Ryan Naylor’s Esso Watches in the Shark Tank

Ryan kicked his pitch off with a lesson about the harmful effects electronic devices have on our bodies, asserting that they ‘bombard us with positive ions which put unnatural pressure on our bodies’. Right out of the gate Kevin showed some skepticism, questioning whether the negative ion solution addressed a real health concern. He followed up his critic with the colorful comparison of a coffee enema, “Supposedly good for you, but who knows right?”. A little shook up, Ryan kept his poise, maintaining the legitimacy of the issue and continued his pitch with a demonstration of the watch in action using a balance test. Curious, Lorie agreed to put Esso Watches to the test and she seemingly validated the benefits, showing some improved balance wearing the watch.

Next Ryan handed out his watches, which came in various colors and designs. Mark flat out refused to take one and continued with Kevin’s criticism but was hardly as polite. As Ryan tried to give Mark a Maverick blue Echo Watch, Cuban cringed and dismissed the technology as a joke. He immediately bowed out claiming he was ‘allergic to scams’.

Then came the numbers. Ryan said he had sold over $110,000 of Esso Watches in the last year with $70,000 profit. This intrigued Kevin and it seemed that he was starting to warm up to the idea of an Esso Watch investment. Kevin’s interest grew when Ryan proudly told the Sharks that he wasn’t spending any money acquiring new customers as his background in search engine optimization allowed him to reach his customers at no cost other than his time.

 Lori wanted to get back to the product, she asked about how the negative ions work, wondering if there was any independent lab testing done to prove his claimed benefits. Lori insisting that this could be a liability nightmare as products that make these types of claims required rigorous testing if they wanted any hope of being sold on television. Mark scoffed, and as he and the other Sharks guessed Ryan did not have such tests. That was enough for Laurie to hear and she was out.

Daymond then chimed in with a seemingly innocent question, ‘So you created this watch?’ to which Ryan replied yes and eagerly added that some of them were his personal designs. Then, like a boxer throwing a counter-jab, Daymond struck back quickly, calling him a liar and said that another one of his companies, Rumba Time, created those designs and that he had stolen them. Before Ryan could get a word out, Daymond was out. Lori came to Ryan’s defense claiming that companies make similar watches all the time – Daymond didn’t want to hear it.

Two Sharks left – Ever the no-nonsense investor, Mr. Wonderful went back to his roots and asked his most important question ‘Can I make money off of this deal’. Just when it seemed like a deal might have been on the horizon for Ryan, Mark butted in and jokingly warned Kevin that if he even thought about investing into the business he would come over and beat the living crap out of him.

Before Kevin could react Robert, who was mostly quiet throughout the pitch, commended Ryan for his ability to take all the abuse from the Sharks and then swiftly took himself out of the running simply stating that he doesn’t believe in the idea.

Last but not least was Kevin, he extended Ryan one last olive branch, if he was willing to admit that the negative ion technology was a scam Kevin would consider investing. Ryan wouldn’t do it and stuck to his guns affirming his belief in the technology. With O’leary out, Ryan’s shot at a Shark investment was gone and he made the long walk out of the tank. As he headed out, the bitter Mark Cuban couldn’t help but throw in a few more jabs and the other Sharks criticized Ryan for not defending himself or his business enough.

Esso Watches Now In 2026 – The After Shark Tank Update

The experience taught Ryan a lot of things- including the fact that he didn’t actually have a real passion for the watches. Even the sharks noticed his lack of passion. After he walked off the stage without an investment, Lori remarked that “he’s not a fighter.” This was confirmed in a later interview where he admitted that he “didn’t even care to defend the technology.”

To make matters worse, he was hit with a copyright infringement notice from Exxon Mobil, who claimed they had rights to the name “Esso.” The two parties eventually cut a deal, which resulted in him shutting down Esso Watches.

Drawing from his own experiences as a teenager, Ryan eventually found another passion in the form of an employment platform. Wanting to help people find work, he ended up creating LocalWork, which allows individuals to find work based on their expertise. He also began hosting talks for budding entrepreneurs.

Fast forward to 2017 and he created a new product called VIVAHR. A hiring software, it allows businesses to track their applicants in an all-in-one platform. According to their website, it’s the only recruitment management system on the market that provides individuals with the tools to make them recruitment experts.

