15 Behind-The-Scenes Secrets From 'Shark Tank' Even Superfans Wouldn't Know

You can't read "Shark Tank" and not think of the show's spine-chilling opening track, which immediately makes you feel like you're sinking to the seafloor of shark-infested waters… And then there's the rolling shot through the dark corridor, which pans out and focuses on the "sharks" - business gurus and reality TV show-hosts - sitting with their fingers steepled in front of them… And so you watch with bated breath as each person (or team) walks in with hope in their eyes and numbers jiggling around in their brain.

Some pitches soar - they are funny, smart, and/or interesting, and get the sharks to fight over the biggest bite of the juicy entrepreneurial ideas dangling in front of them.

Other pitches crash - the ideas are confused, the evaluations all wrong, and the sharks can't pull out fast enough. But they all leave us wanting to watch just one more episode so we can cheer on the underdogs as they try to make their American dreams come true.

No wonder Shark Tank is a hit family show, already having aired 9 complete seasons! If you are Shark Tank superfan, here are 15 behind-the-scenes secrets from the show that will leave you salivating for more.

15 All The Deals Made On The Show Don't Actually Happen Off-Screen

Is that really hard to believe? After all, we all have cringed in shock at one point or another when a seemingly foolish deal was struck on the show. Remember the Potato Parcel guys from Season 8, who managed to get $50,000 from Kevin O'Leary for 10% equity and royalties? Not that that particular deal didn't fall through, it did - and currently brings in a 6-figure income every year to lead entrepreneur Riad Bekhit!

But not all deals made on the show really happen once the cameras have been shut down. According to a survey done by Forbes, in the deals struck on-screen in all 7 seasons of Shark Tank up until 2016, 43% of deals never happen off-screen once the due diligence process is over.

In fact, out of all the deals that did happen, more than half were modified later on, once the investment teams of the sharks had investigated all the claims made by the entrepreneurs on the show.

But the number of deals successfully closed in the more-recent seasons has climbed to almost 80%, according to Business Insider. And investor Daymond John feels it's because the quality of businesses appearing on the show has improved tremendously in the past few years.

14 Your Odds Of Getting On The Show Are Slim

According to The Boston Globe, when Tracey Noonan and her daughter, Danielle, were invited to pitch their cupcake-in-a-jar company (called 'Wicked Good Cupcakes') in Season 4, they had 1 in 35,000 odds of getting on the show. The odds have stacked up higher since then, with more than 100,000 applicants auditioning for a spot since season 6.

In fact, the odds are so bad that you have better odds of getting into Harvard Business School than you have of getting onto the show! According to Business Insider, casting directors put out calls for auditions in multiple cities across America, where applicants give a short pitch of their business idea. The best ones are then shortlisted and contacted once the first round of auditions is over.

In a blog post, the owner of Villy Custom Bikes wrote that after waiting for 3 months, he received a call from the producers for a more extensive Q&A round on his product idea.

Fleetwood Hicks, the owner of Villy Custom, appeared on Season 3 - when it was relatively easier to make it - but since then, the producers have made the selection process even harder and now regularly reach out to companies with successful Kickstarter campaigns to get on the show.

13 Almost One-Fourth Of All Final Pitches Are Never Aired

You read that right. That means that after jumping over all those hurdles and toppling more than 100,000 applicants to secure one of the coveted 120 spots each season, your pitch still has only 75% odds of airing on primetime TV.

Fleetwood Hicks explains on his old Villy Custom blog that all of the finalists are prepared for this reel cut by the show's executive team - usually through a footer in every email correspondence that spells out this possibility point blank.

“You get notice you're going to be on air about two weeks before the episode,” Eric Bandholz of Beardbrand told Mental Floss about the process; “[So] you don't want to invest too much into your business because you could wind up sabotaging yourself if you don't make it on." And that's sage advice because a lot of businesses have done exactly that in the past - padded up their inventory or bought expensive ads for the "expected" boost in sales from being on TV - before they knew whether they had made the final cut or not.

Since the decision to keep or cut a pitch depends completely on the amount of drama recorded during the slot, only 80 to 100 pitches actually end up being aired out of the 120 pitches that are filmed.

12 Entrepreneurs Face The Sharks For Almost An Hour… But Most Of It Gets Cut From The Final Reel

While it may seem like every pitch gets only 10 minutes for their pitches, in reality, all of the entrepreneurs spend almost an hour discussing their business in front of the investors. And the worst part is, they do not get a retake.

