First Blood - Part 1

[beeping] [dramatic music] [footsteps] [machine beeping] Mm-hmm. [machine beeping] [dramatic music] Tonight, longtime best friends, Darius Cole and Nick Bennett, enter the tank hoping to turn up the heat. Now, they're looking for an investor who can help take their brand nationwide. [dramatic music] [footsteps] This is insane. Please don't say that during the pitch. Good afternoon. I'm Darius Cole. And I'm Nick Bennett. We're asking for $500,000- For 15% of Bad Decisions. Bad Decisions is premium hot sauce for people who apparently don't learn. How did the two of you get into the hot sauce business? We met 15 years ago working at a restaurant in college. He cooked, I complained. You ate for free. And provided invaluable feedback. You said everything needed more hot sauce, and now look at us. That is surprisingly sophisticated. Roasted jalapeno, garlic, lime, little bit of smoked sea salt. Why is it called Questionable? Because that's the last responsible decision you make. That's supposed to be hot? No. This one's supposed to be hot. [dramatic music] Give it here. You good? Excellent. [dramatic music] Next question. Water's right there. I can see the water. You can drink it. I am aware of how water works. Let's discuss the business. All right. Enough torture. What did you sell last year? 1.7 million. Revenue? Revenue. Profitable? 260,000 net. Okay. Now we have a business. How many stores? 620. Debt? No significant debt. Margins? Retail bottle is $12.99. Fully landed cost averages $3.40. And you came in asking $500,000 for 15%? Yes. That's considerably less stupid than the branding suggested. You're profitable, growing, almost debt-free. So what's wrong? Nothing. There it is. We had an acquisition offer. Major condiment company. How much? 2.8 million. Look, we started this with nothing. Somebody puts 2.8 million in front of you, you don't just pretend that's not real money. But I know what this can become. So do I. We just don't always agree on how to get there. That's a much bigger concern to me than the hot sauce. Before the break, Darius and Nick entered the tank seeking $500,000 for 15% of Bad Decisions. With $1.7 million in sales and a profitable hot sauce business, they caught the investors' attention. But after revealing they passed on a major expansion opportunity because they couldn't agree on the risk, one question remains: Can they convince a tank investor to bet on them? Why did you turn it down? Because they didn't want to build Bad Decisions. They wanted the recipes, the trademarks, our retail accounts, then we would've been gone. And you wanted to sell? I wanted to hear them out