Where Is The Blowzee From Shark Tank Today?
We may not want to think about it, but blowing out candles on a birthday cake spreads a lot of germs. This was something Mark Lareau and Mark Apelt aimed to tackle when they showed up on Season 13, Episode 14 of "Shark Tank." Their invention, the Blowzee, was essentially a blue tube with a propeller at the end of it that allowed someone to blow out their birthday candles without, well, getting their spit all over the cake. It was a neat little item, and it also seemed to work as intended. It wasn't, however, the smashing success that the two entrepreneurs hoped for.
Apelt and Lareau brought each of the Sharks a birthday cupcake to try the Blowzee out, explaining the engineering and design that went into the final result.
Essentially, the tube contained a censor that would pick up when someone blew into it, activating the propeller, which would blow out the candles while not allowing any air to escape and get to the icing. It's not exactly a cake hack, but it's certainly something that could protect birthday party guests from getting sick.
What happened to the Blowzee on Shark Tank?
Mark Lareau and Mark Apelt sought a $100,000 investment in exchange for 20% equity in their company. And at first, it looked like they'd generated some interest among the Sharks. The two started by offering the Sharks some cake after Apelt gave a big, wet blow to extinguish the candles. They then referenced a study by the Journal of Food Research which found that blowing out candles on a birthday cake can increase the spread of germs by as much as 1400%.
The sharks seemed to be both entertained by the idea and impressed with its execution. What they were less impressed by was the Blowzee's lackluster sales figures. The product had launched five months prior; with each unit going for about $12, Lareau and Apelt had done about $12,000 in sales. The Sharks agreed that this was a pretty disappointing number, but the entrepreneurs hoped the Sharks' investment would go toward some better marketing.
Kevin O'Leary was blunt. "I hate this very, very much, and I'm out," he said. Although he was booed by the other Sharks for being so harsh, none of them were willing to make an offer, either. The entrepreneurs went home empty-handed.
The Blowzee after Shark Tank
As "Shark Tank" fans know, not landing a deal doesn't mean that a product's fortunes have suddenly vanished. Within two and a half hours of the "Shark Tank" episode airing, all of the Blowzee's inventory sold out through Amazon.
When Mark Lareau and Mark Apelt spoke with The Roanoke Times in February 2022, they noted that the amount sold in that time was far more than the amount sold during their first five months in business. The "Shark Tank" effect struck again, and it seemed to bring good news for Lareau and Apelt.
"This was huge. It essentially was the equivalent of a multi-million dollar ad campaign," Lareau said to the outlet. The two added that they'd gotten hundreds of emails from fans and buyers, including offers to invest in the product. The future looked bright for the Blowzee — but ultimately, things didn't pan out.
Is the Blowzee still in business?
By all indications, the Blowzee has burned out. The business' website is down, searches on Amazon don't yield any results that include the product, the Blowzee Instagram has not posted since February of 2022, and the product's Facebook has been inactive since March of that same year. (Neither social media platform managed to get more than a few hundred followers for the product.) Despite the momentum the Blowzee had in the wake of its "Shark Tank" episode, its creators weren't able to keep it going.
Why, exactly, the company went under is difficult to tell. After they sold out of their inventory post-episode, Mark Lareau said to The Roanoke Times that it would take about 90 days for new inventory to arrive. That's a lot of time for things to change — and for potential investors and merchants to lose interest. And as Robert Herjavec pointed out, it was a product that only needed to be purchased once, and only to be used on special occasions. That doesn't provide much room to grow a business.
What's next for the Blowzee's founders?
By their admission, Mark Lareau and Mark Apelt weren't the most savvy businessmen, particularly when it came to marketing. (That was one of the reasons the two came on "Shark Tank" in the first place.) Kevin O'Leary commented on it after hearing about their unimpressive sales, and he wasn't the only one to pick up on it. Mark Cuban, though complimentary about the Blowzee and the amount of work Lareau and Apelt had put in, said that what they were pitching was less a company and more of a product.
The lack of diversification seemed to be a big reason that none of the Sharks bit. And with nothing else to sell while waiting for new inventory, there was a lot of room to go wrong.
It's difficult to tell what the entrepreneurs behind the Blowzee have been up to since their product disappeared. Though there are a few people with the name Mark Lareau on LinkedIn, none appear to be the one who pitched the Blowzee on "Shark Tank." The same is true for Mark Apelt, and neither of them seem to have any individual presence on other social media platforms.