The Grypmat Shark Tank Product UPDATE

Grypmat is a flexible tool tray designed to hold tools at up to a seventy degree angle with no spills. Anyone who does mechanical work should appreciate a mat that allows you to keep your tools at hand without being concerned that they will scratch the surface or fall onto the floor. Tom Burden was working on aircraft when he came up with the idea for this product. He saw the need for something that would allow him to hold his tools conveniently at an angle. After designing and manufacturing the product, he started Grypshon Industries and began selling online.

Burden started a Kickstarter campaign in January of 2017 as a way of generating and assessing interest in the mats for uses other than that of aviation. His initial fundraising goal was $10,000, but the campaign met that goal in 10 hours and went on to raise a total of $113,539 in February 3, 2017.

On November 12, 2017, Tom Burden appeared on Shark Tank (Season 9, Episode 10) seeking an investment of $200,000 for a 10% equity stake in his company. He had amassed over $400,000 in sales by the time of his appearance, primarily from online sales and through trade shows. Not surprisingly, NASA uses the mat. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group (including Virgin Airlines) was a guest judge on the show. It is fascinating how the Shark Tank producers seem to choose presenters with products that relate to the interests of the guest judges.

The sharks were impressed and Burden received multiple offers. Daymond John offered $200,000 for a 25% stake in the company, then lowered his ask to 20%

Burden expressed an interest in getting multiple sharks involved.' Richard Branson offered $200,000 for a 15% equity stake. Robert Herjavec made the same offer and then Daymond John revised his offer to $200,000 for 15 percent. Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner offered $200,000 for 20 percent and suggested that they would take over much of the work of getting the mats into multiple retail outlets. Burden countered Branson, Greiner and Cuban for 30% equity in exchange for a $360,000 investment and his counter-offer was accepted.

GRYPMAT SHARK TANK UPDATE

Grypmat has been hugely successful with sales, but has faced delays in delivering the product. Burden put out a YouTube video on Dec. 13, 2017 apologizing for delays in delivering the product and stating that a Dec. 18, 2017 was expected. On Dec. 18th, he provided an update in which he noted further delays in shipment. Burden expressed his thanks for the patience his customers have shown and apologized once again. He promised to continue updating his customers and to continue providing transparency. He also noted that he could be contacted via Facebook. Burden comes across as being sincerely apologetic and concerned and said that he and his team are doing all they can to fulfill orders.

Grypshon Grypmat has about 2100 followers on Facebook, over 1200 followers on instagram and a modest 320 followers on Twitter.

It is unclear as to whether the deal with the sharks has finalized or failed to make it through due diligence. No mention of this is made on Grpyshon Grypmat's social media and Burden says nothing about the sharks in his YouTube videos.

I do wonder why so many shark tank contestants seek deals with multiple sharks since there is likely to be much more paperwork, more competing demands with the legal teams of the sharks and more of a chance that the deal does not go through.

Grypmat is sold in three sizes ranging in price from $29.99 to $69.99. As of now, product sales are on hold until past orders are fulfilled. Some online sellers are effectively scalping the product and promising early January 2018 delivery.