As of 2026, VIVAHR is still up and running. Not only does it allow employers to post jobs to dozens of job boards (including premium and niche job sites) with a single click, but it also comes with a variety of features to help build the perfect position including automation tools, templates, and customizable fields. It also makes sharing job postings easier, which gives businesses the edge in finding the best candidate for the position.

Currently, there are three different VIVAHR plans to choose from, all of which post to 50+ job posts and allow for unlimited candidates:

Starter ($89 per month): One job posting per month, one hiring location included
Grow ($179 per month): Unlimited job postings per month, five hiring locations included
Pro ($279 per month): Comes with all the features provided in Grow in addition to eSignatures, Custom Roles and Permissions, Dedicated Customer Service, and Text Messaging

For those who are interested, you can check out their website at vivahr.com. They currently offer a free 7-day trial so you can get a feel for what it’s like before committing. You can also view their virtual demo to see how the platform works.

As for whether or not we’ll see Ryan on the show again, he had stated in a previous interview that he would pitch again on Shark Tank “in a heartbeat” and that he would make sure that his product “completely aligns with his goals and passions.” For now, however, it looks like he’s busy running VIVAHR.

The post What Happened To Esso Watches After Shark Tank – 2026 Update appeared first on Gazette Review.

While most of us try to rid our homes of the smells of beer, pot roast, football, and even flatulence, Johnson Bailey believed that there was an untapped market for these musky fragrances. Sometimes a business will solve a problem that you didn’t even know existed.

Oklahoma State business student, Johnson Bailey knew early on that he wanted to build a successful venture. Like many entrepreneurs, he found inspiration in his own life. One day during his undergrad, Johnson was cleaning up before friends came over to watch a football game. He noticed that his place smelt terrible so he began searching for a product that would combat the odor while maintaining a ‘manly’ vibe. The products that he found were scented with vanilla, lavender, and other similar fragrances – these weren’t going to work for Bailey. He immediately decided that there was a lucrative gap in the market, and envisioned a product filling this gap that men would be eager to buy.

Johnson put the pedal to the metal on his vision and gave it a name – Original Man Candle. He started getting involved in the entrepreneurship club on campus, utilizing the resources and mentors available to him, he worked hard to eventually bring OMC to market. His concept was a success and within one year Original Man Candles were being sold nationwide. His efforts were recognized by Oklahoma State University and he was awarded student entrepreneur of the year in 2010.

Original Man Candle hit the ground running but substantial growth was necessary before it could be a grand slam. Investors were desperately needed to be brought on board so Bailey headed to the Shark Tank seeking a strategic partner.

Original Man Candle in the tank

Johnson entered the tank equipped with nothing but his big grin and visible zeal. After a friendly introduction, he stated that he came seeking $50,000 in exchange for 25% of his venture. Johnson’s contagious enthusiasm radiated and captivated the sharks as he introduced his company, Original Man Candle. Johnson began to tell the story of his dorm room ‘aha’ moment and revealed the concept that would ‘revolutionize the candle industry forever’. Continuing to enchant the sharks with his energy, Johnson presented a few of the unique Man Candle scents: popcorn, golf course, barbecue, draft beer, and pot roast. The sharks couldn’t help but smile and crack up at the concept. He then piqued their curiosity by introducing his top product, a scent originally known as ‘mooch be gone’ or ‘mother-in-law be gone’ – The fart candle. ‘You just light that candle, and I guarantee they’ll be gone’. Laughter erupted amongst the sharks as he introduc

ed the best seller. Bailey then handed out samples for the Sharks to truly understand and appreciate.

The sharks continued to laugh and pass around the Original Man Candles. They seemed to enjoy the scents and even appreciated the, um, authenticity of the best selling fart candle.

Mark, still smiling, was done ‘sampling’ and asked Bailey to tell them about the business. Johnson was eager and prepared. The candles, he said, retailed for $10-$12 and were currently available in about 400 store locations all across the country. The stores ranged from small mom and pops shops to higher end, more reputable greeting card stores.

The sharks followed en-suite and began to prod at the business. Robert asked about sales figures and projections. Johnson said that last year the business had sales of $53,000. Kevin wanted to clarify whether that figure was revenue or units sold, as Johnson said revenue, the smiles of the sharks visibly began to fade.