That means if you freeze, forget your lines, or mess up badly, the camera crew will not bat an eye and will continue rolling until all the negotiations are over and you walk out of the "shark tank". The ultimate clip that you end up seeing on TV is, therefore, a heavily edited version of the actual footage.

According to the Boston Globe, when founders of Lovepop, Wombi Rose, and John Wise, pitched their unique pop-up card business on Shark Tank season 7, they spent "a little over two hours" with the sharks going into the "boring financials" (like rent for retail locations and sales trends). But all that was cut from the finally-aired tape.

But their's wasn't the longest session. According to the Business Insider, Michael Tseng's Plate Topper pitch on Season 4 was the longest the sharks had to ever sit through, lasting for almost two and a half hours. And that was mainly because the man did not know when to shut up and almost "snatched defeat from the jaws of victory".

11 All Entrepreneurs Have To Visit The Resident Psychologist After Their Pitch Session

You can pick up your jaw from the floor. It's true. And there's a reason why the show makes it mandatory for every contestant to visit the resident psychiatrist once their segment has been taped, regardless of its outcome.

It's because spending an hour (and sometimes more) in front of the sharks can be a nerve-wracking experience for most. In fact, in one of the more recent seasons, an entrepreneur fainted in front of the investors!

"He just like hit the floor!" Barbara Corcoran told Business Insider of the incident. She wasn't actually on set when it happened, but she heard all about it once the news spread like wildfire. "You won't see that, though. And too bad, because it would make for great TV."

And it's not just the intensity of the grilling session with the sharks or the presence of all the lights and cameras that messes with the entrepreneurs, who often have little to no media exposure.

The sharks' cutting remarks- or even the intense euphoria of having secured a deal - can really mess with people's minds, invoking anxiety or other mental health-related struggles due to the stress of presenting one's plan on television.

“I've heard from other contestants that they can be devastated by their performance, or by what the appearance might mean for their business," Eric Bandholz of Beardbrand told Boston Globe about the mandatory session with the psychiatrist. "It's a very intense emotional roller coaster."

10 The Sharks Hate "Gold Diggers" Who Appear On The Show With No Intention Of Making A Deal

Anyone with half a brain and a quart of business sense will know how tremendous appearing on Shark Tank can be for someone's business. Even entrepreneurs who failed to secure deals on the show have benefitted from increased sales, and sometimes investment offers from elsewhere, once their segment was aired. That's how powerful Shark Tank is as a platform for getting the word out about the business.

No wonder many entrepreneurs have tried to "game" the system by coming on the show but not making a deal with the sharks. Why would they when they are well-off already and just want a boost in sales for free?

The sharks have always called these entrepreneurs "gold diggers" because they are opportunists who waste everyone's time. But Mark Cuban was the one who got into hot soup in media for it when he actually used the term out loud to describe Simple Habits founder Yuanha Kim on Season 9.

While Yuanha may not have been a real "gold digger", such entrepreneurs have definitely appeared on the show in the past who had no intention of making a deal. Take, for example, Eric Berkowitz and John Devecka, founders of Singtrix, who appeared in Season 6 of the show but turned down good deals worth $1.5 million from four sharks.

9 Sharks Have To Pitch To The Producers To Appear In The 'Update' Segment In Each Episode

If you have wondered why most of the "Update" segments on Shark Tank seems to feature companies backed by Barbara Corcoran, it's because the sharks have to pitch to the producers of the show why updates on their companies would be good material for TV. And Barbara seems to know the recipe for scoring spots on these updates every season.

According to Business Insider, the show producers are in charge of the actual schedule for filming these updates, but the sharks can pitch their favorite companies so they can get a sales boost once the update is aired.

"I'm the queen of updates!" Barbara told Business Insider in an interview.

"I know how to pitch an update better than anybody! And get it bought, boom, booked."

That's why she pitches more than the other sharks because she absolutely loves the way they bring in so much "positive press to her best-performing investments". In fact, some of her best deals till date on the show have been in the food industry, like the Tom + Chee grilled cheese restaurant franchise and the Cousins Maine Lobster food truck franchise, both of which were featured on the Shark Tank Update.

8 Mark Cuban Made The Producers Remove A Contract Clause That Forced Finalists To Give Up Some Equities To The Show

According to Inc., up until 2013, all entrepreneurs who appeared on the show had to either choose to give 5% equity or 2% royalties to Finnmax, the production house of the show. And the clause was valid even if their segment was never aired.

