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Comment by stormbrew | Hacker News Reader

Yep. I've always figured the best thing to do (for Dragon's Den, I've seen a lot less Shark Tank but it seems identical) is to be ready to capitalize on the advertising and then aim for no-deal.

Especially since what I've heard about the process of getting the deal actually done (as opposed to TV done, a lot of them fall through post-air) is that it'll sap a lot of time and effort anyway.

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It's worth noting that advertising is not free: 5% equity or 2% royalty goes to Shark Tank just for appearing. See the last page of http://a.abc.com/media/primetime/sharktank/SharkTank3OpenCal...

I wonder if that's unique to Shark Tank. I never heard of it wrt Dragon's Den.

That said, I think if you were really going to go through with that plan you'd probably want to try to find out how often the option has actually been exercised. It may not even be entirely enforceable.

Yep, you have to think of that equity stake as the cost for a 5 minute Friday night commercial. I'm assuming such a commercial would cost maybe $30-50k or more, so it seems like a semi-fair deal (although since you are also the one creating the entertainment which lands the sponsor deals maybe not!)

It's better than a commercial. People actually want to watch, instead of changing channels or going to the bathroom.

Mixed feeling, sometimes a phone call from them can open a lot of doors. But giving them 50-70% for that can be hard to get around.

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