TEC by SCOTTEVEST creator and founder Scott Jordan offered the most public battle between the Sharks and any entrepreneur appearing on Shark Tank. In fact, the battle that appeared on television ended up in blogs, Twitter and Facebook as Mark Cuban and Scott Jordan took shots at each other.
The issue started when Mr. Jordan made his original offer for TEC(Technology Enabled Clothing), and not for his retail business, SCOTTEVEST. At the time of taping his pitch, SCOTTEVEST projected $24 Million in sales for the next year. The sharks were gunning for both TEC and SCOTTEVEST(Which was never actually mentioned by name), but Scott Jordan was determined to keep the name off the table, despite saying he is open to offers.
The edited version of the TEC Shark Tank pitch appears as though Mr. Cuban wasn’t as concerned about Mr. Jordan’s strategy to keep each company separate, what did get him stirred up is the patent that is issued for the line of vests.
According to the pitch as presented on the episode, the patent covers the way earphone wiring is run through the clothing. We should note that Scott Jordan specifies TEC Clothing is prepped to be wired, which may represent more than just headphone wiring.
Mr. Cuban went off, even more so, after learning that Scott Jordan is a former lawyer. He’s been an activist against what he considers being questionable patents. On the other side, Scott Jordan states the TEC patent withstood 10 challenges in court, as well as passed re-examination.
Needless to say, they couldn’t agree on a deal during the presentation, despite Mr. Jordan saying he’d entertain a deal, but both sides weren’t even close. Right after the pitch, Mr. Jordan shook hands with Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran, but Robert Herjavec refused, and as Scott Jordan exited, Mr. Herjavec suggested he “show some respect”.
Scott commented “I just wanted to get a couple offers” in a live video as he watched the show. If we looked at that comment alone, we could surmise the appearance on the show was strictly a publicity stunt, but when you look at the whole picture, the experienced entrepreneur sees a guy who is on an emotional roller coaster.
Right after the show, another battle took shape. Mark Cuban and Scott Jordan went head-to-head on Twitter, podcasts and blogs. Many followers took sides, and both Mr. Cuban and Mr. Jordan would claim victory, but did either really win, or was this a battle that finally got old?