Kevin wondered how Johnson was sustaining himself with that kind of revenue, adding ‘you can’t eat this wax!’. Johnson explained that his wife was working full time while he was fully focused on his business. Barbara interrupted with ‘You gotta be kidding!?’.

Still optimistic, Mark said ‘you have a shot, don’t let these guys drag you down’. Robert also wanted to know more and asked about Johnson’s business background and his current level of investment into Original Man Candle. Johnson said that the concept was originally a project for his entrepreneurship class and that to date, he and his wife had invested about $40,000 into the company. That was not what Robert wanted to hear, and any optimism he may have had washed off his face.

Mark continued to dig deeper. He asked about the manufacturing process. Bailey explained that he was currently hand pouring each candle himself. The sharks seemed baffled by that response and the negativity began to spiral.

Robert then bluntly asked ‘Why Johnson? Has anyone told you that this was a good idea?’. Johnson’s cheery demeanor began to unravel. Mark, seemingly the only one who still had any hope for the concept, came to Johnson’s defense. ‘Better yet, he has gotten in front of customers who want to buy it!’. He asked about the reorder patterns, Johnson, smiling again, eagerly replied that retailers tend to reorder 6-7 times a year. Daymond and Kevin looked at each other dumbfounded and exclaimed that ‘6-7 times a year is nothing!’

That was enough for Kevin, he summarized his thoughts by saying the products had nothing proprietary and that the Original Man Candle fell into a category he called ‘crap for tourists’. He added while there was the odd product in this category that became huge such as the pet rock, he didn’t believe OMC was one of those and he went out.

Barbara echoed Kevin’s critic. She felt that the fart candle was his best product, but even still, the company was not big enough for her to have any interest and she too went out.

Daymond jumped on the ‘out train’ claiming that the business had a vitamin c deficiency, a lack of cash, credit and customers.

Next was Robert who didn’t waste any time in sharing his opinion. He didn’t believe that there was any way to make any money in this investment and quickly went out.

The only shark left was Mark. Unlike the other sharks, he was torn. He explained that on the one hand he saw the entrepreneurial vision and believed in Johnson as the right ‘attack dog’ to run the business, but on the other hand, he could not get past the fact that the company was based on a single product SKU. He couldn’t see Original Man Candle as a full company and because of that, he too was out.

Johnson, clearly crushed, thanked the sharks and left the tank without an investment. As he walked out, Kevin added in typical Mr. Wonderful fashion ‘He was missing the one flavor that would have gotten me interested, money’

Original Man Candle Now in 2018 – After the tank

Despite Johnson not being able to secure a deal in the tank, Original Man Candle’s trip was not in vain. The company had gotten some valuable publicity and more importantly, caught the attention of investors and entrepreneurs. One of which was Nathan Thorneberry, who believed in Johnson’s vision and saw potential for Original Man Candle in the $2 billion/year candle market. According to the current OMC website, within minutes of seeing Bailey on the tank, Thorneberry contacted him ready to invest. In May 2011, true to his word, Thorneberry invested $65,000 in exchange for 35% of Original Man Candle.

Unfortunately, the partnership did not last long, with Thorneberry filing a breach of contract suit against Johnson. Thorneberry won a $71,000 judgment, but ultimately did not end up collecting as Johnson filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Although Johnson was no longer a part of Original Man Candle, he gained priceless experience from his entrepreneurial endeavor and Shark Tank exploit. Johnson utilized his understanding of

online media marketing and moved onto different business pursuits. He went on to become a marketing manager and eventually director of marketing at Stupid.com, a site with a target market and product line not too far off from his original vision. Some of the Stupid.com ‘gag’ gifts include mustache straws and gnome tissue dispensers. Today, Johnson can be found utilizing his marketing expertise and technology proficiency as an Audience Marketing Manager at publishing powerhouse PennWell.

If you are in the market for a fart candle, don’t fret. Although Original Man Candle social media pages have gone dark, the company appears to be up and running with Candles for online purchase right now on their site.

The post Original Man Candle Update – See What Happened After Shark Tank appeared first on Gazette Review.

