Entrepreneur Pitches Safety Nailer in 'Shark Tank' Episode

The March 20 episode of Shark Tank featured the pitch for the safety product, "Safety Nailer" by one of its engineers, Drew Zirkle. Zirkle pitched the product to the sharks Kevin O'Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, and their Guest Shark Rohan Oza to see if he can make any of the sharks to invest in the company.

Safety Nailer is made of impact-resistant plastic called the acrylonitrile butadiene styrene or ABC plastic. This ensures that fingers are safe from hammer while in use and prevents the nails from buckling that the nails or screws are straight and secured in place.

Apart from the ABC plastic, each Safety Nailer also has neodymium magnets which secures the nails in place so that they remain straight. The magnets work for various types of nails, stainless steel, and copper.

The product also has an elastic strap which is another safety feature of Safety Nailer. It is attached or inserted in the index finger and thumb to open and close the nailer and keep it in place while you work.

Kristen and Daniel Eifes are a married couple from Yorktown who came up with the idea of the Safety Nailer after realizing that although more people use nails, there are minimal safety products for them. In 2012, Daniel came with the design and secured a patent. Daniel was a former member of the Navy and upon being medically discharged from his position as a safety officer, he contacted an old college friend, Zirkle, to help them bring the device into production.

The Safety Nailer has also launched a Kickstarter project and in the duration of the device on the platform, they got a total of 416 backers. They described their product as a patented tool that makes hand nailing easier and simple, with protection for fingers, and reduction of nail buckling.

On Friday's Shark Tank episode, Zirkle was asking for $100,000 for 14% of the company. He literally and figuratively nailed it, although not immediately. His demonstration was considered to lack a "wow" factor for shark Corcoran and the low sales make potential investors not super confident in a partnership with Safety Nailer. Shark O'Leary was also unconvinced given that Zirkle didn't work in with Safety Nailer full time.

Shark Cuban felt that it was too early for the product since Safety Nailer is not a company yet and there has to be someone who will focus on the business 24/7.

After sensing that he was losing, Zirkle decided to go with a playful twist during his pitch. He showed the sharks a clacker that wouldn't clack because the magnets inside were repelling each other. This made the sharks exasperated because the toy didn't have any connection to the pitch of Zirkle.

However, Cuban loved the toy and played with it like a kid. He told his fellow sharks that if they go for it, he'll put in money just to get rights to the clacker. Eventually, three sharks agreed to put in $100,000 for 33% of the company and allowed Cuban to keep the toy.