Every Record On Shark Tank To Date

This content was paid for by Sony and created by Looper.

The best, or at the very least the most compelling, TV shows are so irresistible because they're about the drama of the human experience. Scripted, narrative programs share great stories, but there's nothing quite like reality TV to depict and share the actual trials, tribulations, and successes of others. "Shark Tank," one of the longest-running and most-watched reality shows of all time — a stalwart of ABC's lineup since 2009 — lets viewers in on the mechanics, struggles, and triumphs of starting and operating a business. In each episode, entrepreneurs and small business owners come onto the show and attempt to persuade a panel of wealthy, ultra-successful professionals and venture capitalists to invest in their burgeoning idea, in return for a stake in the company.

With thousands of business operators entering the Tank and pleading their case to the likes of Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Daymond John, Lori Grenier, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O'Leary, and the like, not everyone got what they sought out. Some just made for some excellent television and a name for themselves in the storied history of the business-minded reality series. Here are all the most super of the "Shark Tank" superlatives — the people who made an impact and set all-time records for the show in all manner of categories.

"Shark Tank" is open to anyone, provided they've got a good product and a solid business plan to take it to market and turn a profit for all involved investors. An individual is never too young or too old to generate a wonderful idea, and in the eighth season of "Shark Tank," the show welcomed a clever and unique product pitch from Don Wildman, an accomplished entrepreneur and athlete. The founder of the company that eventually became the gym chain Bally's Total Fitness, Wildman competed in triathlons into his eighties and frequently skied, informing the product he pitched on "Shark Tank" with partner Jake Sullivan: Hand Out Gloves, hand coverings that offered warmth and protection from the wintry elements that also allowed the wearer to quickly expose only their fingers to perform small tasks. Wildman and Sullivan's trip into the Tank was successful — Barbara Corcoran offered a $300,000 line of credit for a 25 percent equity stake in Hand Out Gloves.

Another number that majorly factors into Wildman's "Shark Tank" story: 83. That's how old the businessperson was when he appeared on the show, the oldest person ever to do so.

Tenacity, perseverance, and picking one's self up by their bootstraps and trying again — and again — until they've successfully made their dreams true are the virtues that "Shark Tank" is all about, and ones the show's titular Sharks certainly encourage. While they accept at least one business proposal or two per episode, they reject just as many, sending entrepreneurs in need of a cash infusion or a financial lifeline for their business scrambling for plan B. For Kim Meckwood, the path to successfully marketing a product involved hitting "Shark Tank" for an investment. It actually involved seven trips to "Shark Tank." With that many attempts to make a deal, Meckwood is the show's all-time record holder for persistence.

Meckwood created the Click and Carry, a small, cheap-to-manufacture gadget that allows a user to comfortably carry multiple grocery bags all at once. The inventor got the idea for the product in a dream and then spent seven years trying to get to "Shark Tank," auditioning for the show seven times until she finally got onto the program and asked for a $225,000 investment in exchange for 15 percent of the business. Barbara Corcoran countered, wanting an 85 percent stake for the same amount of money. Meckwood turned that down, only for Mark Cuban and Corcoran to pool their resources to come up with the $225,000 for 40 percent of Click and Carry.

Any given entrepreneur looking to boost their business's coffers may approach a "Shark Tank" appearance with one of two mindsets. They could ask for a perfectly calculated amount, to cover expenses and a growth plan in exchange for a not-too-big share of the company. Or, they could embrace the "go big or go home" concept and ask for an absurdly large investment sum and hope for the best. Geoffrey Woo and Michael Brandt, co-founders of the health and wellness company Nootrobox, rebranded as HVMN (pronounced "human"), seemingly leaned toward the latter when they entered the "Shark Tank" tank in a December 2016 episode.

Woo and Brandt wanted to introduce more products, and so they went on "Shark Tank" to get the money to launch GO Cubes — coffee in chewable cube form that purportedly didn't leave users with the caffeine jitters and provided extra concentration. Valuing their product at $40 million and touting it as "the future of coffee," Woo and Brandt were prepared to offer a 5 percent stake at a cost of $2 million. Shark Robert Herjavec incredulously pointed out that $40 million was the largest valuation seen on "Shark Tank" to date, which may have added to the reluctance exhibited by the show's investors. HVMN didn't get a deal that day, but it did set a "Shark Tank" record for largest unsuccessful proposal.

While the big money "Shark Tank" deals are the ones that make headlines and can help change the entire trajectory of a business owner (and their business) virtually in an instant, Steve Gadlin earned a place in the show's lore and record books for his extraordinarily modest proposal. In January 2012, the artist and illustrator entered the Tank to sell the Sharks on his business idea, a service called I Want to Draw a Cat for You. With a memorable presentation that included a simple poster board and a goofy dance routine, Gadlin talked about his self-explanatory plan for a company that would let customers request a custom drawing of a cat. They'd provide a description of a kitty and a scenario, and for about ten bucks, Gadlin would draw it. 

In the year leading up to his "Shark Tank" appearance, Gadlin had sold around 1,200 drawings, earning a substantial amount of money doing so, but needed investors to help him expand the business and its product line. And yet, all Gadlin wanted was $10,000, for which a Shark would get 25 percent of I Want to Draw a Cat for You. That's the smallest pitch in "Shark Tank" history, financially speaking, and Mark Cuban agreed to support Gadlin, upping the deal to a 33 percent stake for a $25,000 investment.

"Shark Tank" helps provide for business owners and creators several elements that it's virtually impossible to succeed without: a hefty amount of operating capital in the form of an investment from one or more of the Sharks as well as a whole lot of publicity. Several commonplace, everyday products are household names and such a part of daily life for millions of people and such a familiar item on store shelves that it's almost easy to forget they haven't been around all that long, because they made their national debut within the last decade or so on "Shark Tank." Some of the biggest brands to come out of "Shark Tank" include Tipsy Elves holiday sweaters, the Simply Fit exercise gadget, the Scrub Daddy sponge, and Bombas socks.

In the sixth season premiere of "Shark Tank" in 2013, Randy Goldberg and David Heath sought a $200,000 infusion in exchange for a 5 percent stake in Bombas, a producer of extra-soft, comfort-first socks (and later, T-shirts). Four of the five Sharks said no, and Daymond John was about to join his cohorts, until he negotiated a deal to provide Goldberg and Heath with their 200 grand for a 17 percent share. That was a very profitable investment. In 2021, Bombas overtook Scrub Daddy to become the single-most lucrative product to ever get a "Shark Tank" vote of support, having generated sales of $225 million.