Roominate Wants To Inspire The Next Generation Of Young Females in STEM | Shark Tank US

First into the tank is a product Designed to inspire young girls to Expand their Horizons [Music] Hi sharks my name is Alice Brooks and my Name is Bettina Chen and we're from Palo Alto California our company is ruminate And we are seeking five hundred thousand Dollars in exchange for five percent of Our company Our mission is to power the next Generation of female engineers and Innovators Sharks we'd like you to think back to Your childhoods do you remember your Favorite toys and did any of those toys Influence your success today Barbara What If instead of making a real estate Deal in a board game you're able to Build your own high-rise and Lori Instead of drawing an idea with a crayon What if you were able to build a Prototype imagine how young you would Have been when you were issued your First patent introducing ruminate toys To inspire the next generation of Innovation ruminate is a new and Revolutionary wired building system for Girls aged six and up let's show you how It works First you start by building the Structure with three stories balconies Even spiral staircases and the best part About ruminators the working circuit why

Are everything from spinning windmills To merry-go-rounds even elevators and Make it all light up We already have a community of thousands Of girls and boys we call ruminators our Ruminators make amazing Creations that We never would have dreamed of making Everything from the Golden Gate Bridge To a car wash even a rocket ship we also Have some special roommates to pass out To each of you our ruminators helped us Create some terrific so for you mark of Course we made you the Mavericks court With a private plane to get you there With the private plan of course Barbara Our ruminators thought that a Swanky Manhattan condo would be perfect for you A bit cheaper than I pay for them there And Mr Wonderful we've all heard your Ice cream shop story so we our remainers Helped us build you an ice cream shop Let's see Kevin what does it do this is The ice cream store I got fired in so I'm going to set this on fire And then Lori our remediators helped us Make you a QVC set and all these Creations have a circuit in there so if You press the red button it will Activate it and Robert you know you love Racing cars so they helped us make you a Racetrack thank you can I see one of the Packages so I can I can see how it's Packaged does the car go around you can Push it around

What makes this different from Legos so It's all about open-ended play so we Give them inspiration and we give them Ideas but ultimately it's up to the kids To decide what they want to build how Did you guys come up with this well I Study mechanical engineering at MIT in Stanford I study electrical engineering At Caltech and Stanford so we got to Stanford the two of us and we became Friends right away because we were two Of the only women there in engineering And that got us talking you know we Realized that our Common Thread was that We've both been inspired by things that We've played with when we were younger And for me it was when I was eight years Old I asked my dad can Santa Claus bring Me a Barbie this year and he said no and Instead I got my own saw so I got dolls And dollhouses out of wood and nails and I just that just started my love of Engineering right there did you have a Natural interest to build things or did Your dad push you that way I think that All kids are open to all different sorts Of things the problem right now for Girls is that we're not exposing them to More options so we're missing out on Half of the potential product designers Computer programmers right now and it's Important for all of us that we can get Girls doing these sorts of things what Are your sales you have 1.7 million

Dollars in sales today this this Calendar year and and just a little more Than a year and a half so this year what Were you doing this year we will do 5 Million in sales right now we're already At a million wow that's absolutely by The way others have tried to do this in This space and failed miserably so I Want to hear how you've got distribution So at Toys R Us we'll be in all 596 Stores to start Radio Shack will be in 1500 stores we have deals with Barnes And Noble Michaels Nordstrom we're also Expanding to Canada this year but let's Talk about the breakdown of sales per Store what is your turnaround how many Do you sell so we'll be in the stores Starting in the fall yeah You've sold 1.7 million where are you Making those sales in other online Channels um Amazon is a big one for us Basically last year we were primarily Online and last year we did 540 000 in Sales are you getting any sales for boys Though because it doesn't yeah we do Have boys playing with it too is it Gender specific on your opening comments I thought it was a product targeted to Developing young girls yes we've made it Gender specific in that you can start by Making a dollhouse but boys have come to Us and boys are playing with it what Does it sell for so we have multiple Products the one that you have in front

Of you now that's the studio that sells For 29.99 what does it cost you to make It cost us 8.75 to make what do you sell It to the store for So with retailers it ranges from 1650 to 24. I'm looking at your sales this year Let's say 5 million that means about a Million dollars will be tied up in Inventory you must have brought on some Investors by this point to carry this Right yes we've taken 850 000 in Investment so we be on the rest of it The valuation was at 6 million 6 million I mean I gotta tell you you've done Something remarkable toy industry is Brutally competitive I mean everybody Else has failed everybody I wonder what The sell-through is going to be that's Going to be the question you really put The whole company on the line then Didn't you because if you don't sell Through You're dead We'll be paid regardless and we also Have close relationship Higher congratulations for getting this Amount of distribution but now I have to Balance do I pay because I'm so enamored With the growth potential before I go Through one seasonal cycle so in the toy Industry your whole future is this Holiday So if you don't sell through Your screwed

So the problem I'm having with your deal Is I'm being asked to pay for Success Before I know it's certainty I have it I'm a pragmatic investor that Unfortunately knows everything about Toys everything and everything else Absolutely I know so to buy this Valuation now which is extreme scratch For me I'm not going to do it I'm out Well I think looking at how much we've Grown started for our very first year we Did 174 000 in Revenue last year we did 540 this year we're on track for 5 Million if they sell through And the next year we'll also be Expanding internationally that Conservatively is 12 to 13 million Here's what bugs me about this when you First started your pitched I lit up a Toy for girls and yet I looked at your Little package if there's not the word Girl on there it's just a smiley girl Face but it doesn't say anything about Girls I feel like you weren't loyal to Your original position girls see this Package they know it's for them but you Don't need to Pander to them and push it Down their throat why not drive it home And Target it right to that sweet spot Your only point of difference really Between your product and the rest of the Dozens out there is that this is for the Little girl and somehow you didn't Communicate that well and so it felt

Disappointing to me and so for that Reason amount Guys Um you know growing up in Pittsburgh my Dad did upholstery on cars if you had Told me I'd have this net worth I would Have laughed at you Now I have kids including two daughters Seven and ten and now my biggest fear in Life after my kids health Is that they don't turn out to be jerks Right that they don't have a sense of Entitlement so I'm gonna make you an Offer but it's got contingencies okay Okay I'm gonna offer you five hundred Thousand dollars okay for five percent Okay okay right but the contingencies Are that my daughter is a list and Alexis can come out and spend time with You guys be part of it you know I try to Put them in a position where they have Good Role Models because of all the Things in life I can buy That's something I can't buy and that's What I want to be part of so I'm Investing in you You guys are great I believe in the Business but I think Mark made you Exactly the offer that you asked for So I'm out You know instead of Kickstarter my Female entrepreneurs sometimes they call Me the kickstarter because I've started So many female-based businesses so I

Think it's so important that young women Today they think they can do and be Anything so I'd be happy to go in on it With Mark 500 000 for five percent Equity stake if Mark is willing to go in On it you'd get two big sharks one in The tech space one in the inventor space And we'll have this on QVC within four Months Yes you have a deal Done thank you guys Good girl congratulations guys thanks Thank you [Music] We're in shock we feel amazing right now I mean we're going to be working with Mark and Lori it couldn't get better Than that we're so excited mark did it Because he's too rich and two nuts and Too much in love with this kid so it's Nothing to do with business plus we can Make them successful guys a moment of Silence for that money that just stops Absolutely I'm with you this time Oh my god oh [Music] Before you go don't forget to subscribe To the Shark Tank Youtube channel and Click on that notification Bell to keep Up with everything that's bubbling in The tank

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