You don’t want to end your birthday without making a wish. But by blowing out the candles, you cover your cake with bacteria. Founded by Mark Apelt and Mark Lareau, Blowzee is a fun device you can blow through without worrying about germs. It was featured on Shark Tank but didn’t get a deal. Blowzee is worth $0 as they ceased operations in 2022.
Meet the Founders
Mark Apelt and Mark Lareau are hard-working dads from Henrico, Virginia. Apelt is an environmental science graduate, he also has experience as an engineer and a teacher. Not much is known about Lareau’s educational background, he worked in supply chain management and logistics as a consultant.
The two Marks know each other because their sons are friends. One day, they attended the birthday party of another child. Because the lighting was right, they witnessed how much spit went into the cake when the kid blew his candles.
Designing the Blowzee
Apelt with the help of his son Jake spent 15 months designing a device with a sensor and a type of fan to get rid of saliva and germs when you blow through it.
The Apelt family partnered with Mark Lareau for his business knowledge and experience in logistics. They were able to manufacture the product cheaply overseas. Together, they invested $32,000 to start the business and launched it in early 2020. Five months later, they generated $12,000 in sales.
Why Every Shark Said No
The guys appeared on season 13 of Shark Tank, seeking $100,000 in exchange for 20% equity. A $500,000 valuation was quite high considering how low their sales were. They made a professional pitch and handed out samples to the Sharks.
Once the duo revealed their sales, it was clear they wouldn’t get a deal. Kevin O’Leary thought $12,000 is nothing when it comes to revenue. All the Sharks liked the product but it wasn’t at a stage where it was investible. Also, Robert believed they would need to develop more products to become a feasible business.
Sold Out in Hours, Gone in Weeks
Before Shark Tank, Blowzee had already been featured in the New York Post and Real Simple, and received praise from Jimmy Fallon. The show amplified that momentum dramatically – the founders revealed they sold out their entire inventory within two and a half hours of the episode airing on January 28, 2022.
The surge was short-lived. The founders had placed a restocking order that would take 90 days to arrive, but new stock never appeared. Based on the last activity on their social media accounts, Blowzee appears to have ceased operations by March 2022, just weeks after the episode aired.
The website is no longer active and the product is unavailable on Amazon. Whether the closure was due to manufacturing difficulties, supply chain problems or a decision to wind down after taking the Sharks’ feedback on board has never been confirmed by the founders.
Today Blowzee is no longer in business. The Sharks’ concern that it was a single-purchase product with a narrow market proved well-founded. Based on its brief trading history, the business had an estimated value of around $300,000 at its peak – most of which was generated in the hours after the Shark Tank episode aired.
