They’re back: Australia’s sharks are back in the tank and will be on the lookout for deals when the third season of Shark Tank kicks off in two weeks.
The hard-to-please team is returning for a third season of the reality TV show for entrepreneurs, with Boost Juice’s Janine Allis, RedBalloon founding director Naomi Simson, serial entrepreneur Steve Baxter, The Veneto Group’s Andrew Banks and Greencross managing director Dr Glen Richards in the driver’s seat as enthusiastic business owners make their pitches.
Over the past two seasons the sharks have thrown hundreds of thousands of dollars towards a broad range of ideas, from fashion and clothing businesses to team building empires.
In season three, viewers will be able to take inspiration from a range of world-first inventions, from a device with the potential to save the Great Barrier Reef to a bacon-flavoured vegetarian seasoning, according to a trailer broadcast by Channel Ten.
Plenty of cash will be splashed, with the show promising a $2.5 million investment in one entrepreneur, marking the biggest funding round in the show’s history.
There’s a chance this year’s entrepreneurs will be even more on-the-ball than ever, with business owners who have previously appeared on Shark Tank telling SmartCompany they learned a lot from watching the first season of the program.
After securing a $100,000 investment from Steve Baxter and Andrew Banks last year, founder of The Adventure Group Michael Donaldson said his team had benefited from watching others go first.
“We planned and — funnily enough — took those military lessons onboard and war-gamed all the detail: what if they said this, what if they said that. We had the advantage of watching season one to anticipate the questions,” he said.
The first episode of Shark Tank season three will air at 8:30pm on Tuesday, June 20 on Ten and Win Network.
Refresh your memory on the deals that made it — and those that didn’t — during Shark Tank season one and season two.
Follow StartupSmart on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and iTunes.
