you for more what do you think of mark so. If there's two of us 30 okay. I'll go with you. I like your deal two of us because let me just tell you and I know you think it's a lot you know. But it's not period of story right because barbara's skill set is her people skills and her ability with the marketing and packaging are better than mine. I'm going to make it pretty yeah. She'll make it pretty so 250k for 30 percent. I have a. I have a cap on myself right so it's up to you because it's non-negotiable non-negotiable thomas before you decide you have one of the greatest owners of the nba. I mean this is a dream offer. Let's do let's do 25 for 300. I think the valuation is is great for you guys right.I'm going to take it to a 10 million dollar company easily. In two years right you think I I'll work my tail off right. Let's get it give him a sweeter deal because I have to be a shark 250k. For the 25 percent you got to check let's get some 250 breathing room. I just did right. I just did 250k for 25 be careful. Now if you're if you're worrying about 50k then you're not valuing us thomas what are you going to do if you have to think about it. Thomas yeah.

10:33 Let's do it all right whoa. I thought you're going to walk away. Yay thank you guys love. It good job all right thanks guys well done man. I'm excited about having mark and barbara. I think we're gonna change the world if you have a dream and you see me up here. Making deals like you can go do it no matter where you're from you.