If that sounds like a bad deal to you, you would not be wrong. Only the most desperate or the most confident would agree to such terms in exchange for a 75% possibility of being exposed to an audience of 7 million. Thankfully, that clause was removed later. And it was all because of Mark Cuban.

Mark Cuban was a guest shark on Shark Tank, appearing in just 3 episodes of Season 2. From Season 3 onwards, he has been a regular shark.

Now he is the biggest shark on the panel, with a net worth of $3.3 billion as of 2017. He has a larger-than-life personality and has been known to close the most deals on the show. Plus, he single-handedly raised the show's ratings and viewership after he joined the crew in Season 2.

According to Business Insider, Cuban knew a clause of that kind would discourage good businesses from appearing on the show and they would just be left with entrepreneurs who had nothing more than an idea on a sheet. So when he approached the producers and said he was going to walk away if they didn't scrap the equity or royalties clause from the show contract, they agreed to his terms.

7 Producers Sometimes Nudge The Sharks To Ask Specific Questions Through Hidden Earpieces To Generate Drama For TV

Let's face it, Shark Tank is a reality show at the end of the day, and so even if the producers cannot influence the deals that get made on it, they will definitely try their best to extract every ounce of drama they can while they are filming. And that's the reason why they often nudge the sharks through hidden earpieces to ask the entrepreneurs certain direct questions about their life or their upbringing. It ups the ante and creates the perfect environment to hear tearful tales and inspiring rags-to-riches tales of human ingenuity.

While the sharks go ahead with these promptings, they generally do not like it since it detracts from the cold realities of doing business.

"I hate the back story… because it's usually a way to hide the realities of the business," Mark Cuban told ABC News in a story about pitching to the sharks. "The more you try to create stuff to kind of, you know, divert my attention, the worse it is."

So he would rather you skipped the bit about how your grandma inspired you or how you were going to go under and the business saved you by the skin of your teeth.

6 Every Season Is Shot In Just 17 Days!

200 or so odd pitches shot in the span of just 17 days. That's insane when you do the math! But you don't actually have to do the math since Kevin O'Leary spilled the beans for you about this grueling schedule in an interview with CNBC.

On the days he has to shoot, Kevin wakes up at five in the morning and reaches the set by 6.15. It takes the makeup artists another hour to do the makeup, and then it's shoot time sharp at 8 A.M. The shoot usually goes on for twelves hours straight and often ends at 8 o'clock at night. The sharks spend most of the hours between stuck to their seats in the "tank", hearing 8 to 12 pitches and making deals. And it can get really tiring for them.

"An entire season is shot in about 17 days - a little over a week in the summer, and another similar stretch in the fall. The crew needs to film on back-to-back-to-back days because contestants come in from all over the country," he said during the interview, according to CNBC.

The worst part is that pitches can go on for an hour or more, on an average, and during that time the sharks are not allowed to go on breaks.

"We're cold, we're hungry, we're miserable," Robert Herjavec told Business Insider about the shooting schedule. That's why he emphasizes how important it is for the entrepreneurs to get to the point fast during their segment.

5 The Sharks Spend A Significant Amount Of Their Time Outside Of The Show On The Deals They Strike In It

There's a reason you almost never see the sharks strike a deal unless they are getting at least 20% equity in the company. It's because when they strike deals on Shark Tank, they are ready to not just back you with money but also teach you how to scale your business and expose you to opportunities that would enable you to multiply their investment exponentially. And this requires a lot of dedicated time once the show has finished filming.

According to Business Insider, all the sharks have dedicated teams to help them manage their "Shark Tank investments". These teams maintain contact with the entrepreneurs and help them reach the sharks during busy times.

In fact, Lori Greiner takes it one step further and makes herself available to her entrepreneurs even in the middle of the night, Aaron Krause of Scrub Daddy told Business Insider.

No wonder Scrub Daddy is the biggest Shark Tank success story ever and has made Lori more than $75 million over the years after she invested just $200,000 for a 20% equity in the company!

Daymond John has also said he puts in roughly 12 working hours every week nurturing his Shark Tank partnerships. After all, it's serious money we are talking about here.

4 Most Millennial Entrepreneurs On The Show Pitch Businesses That Have A Social Message

We have seen some incredibly useful and innovative products on Shark Tank, like the Scrub Daddy and the Squatty Potty, and some insanely hilarious ones, like the Potato Parcel and I Want to Draw a Cat for You. We've also seen some that just straight-up needed to be thrown into the garbage, like the Wake 'N' Bacon and Attached Notes.

