Maurice Bachelor and Joel Griffith entered the proverbial tank seeking $150,000 for 10% equity in Bot-It, their web-based startup that offers bot services to the average person to give them some of the power held by, for example, ticket scalpers who use bots to jump the line for buying concert tickets. Besides concert tickets, Bachelor offered up dinner reservations and golf course tee times as bot targets that Bot-It can be used to compete with. Though Bot-It had a slate of pre-built bots available to customers, the company also sells the ability to order a custom-made, purpose-built bot.
Guest shark and Fanatics founder Michael Rubin noted that his company had been inundated with bot orders, particularly for limited edition collectibles, to the point that they had to build anti-bot software. How could Bot-It avoid such safeguards? Bachelor said that Bot-It had been made undetectable, but he didn’t explain how. Asked by Rubin for sales figures, Griffith said they’d had over $30,000 in sales in about three months from approximately 350 subscribers, each paying $40 to $300. (The frequency was not mentioned.) Kevin O’Leary asked about the moral question of bots, to which Griffith said they hoped to change the perception of bots by evening the playing field.
Mark Cuban offered $150,000 for 20%, with Rubin quickly undercutting him by offering $150,000 for 15%. O’Leary, Lori Greiner, and Barbara Corcoran opted out for different reasons, but Bachelor asked about Cuban and Rubin joining forces. They said they were willing to pay $300,000 for 30%, which Bot-It accepted.
