Foot Fairy

Dr. Sylvie Shapiro and Nicole Brooks hope their product, Foot Fairy, an iPad App for measuring kids shoe sizes, measures up to the Sharks’ standards when they introduce it in the season 5 finale. Shapiro is a podiatrist and Brooks is a licensed family therapist; the two friends share the stresses of balancing family with their respective professions and are always on the lookout for things that make parenting a bit easier.

They developed the Foot Fairy App to do just that. The App measures a child’s foot size accurately, so there’s no guesswork when buying shoes. Users can even order shoes from Zappos from inside the app. Dr. Shapiro is also the founder of DrShoeMom.com, a site that recommends kids shoes, and PlanetFlops.com, a site that sells eco-flip flops.

The pair is likely looking to the Sharks for help developing the Foot Fairy app.

Foot Fairy Shark Tank Recap

Dr. Sylvie and Nicole enter the Shark Tank seeking $75,000 for 15% of their business. They tell their story and give the pitch. Dr. Shapiro demonstrates the app for the Sharks on her daughter, Sienna. They want the cash to enhance the back-end infrastructure. The way they make money is with commissions from Zappos. 13,144 people downloaded the app. Even though they have an 18% click-through rate (which is outstanding IMHO), the have not received any commission checks.

Kevin is unimpressed. It’s not proprietary and he thinks big shoe companies will replicate the idea; he’s out. It’s a bit early for Lori, she’s out. When Dr. Shapiro says she assembled a “technology team” to build the app, he says he could do the same thing; he’s out. Barbara doesn’t see how she’d get her money back as an investor; she’s out. After a little back and forth with the women, Mark offers $75,000 for 40% contingent on him trying the app, checking for competitors and checking that the “technology team” doesn’t have an ownership stake in the company. They accept.

Foot Fairy Shark Tank Update

The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. This deal never closed and the business was effectively out of business six months after airing in May, 2014. As of August, 2021, they are long gone and there are at least a dozen shoe sizing apps in the app store.