But in more recent seasons, the sharks were noticing a certain trend in the businesses pitched to them: businesses with messages.

"One of the other beautiful things we are seeing now on Shark Tank is social motivation. So whether it's Chirps with sustainable protein or sustainable environment… most of the businesses we are seeing from millennials have a social cause attached to them," Cuban said in a group interview with BUILD Series NYC.

When Barbara counters that a lot of businesses with social causes don't make any money, Mark counters back that a lot of consumers who buy things online will not buy unless there's a social cause attached to the brand so this kind of business will only increase in the future.

We can relate to that definitely because why else would you buy an ugly sweater unless you knew your purchase would mean $2 more in the jar for Stand Up For Cancer? And that happens to be the story behind the ugly sweaters sold by Tipsy Elves, which was backed by Mark in Season 5.

3 Nearly Half The Deals Are In The Food Or Fashion Industry

According to the analysis of TJ Hale, the host of the Shark Tank Podcast, out of the 107 deals he has logged, half were either in the food and beverage industry or the fashion and beauty industry. Probably because these are tried-and-tested markets that have well-established distribution chains and have incredible potential for scaling into a multi-million dollar business.

Some of the most successful food business deals struck on the show have been: Pipcorn, a miniature popcorn company that scaled to $1.5 million in just 3 months after they struck a deal with Barbara Corcoran; Wicked Good Cupcakes, which went from barely-there profit margins to returning Kevin O'Leary's investment of $75,000 in just 74 days (wow!); and Counsins Maine Lobster, which went from one food truck to 18 across America under Barbara's expert direction.

Since the fashion and beauty industry is very competitive, deals struck on the show in this niche have favored businesses that have brought something innovative and useful to the table.

Some of those deals were the Bridal Buddy, which helps women on their wedding day pee in peace without assistance, and Stella Vale, a jewelry company whose designs melded masculine and feminine elements.

But according to Hale, just having a business in these industries won't help you because "Daymond John isn't so interested in apparel anymore and Mark Cuban is probably not going to do pet food."

2 All Entrepreneurs Have To Stand In Silence Before The Sharks For 30 Seconds Before They Can Start Pitching

Sounds nerve-wracking? You aren't wrong. But there's a reason why all entrepreneurs mandatorily have to stand in silence before the sharks for 30 seconds before they can start their pitch. It allows the camera crew to take panning shots of the entrepreneurs with their presentation material and then zoom into the watching sharks.

The crew has a name for this moment. It's called the "stare down". And it often leaves the business owners rattled, which pays off later in the form of botched pitches and other dramatic unfoldings, according to Business Insider.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if I found out the person who fainted before the sharks did so minutes after the stare down was officially over and they could pitch. And while that particular incident was not aired, they always air the mid-sentence freeze-ups and the pitches where the entrepreneur forgot his or her lines suddenly.

The resident psychiatrist makes perfect sense now. Even I would need a shrink to slap me back in shape if I had to stand before the sharks with all those bright lights flashing on me and then found myself staring down at them like in a western shoot out!

1 There's A 'No Shop' Clause In The Show Contract To Prevent Entrepreneurs From Using Their Publicity To Get Better Deals From Outside

Given the popularity of Shark Tank and the incredible boost in sales experienced by even those companies who do not get a deal on the show, it doesn't take a leap to realize that a lot of investors with loaded pockets would see this as a good opportunity to learn about the "hot" companies and then offer their founders a better deal than the one offered to them by the sharks. It has happened in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Therefore, the show has a "no shop" clause in their contract for the finalists so they do not end up wasting the sharks' time by going "shopping" for better investment deals.

"Anybody's who is watching the show might think, "Oh, Mark or Barbara offered them a good deal but I will offer them a better deal" for whatever reason. So we have a no-shop clause," Mark Cuban said in his group interview with BUILD Series NYC.

But the clause isn't foolproof because entrepreneurs often agree to a deal on the show and then walk away once the cameras have been shut down. It happened with Hy-Conn, the company selling snap-on fire hydrant hose connectors, and HillBilly Country Clothing, which sold apparel to proud "rednecks" and "hillbillies".

References: CNBC1, Forbes, Business Insider, Boston Globe, Villy Customs Old Blog, Refinery29, Inc, ABC News1, CNBC2, AOL, ABC News2, Delish, Mental Floss