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Comment by DrSayre | Hacker News Reader

Everybody who watches this show knows the Sharks can pull out of the deal later on. I enjoy the show, even though I realize a lot of it has to be staged. However, I don't like how they force the people to make a decision within minutes, but the Sharks can research the product some later and pull out if they want to.

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The thing is that either side can pull out of the deal after the show. I've heard that some of these pitches and discussions can go on for an hour or more and television edits it down to 15 minutes.

Herjavick said (in his Reddit AMA iirc) that most pitches are about two hours long.

Originally they required contestants to give up 5% of their company just for appearing on the show, whether they got a deal or not.

>Everybody who watches this show knows the Sharks can pull out of the deal later on.

This is a show is on ABC which is over the air broadcast TV. The most mainstream there is. I guarantee there are a ton of people who don't know the nuances of reality TV.

I mean, they're not signing anything up there. The founders can also pull out of the deal after the presentation.

It was entertaining at first but I don't really bother to watch any more.

I've only watched a couple of episodes, but it seemed like the deals they offered were pretty terrible. Granted the products weren't great but when the deal is "<paltry sum> for a 51% stake in the company" I was like "Who would take that?" And of course they did.

I guess Shark Tank is where you go when all normal investors have already turned you down.

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