Who wants a brewski? A sud? A wobbly pop? Whatever you call it, most of us love a nice cold pint of beer. How about a delicious cold bowl of beer —beer flavored ice cream that is. Almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, Ice cream connoisseur Steve Albert decided to intertwine his two favorite cold treats to create a most unusual twist on the frozen favorite.

Steve had been perfecting super premium ice cream recipes for over a decade when he determined that finding success in the crowded ice cream market would require creating new and unique flavors that consumers hadn’t yet experienced. A light bulb went off and he decided to pair his frozen deserts with the oh-so-unexpected bar time favorite.

Steve developed a process to remove the alcohol while keeping the beer flavor, then he added nuts, caramel, fudge, and other craft beer ingredients, finally mixing it together with his high-quality creams. The resulting product was a one-of-a-kind beer infused ice cream.

Feeling like he had a home run on his hands, he partnered with friends Larry Blackwell and Jason Conroy to create Brewers Cow Ice Cream. The Connecticut natives started selling their unique ice cream locally and even managed to get a small product order from grocery mammoth Whole Foods. But before their ice cream dream could come to fruition, they needed an investor to come on board. The trio headed to the Shark Tank.

Brewers Cow In The Tank

Steve, Larry, and Jason entered the tank accompanied by a model dressed in German bar maid attire. Wasting no time, Steve started the pitch by introducing the Brewers Cow team who came seeking $125,000 in exchange for 15% of their company.

Steve explained that Brewers Cow reverse-engineered beer rendering it alcohol-free, added craft brewery staples, and then mixed in high-quality creams to create one of a kind flavors. The potential flavor concepts, they believed, were limitless, “we’re only bounded by the amount of good beer out there, which we all know, there is plenty of!”

As Steve explained the product concept Robert and Mark chuckled, intrigued by the novel idea.

Jason then eagerly took over, stating that a shark investment would “take their company to the next level”. He began outlining their market strategy – they planned to take Brewers Cow ice cream to supermarkets nationwide. They would do this, he said excitedly, by offering something completely new to consumers. They would leverage their unique flavors to gain some of the highly competitive shelf space. He further tried to entice the sharks by claiming that if they were to only capture 1% of this market they would quickly become a multi-million dollar business.

Hearing these optimistic expectations clearly bothered Kevin. He stared blankly at the pitch, a distinct lack of enthusiasm could be read on this face

The Brewers Cow team took a break from pitching, allowing their bar maid, Claire, to hand out samples of their ice cream served in miniature pint glasses. Robert, excited to try the product, even greeted Claire in German.

After a quick ‘cheers’, the sharks began to dig into their frozen treats. Immediately, Robert and Mark were impressed with the flavors and start praising the product. “Wow”, Robert exclaimed, Mark followed in suite “You guys did it. Ice cream and beer – It tastes good.”

An audible sigh of relief could be heard from the Brewers Cow trio.

Daymond John didn’t touch his sample and quickly went out. He explained that he was lactose intolerant and for that reason, had no interest in an ice cream business. Mark defended the product by saying that he too was lactose intolerant but just didn’t care because the product was that good. O’leary wasted no time and wanted to start asking important questions, he added that he was “lack of sales intolerant”. He began, characteristically, prodding into their sales figures.

Larry started to address the companies financials, prefacing the numbers by reminding the Sharks that they had only been in business for one year. The sharks instantly looked at each other as if to say “not a good sign”. Larry kept going, in the first year, he said, they were focusing entirely on their local markets, targeting ice cream shops and restaurants. With this strategy, they managed to sell an unimpressive $5000 worth of product. This figure had the sharks stunned as they wait to hear something that could justify the $800,000 valuation. Feeling the shark’s interest start to fade, Larry enthusiastically added that Whole Foods had an outstanding order.

The Whole Foods order intrigued Mark, he was happy to fund purchase orders, he asked how much the order was for. The answer that he received was confusing, to say the least. At first, Larry said the order value was a mere $400, hearing this, the sharks erupted in laughter and questioned why they would need help funding an order of that size – Immediately Larry tried to back peddle and clarify what he meant. Steve and Jason chimed in to help answer Cuban’s basic question but, in turn, begin interrupting and contradicting each other. The trio started scrambling to explain the Whole Foods order and even mixed up the difference between their profit margins and individual store order sizes.

