'Shark Tank' recap: A family of entrepreneurs offers up eco-friendly lime insect repellent

On Friday’s “Shark Tank,” a family of entrepreneurs offered the sharks an eco-friendly and safer alternative to get rid of insects than pesticides.

Asking for $100,000 for 10% of their company, Jana McDaniel, along with her husband Zac and sister Jessica Jacobs, are the co-founders of First Saturday Lime. Combining the mineral lime and citric acid in a formula, the product is designed to be spread around the exterior of houses.

“Most of the time people turn to pesticides that are filled with poisonous ingredients that are harmful to children, plants and animals,” Jacobs said.

To sell the product to the sharks, the couple brought along their children and a chicken named Angel. They described themselves as third generation in the limestone industry. Jana and Jessica’s father was the one who developed the insect repellent, but he passed away nine years ago. Together the trio built a company around the formula.

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“What’s with the name First Saturday Lime?” shark Kevin O’Leary asked. The product is meant to be applied once a month, ideally on the first Saturday of every month, the three recommended. The company has a patent pending for the factory but not the product itself.

At the time of the taping, they had made $150,000 in sales for 2019 and were projected to make $350,000 for the year. It cost $1.60 to make a 20 pound bag of the formula, which retails for $19.99. The margins initially excited the sharks, especially O’Leary, until they learned the company provided free shipping to customers to a tune of $10 per bag. With 80% of their orders coming online, the shipping significantly cut into their profit margin.

“I think you guys are coming from a genuine place, but you don’t know what you don’t know at this point, and it’s going to be an uphill battle,” said shark Robert Herjavec, who declined to make an offer.

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O’Leary said it would be a lot of work educating consumers on the product: “You got to explain why a frog and a Saturday and a lime have anything to do with each other. That’s just not a journey I want to go on.”

Meanwhile, shark Mark Cuban enjoyed the presentation, but given his portfolio and experience, he didn’t know how to help the business grow at a faster rate than it already was. Shark Lori Greiner was interested in the product, but she wanted to be a third partner at 33.3%.

“The fantastic thing about this product is that it is safe,” Greiner said. “I know the hardware space very well. I think this could be hit, but I think you need to change the packaging.”

Greiner decided to partner with guest shark Daniel Lubetzky of Kind Bar fame. For 33.3% of the company, the three would get two sharks for the price of one. Jana asked, were the sharks willing to accept 20% instead?

“Listen here, I want you to look me very closely in the eyes,” Greiner responded. “You say you’re going to do $200,000 next year (in) profit? Why don’t you change that and add several zeroes. We could do at least $2 million. You have to think, what do you want to do? You can sell so much more.”

To sweeten the deal further, Greiner offered to fund all their purchase orders, but Jana offered another counter offer of a 25% stake for $100,000. Again, the two sharks refused, but sensing an opening, O’Leary said he would do the deal.

Jana, Zac and Jessica quickly agreed to O’Leary’s proposal. “Our dad would be so proud of us,” Jana said after the three left the tank.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Shark Tank' recap: Family offers up eco-friendly insect repellent