that said, once in a while there is an inspiring story. like the african immigrant who runs a profitable site (it is a marketplace for gift cards) and raised a small round of funding.
overall its nice for entertainment, but you could probably learn a lot more reading pg's essays.
I think it's interesting to see how quickly the investors try to flip the deal around to be extremely in their favor. Only a few founders have been able to talk them back to reality but when they do it's awesome to watch.
The element bar guy in the latest episode is a great example this is a short clip of him but the whole episode is available too. http://www.hulu.com/watch/95380/shark-tank-power-and-ambitio...
he was a very sharp guy. worked in VC and definitely knew what he was doing. it was also impressive how he was prepared to walk out with nothing.
my favorite line of his was something to the effect of "i will fight the same way for you, when someone comes along down the road to dilute your equity"