The pitch was starting to get away from them and at that point, it was unclear who was more confused, them or the sharks. Barbara likened the conversation to the old Abbot and Costello sketch ‘Who’s on first?’. Their inability to answer these fundamental questions was enough for Barbara and she goes out.

The sharks then move on to another basic question, what is your breakeven point? The three continue struggling and couldn’t seem to come up with an answer. Robert heard enough and stressed that “there are certain things in every business that you’ve got to know every morning when you wake up, and one of them is ‘what do I need to do to break even’”. He goes out based on the lack of preparation and understanding of their financials.

Mark was a little less critical and decided to give them some advice, he felt that the only real opportunity for Brewers Cow was to go find a big beer company to license the product. He didn’t see the potential as an investor simply due to the sheer volume of sales they would need before any substantial return could be made. With that, he was out.

Kevin, the only shark remaining told them bluntly that he couldn’t see any national grocery chain picking up such a niche product. He ended their shark tank dreams with an almost poetic explanation “I’m out because I think you’re ice cream bozo’s”

Brewer’s Cow Now In 2018 – After The Tank Update

After one of the worst pitches in the tank, Brewer’s Cow tried to bounce back and continue operating on their own without the guidance or money of an investor. Right after their pitch, the company seemed to have found some success. During 2012, they were active on all social media channels with frequent posts boasting sales growth and media attention. Their website was live and the product inventory was frequently updated.

After that, the Brewers Cow business seemed to grind to an almost dead halt. In early 2014, the company sent a tweet that let followers know in order to move forward they would require an investor to help fulfill their distribution and production needs. Shortly after that, the website went down and social media accounts became quiet. It seemed as if that was the end for Brewer’s Cow.

In 2015, however, the Brewer’s Cow website was back up and the social media accounts began posting sporadically. The website had a facelift but the number of product SKUs decreased dramatically.

Unlike Brewers Cow, the beer infused ice cream market has seen considerable growth since 2012, with industry giants like Ben & Jerry’s constantly creating new beer based flavors and many new companies sprouting up trying to dominate the niche space,

Today, the Brewer’s Cow website is live but there is no way to purchase the products online or in store. I personally contacted the business through their facebook page and got a relatively quick response saying that Brewers Cow is in fact live and well but currently laying low as they re-structure their business model.

While the future of Brewer’s Cow is unclear, we can rest assured that they have not given up on their ice cream dream and in the meantime, there are many beer-infused alternatives.

The post Brewers Cow Ice Cream Update – See What Happened Post Shark Tank appeared first on Gazette Review.

Think back to your childhood, do you remember soaring high on a pogo stick? You know, that metal pole with handles on one end and foot pads on the other, powered by a large spring on the bottom. Like many of us, Brian Spencer enjoyed bouncing around his street on this childrens classic.

As a young extreme sports enthusiast and hopeful entrepreneur, Brian was looking to find the next big action sports trend. He always knew there was potential in the pogo stick concept, so in the late 90’s he began to experiment with ways to redesign the children’s toy into the high-flying extreme sports vehicle he knew it could be. At first, Brian tried to increase the size of the heavy metal springs to produce a higher jump height. Unfortunately, he found that as he increased the size of the springs the weight added resulted in a heavier pogo, producing no increase in bounce. Brian quickly realized that the traditional pogo stick mechanics were limited and simply not going to cut it.

Bringing the vision to life would require a modern update to the pogo technology. He didn’t have to look far for innovation as his dad, Bruce, a former Northrop engineer decided to take on the task. The duo teamed up to create and patent a unique air spring propulsion system. Their system resulted in the highest performing pogo sticks ever made. With this innovation, Vurtego Pogo was born.

Vurtego In the tank

Brian entered the tank surrounded by a high-flying crew of pogo professionals demonstrating huge aerial maneuvers and synchronized flips. The Sharks, immediately impressed, could not take their eyes off the athletes and began ‘oohing and aahing’.

Following the captivating entrance, Brian introduced himself and Vurtego Pogo. He came into the tank looking for $500,000 in exchange for 25% of his business. His company, he proclaimed, was at the forefront of an action sports evolution. He continued to entice the Sharks with a video demonstration of his Vurtego pogo stick in action on different obstacles and terrains. Robert in particular, couldn’t contain his excitement and kept chiming in enthusiastically.

