Heidi and Cory Santiago want more than the bare minimum when they pitch Bear Minimum to the Sharks in episode 1001. Bear Minimum is a cook pot for camping that folds flat. Cory is the inventor of the husband and wife team from Spokane. It functions as a camping cook pot, portable dog dish, or anything else you’d use a pot for.
Since he was a kid, he’s enjoyed the outdoors and inventing things. One problem Cory had was the bulkiness of camping cookware. Even pots that nest inside each other are bulkier than the Bear Minimum. The portable pot folds up into a wallet sized package. When unfolded, it’s a square cooking pot. It’s made from Teflon, so it’s easy to clean as well as functional. There are three sizes: 32, 64 and 128 ounce and they cost between $27.99 and $53.99. You can buy them on Amazon.
The entrepreneurial couple sold their product in 30 different countries so far; they’re hoping for either broader distribution – with a Shark’s help. Heidi and Cory, with the help of their two daughters, made over three thousand units in their home. They recently ordered a large amount of product from China, but they ultimately want to manufacture Bear Minimum in the USA.
Bear Minimum Company Information
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Posts about Bear Minimum on Shark Tank Blog
Bear Minimum Shark Tank Recap
Heidi and Cory enter the Shark Tank seeking $100,000 for 20% of their business. With them, dressed as a bear, is their business partner Tim Krauss. They give their pitch, then hand out samples to the Sharks. They have a patent pending. The only sales they have is from the Kickstarter.
In an emotional part of the segment, they tell about how they brought a product to market in 2008. It was a watch for children who are potty training called Wee-Minder. Their overseas partner ripped them off, taking all their money and inventory. Instead of going bankrupt, Heidi works five jobs and Cory works on Bear Minimum during the day and drives for Lyft at night.
They need the Shark money for inventory. The products in the Tank are prototypes, but the manufacturer is ready to go. They cost $6.90 to make and they sell for $29.99. They have a distributor with big box store relationships and they plan to sell online.
Kevin says he never stays anywhere without 24 hour room service; he’s out. Mark likes the product and their passion, but he doesn’t think they’re hard core business people; he’s out. Jamie likes the product and the camping sector. He offer $100,000 for 25%. Mark says they should say yes right now. Lori says she doesn’t like the camping sector; she’s out. Daymond makes a Sharky offer of $100,000 for 33.3%. After a brief conference, they take Jamie’s offer.
Bear Minimum Shark Tank Update
The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. There is no evidence that the deal with Jamie closed. Since airing, they came out with the Complete Camp Kitchen, pictured below, a complete set of utensils and ten cooking tools that fold into the compact folding pot. They also introduced two larger pots: the Mama Bear and the Papa Bear.
As of August, 2022, they are sold out of everything except the “Mama Bear” on their website and they are “currently unavailable” on Amazon. Social media hasn’t been updated since November, 2021. Heidi appears to be running the company as Cory has been working as a buyer at Silgan Unicep since October, 2018. In July, 2024, they only have “Baby Bears” available on their website and the products are no longer available on Amazon. Annual revenue is estimated at around $80,000.
