A case for Shark Tank
So let me preface this a bit, I am a big fan of Jason Calacanis’ spinoff “This week in …” show called This Week in Startups, and it’s not for the obvious reason of humorous floating appendages (guests often wear black and the backdrop is black giving a floating appendages on screen feel), though I do genuinely enjoy a good floating head, but that’s not it.
The reason I love this show is because as you listen to the ideas that budding entrepreneurs come up with on the episodes, and add to that seeing Jason and the guest take that idea and tweak it just a bit to the point where they (and you) get excited for the entrepreneur, it serves as a personal catalyst for ideas. I often find myself mimicking the exercise Jason takes guests through with my own ideas and thoughts to get it to a point where it’s a bit more marketable or ‘pitch’ ready after watching a few episodes.
This is interesting to me because the creative process isn’t really something you can teach, but it is something you can learn. As you watch the methodology take shape, and the different questions asked you start to develop a sense for ideas, and a sense for identifying opportunity, and when you start to take notice, it’s pretty dang awesome. But in my experience, this only comes after being around creative people, or via the beauty of the interwebs, watching creative people work through the process time and time again. This is why this show is so valuable to me.
Which brings me to my next point, Jason does a shtick on the show called Shark Tank where entrepreneurs call in and pitch him their idea. A great section of the show that’s a parody of sorts of ABC’s show Shark Tank, but before every installment he does two things: first, he relives the painful memory of how he was not picked to be on Shark Tank which ends with a spirited assault on their (the show producers) mental capacity, and second, a comment on how bad the show ended up becoming and how glad he is that it’s canceled. After these are done, he moves into the pitch and we go on. So here’s my thing, I’ve watched every episode of TWiST (33 and counting) as well as every episode of ABC’s Shark Tank and the reason for doing so is because when you hear ideas people have, when you get the luxury of being walked through how they identified an opportunity and built a product or service around it, it rubs off on you a little bit, a priceless side effect.
Well after one season, ABC canned Shark Tank, never to be seen again, a fact that frustrates me just a skosh. Our country needs to be taken back to its roots of innovation and creativity, that’s where the ladder out of this economic mess we’re in resides, and the fact that we had a show around entrepreneurs and startups during prime time was a win for all things creative. Granted the entrepreneurs-in-residence that sat behind the huge desk on the show were a little ridiculous (Jason makes good points around their treatment of entrepreneurs), and to his point with the addition of Jason to the show, we would have at least been more entertained, the fact that America wasn’t interested enough in the creative process to support a single show through more than one season saddens me.
So to Jason, I say first, thanks for doing your show, I used to not see myself as an idea guy, I was the manual labor, but over the course of about a year of concerted effort in identifying opportunity and trying my ideas against the process I’ve picked up from different shows like this, now I’m totally the idea guy. But secondly, Jason quit disparaging efforts, no matter how meager they are, to invigorate creativity and ingenuity in America, cause right now any effort in that respect is much needed.
So honestly, I’ll miss the prime time venue, but if you’re interested in entrepreneurship I highly recommend you check out Mixergy, both great assets for ideas and, like I said, learning the process.