Predictably, Kevin immediately started questioning his numbers. Brian said he sold over 7,000 Vuretego pogo sticks. Kevin was amazed and asked, “has nobody been hurt or injured yet?” Brian eagerly responded that no one had and it was because Vurtego pogo’s were “deceptively safe” as the users weren’t dealing with the high speeds typically associated with extreme sports, only the height.

Next, Mark wanted to know more about the business and inquired about the margins. Brian boasted his healthy margins stating that he produced the Vurtego pogos for $100 and sold them for $330, this seemed to intrigue the sharks, especially Kevin.

Daymond, concerned about the competition within the market pointed out that “obviously there are other pogo companies”. Brian conceded that there was one large competitor who currently dominated the market. The competitor’s products, Brian said, were inferior due to the limitations of their rubber band technology. Vuretgo, in Brian’s opinion, was on track to dethrone the competition as the world’s largest pogo stick manufacturer.

As his excitement started to settle, Robert questioned whether high-end pogo sticks were even a good fit for the mass market. He felt that the $330 price was too low for the specialty product, he wondered if it would make more sense to mark up the price and stick to a niche market. Brian quickly rebutted, confidently stating that in order for the company to make money, they needed to approach the masses.

Kevin was with Robert and agreed the right strategy would be to stay in his niche space and own it. In this space, he said, there would be fantastic margins and lots of money to be made. Entering the mass market would mean competing with the toy store behemoths which was a completely different strategy, one that Brian wasn’t equipped to handle.

The mutual critique continued as Mark sided with Kevin and Robert saying that Brian was falling victim to his success. Mark acknowledged that it might be tempting to target the mass market, but taking that approach would result in Vurtego losing it’s cool and hip appeal. Cuban implored that the mass market strategy would be completely unrealistic especially with only $500,000 to spend.

Mr. Wonderful beautifully summed up the tone of the tank arguing that none of the sharks shared his vision for the mass market and asked, “what’s the matter with you, don’t you see it?”. At this point, Brian couldn’t help but agree and changed his tune saying that the more expensive niche route was one that he himself was contemplating.

Barbara, a concerned mother of two brought back the safety concerns and said it was a miracle that no one had gotten hurt or even killed. Brian jokingly pointed out that it was actually important to the brand for the products to not be “mother approved”. Barbara reluctantly agreed but could not see past the liability and was out.

Mark, undeterred by the dangerous element of the product, reiterated his original point and said that bringing in investors, especially ones that look like Kevin, would take away anything cool about Vurtego. Brian, understandably flustered, said that he was surprised and had entered the tank expecting the sharks to share his mass market vision. He then tried to save the pitch by saying he was open to their suggestions. Mark interrupted shouting that was even worse, stressing that Brian should just be himself. He was starting to try and please everyone and in turn, pleasing no one. Just like that, Mark was out. Brian stood speechless.

Next was Kevin who didn’t care to dominate the pogo market, all he cared about was making money. The best way to do that, he said, was to “double the price and make an insane margin”, he was certain that action sports fanatics would pay the premium. It became clear that to Brian that Kevin wasn’t sold on the vision but more importantly, wasn’t willing to fork up the $500,000. O’Leary was out.

Daymond and Robert agreed wholeheartedly and despite their interest in the product and company, they too were out.

Brian walked out of the tank defeated.

Vurtego Now in 2018 – After The Tank Update

After appearing on Shark Tank, Vurtego Pogo found funding by going directly to their users. They raised over $100,000 on the crowd-funding platform Indiegogo. While Brian did take some of the Shark’s advice, he did not follow the recommended niche market strategy and instead continued on his original affordable product game plan.

The incredible capabilities of the Vurtego Pogo stick spoke for themselves and Vurtego has seen an unbelievable amount of media attention since the tank. Brian’s company has been featured on dozens of mainstream television shows including Conan O’Brien, David Letterman, The Today show and countless others.

Although Vurtego did not secure an investment in the tank, they have been incredibly successful and it appears that the sharks missed out on a profitable action sports opportunity. Extreme Pogo continues to grow with Vurtego on the front line sponsoring top talent and creating superior products. It’s unclear what’s next for Vurtego but based on the attention and growth they have seen, the sky’s the limit.

You can buy the Vurtego online at Amazon.com by clicking here.

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