Whatever Happened To No Fly Cone After Shark Tank?
Bruce Gaither appeared on Season 4 of ABC's "Shark Tank" to make a deal with one of the sharks for his invention, No Fly Cone. Gaither described No Fly Cone as a non-toxic alternative to fly traps that worked just as efficiently without the toxins and had the bonus of hiding the flies' bodies inside the cone so people wouldn't have to look at their carcasses. His introduction to the product sounded promising.
Unlike some of the more successful "Shark Tank" pitches, No Fly Cone never took off. Sadly, even though Gaither only asked for $25,000 in exchange for 15% of his company, he left "Shark Tank" without a deal. He did go on to try and make No Fly Cone work on his own. After leaving the show, he did manage to land a deal with ACE Hardware to sell his product in some of their stores. He also sold directly to consumers online through his website. While Gaither did manage to get the business off the ground for a while, No Fly Cone eventually fell apart.
Gaither's presentation began to fall apart when he explained that the cone worked by placing it over dog excrement. Normally, a dog owner would pick up their dog's poop and dispose of it, but according to Gaither, there was no better fly trap attractant. Most of the "Shark Tank" sharks were skeptical or outright disgusted by this principle.
Gaither pulled out all the stops but it wasn't enough
Bruce Gaither introduced himself as a professional horse trainer who spent a lot of time in the barn, an area notorious for flies due to many animals in a contained space. For such spaces, No Fly Cone makes sense, but for the average consumer, the sharks doubted this would be more practical than a normal fly trap.
Daymond John pointed out that if you pick up the poop, there will be no flies, so Gaither was creating his own problem. Gaither disproved this by saying that even if you did clean up after your dog, remnants would be left behind on the ground and scooper.
To help sell his product to the sharks, Bruce Gaither brought his friend, Seth MacFarlane, the creator of "Family Guy." Gaither became friends with MacFarlane because he taught MacFarlane how to ride horses. Unfortunately, MacFarlane's presence hindered his friend's pitch more than help it. He didn't even use the product himself because he didn't have a dog.
While Gaither tried to make it on his own after "Shark Tank, the No Fly Cone website and Facebook page were updated semi-regularly. After a hiatus, No Fly Cone briefly began updating its Facebook page again in 2018, but since then, there has been no activity. But it appears that No Fly Cone had actually gone out of business as early as 2016.