Pink Shutter Photobooths is a leader in the photobooth rental service business in California and Las Vegas. Entrepreneur Lance Yabut pitches the Sharks on growing his popular and highly recommended service business in Shark Tank episode 425. Pink Shutter Photobooths are a popular “accessory” for weddings, parties, and corporate events. A Pink Shutter Photobooths “technician” arrives at an event location and sets up a temporary, high-tech photo booth, complete with touch screens, CANON Digital SLR Cameras, high-speed photographic printers, and “party props.” Guests can hop into the photo booth and create an instant photographic memento of the event. Pink Shutter Photobooths claims to be the best photo booth rental service in the business and the many kudos they receive on Yelp bear that claim out. They also offer a video option and they have a low price guarantee.
Pink Shutter Photobooths Tank Recap
Lance Yabut and Tom Kanemoto come to the Shark Tank hoping for a $3oo,000 investment in return for 10% of their business. The pair entice the Sharks to try the photo booth for themselves, and record some silly images using props like sparkling hats and other silly items. Daymond John looks particularly striking in his pink feather boa and glittering, over-sized sunglasses.
The company has no debt, and has cleared $195,000 in the first year. They’ve duplicated those earnings in the first quarter of the second year, putting them on track to another profitable year. They currently operate in five large cities: Sacramento, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, and San Diego.
Mark Cuban wants to know what makes them different from the other photobooth companies. Yabut explains that they’ve cut the cost of the photobooth down, and have partnered with Groupon and Living Social to market their products via the internet.
Kevin O’Leary says “There’s nothing proprietary about this.” He’s out.
Mark Cuban feels the pair have created a situation in which they have large margins, allowing competitors to undercut the business. He’s out.
Daymond John questions the numbers. The pair are each getting $100,000 salaries. He doesn’t believe the numbers add up, and he’s out.
Robert Herjavec agrees that the numbers don’t make sense, and says that 10% equity isn’t worth his time. He’s out.
Barbara Corcoran is the last Shark standing. She makes an offer: $300,000, in exchange for 33% of the business, with the contingency that when the pair take their salaries, she wants to be paid $100,000 as well.
Mark Cuban jumps back in, offering the same deal, but adding that he wouldn’t take the $100,000 repayment until they make $1 million in sales.
The pair take a minute to talk it over and come back with a counter-offer: 25% for $300,000, split between Corcoran and Cuban.
The Sharks refuse to change the percentage, and Cuban goes out, calling the pair “wishy-washy.”
Faced with only one offer, they accept Corcoran’s offer.
Pink Shutter Photobooths Shark Tank Update
True to her word, Barbara Corcoran “put the time in” on creating Pink Shutter Photobooths’ success. Since their airing on Shark Tank, Pink Shutter Photobooths have been invited to multiple events sponsored by big names like Hulu, NBC, and Dreamworks. The Pink Shutter Photobooths entrepreneurs are well on their way to becoming an established, nationwide company, and are enjoying the success that comes along with the boost from a Shark Tank Deal. The pair, along with Barbara Corcoran, are smiling all the way to the bank.
Fast forward to August, 2021 and they have 10 locations in San Francisco, Honolulu, Dallas, Inland Empire, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Orange County, Sacramento and San Diego, They now offer franchises too. Annual revenue is $5 million. In a November, 2022 update, the website is down, social media hasn’t been updated since 2018 and Lance no longer lists Pink Shutter on his LinkedIn page. In April, 2024, Lance has Pink Shutter back on his LinkedIn profile which indicates he shut the business in 2023. He co-founded Sierra Blue Ventures, a real estate investment firm, in 2017.
Posts About Pink Shutter Photobooths on Shark Tank Blog
Company Information
Unfortunately, the Pink Shutter Photo Booth folks just provided everyone with another example of how important it is to protect ideas before going on Shark Tank. Had these guys used the patent system, they wouldn’t have been nailed by questions about how they could be easily undercut in the market. Here’s a blog post about it: http://inventingpatents.com/shark-tank-pink-shutter-photo-booths/
I contacted pink shutter photo booth after my original photo booth had canceled and was so impressed that they were able to help me and even though it was expensive and the time was going to be cut in half, I was grateful to have something for my daughters graduation party. I emailed them and said how thankful that I was and how would I ever repay them for helping me on such a short notice. They emailed me back and asked that I gave them a 5 star review before they even came out. THANKFUL I DIDN’T! We paid for an upgrade to have two strips of photos a certain way so that guests could leave a strip and write a message to her in her photo book, however they weren’t printing that way and every time my daughter or her guests said something the attendant seemed extremely bothered. The attendant then announces to my guests that the photo booth has been extended to 9:45 p.m. for FREE and my daughter was so excited. I told the gentleman to please check before he announced that again because it couldn’t be right so he checked and it was the wrong information. He said that we could have it for an additional hour at the rate of $125 so my friend as a gift, graciously paid by credit card for it. The attendant took a picture of her credit card and when she asked why he did that, he stated the machine was broke. Today, her card was charged $317.50 and now she understood why he took a picture of it on his phone! That hour was more than the hourly amount we were originally charged. We tried emailing and no response! When we originally emailed to book the booth, we got an immediate response! Besides the hidden fees that you aren’t told about when you book it, they charge your credit card without permission! They take pride that they were on Shark Tank and that they have this amazing business and do huge jobs and that everyone loves them! We should have been treated as if they were working a wedding or a fancy venue, however because they came to our home and did a graduation party, we were treated differently! I WILL NEVER USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN!
It seems Kanemoto is now a competitive fisherman and Yabut exited the company in 2023 according to his LinkedIn. He has another business