Connor Brooke
Company: Simple Habit
Founder/CEO: Yunha Kim
Season: Appeared on the season 9 premiere
Simple Habit is a meditation and mindfulness app that promotes self-care. The app features more than 50 free meditation sessions that can reduce a user’s anxiety, improve focus and boost self-awareness.
According to their website, their “mission is to empower humans to stress less, achieve more, and live better.” The app is available for free on both iPhone and Android and the courses are also available online.
When Kim originally appeared on “Shark Tank,” she came in asking for $600,000 for five percent equity. After sharing with the sharks that she hoped to partner with celebrities and influencers in the future, Mark Cuban and Daymond John went out. John believed she could get the money elsewhere, while Cuban accused her of being a gold digger who only came on the show for publicity. Lori Greiner also went out because she believed Kim didn’t need any additional money.
Ultimately, Kim received an offer from Robert Herjavec and guest shark Richard Branson, who each offered $300,000 for 10 percent—a total of $600,000 for 20 percent between the two investors. She left without a deal, however, after they failed to come to an agreement on the equity.
Kim spoke with Business 2 Community about Simple Habit’s experience on the show and what their next steps are. Take a look at the Q&A below:
Q&A with Simple Habit’s Founder Yunha Kim
How has Simple Habit changed since the episode was first recorded? Since it aired?
Our first night, we welcomed 75,000 new users to the Simple Habit community. We’ve since climbed ranks to become the #1 meditation app in App Store. We’ve inspired 1M users to-date and that’s quickly growing.
Is there anything you would have changed about your time spent in the tank, including your pitch and valuation?
I wish I did a better job of communicating our mission – to create a world where every human can stress less, achieve more and live better. I was able to address this to an extent, but the footage didn’t ultimately make it into the episode.
Who’s your favorite shark?
It was a great pleasure to meet Richard Branson. His warmth, philanthropic spirit, and optimism inspire me.
What are Simple Habit’s next steps?
We plan to scale our platform to bring even more teachers and sessions to users. At Simple Habit, our mission is to empower people to stress less, achieve more and live better. We see the Simple Habit meditation app as a channel to make meditation and mindfulness more accessible than ever before. Our goal is to be a leading platform for wellness.
Where do you see this industry in 5-10 years?
I see meditation and mindfulness as a core component of the greater wellness industry.
There are inevitable shifts in wellness. Humans are more stressed than ever before, and they are looking for ways to better manage this stress. Companies want to help and wellness providers are looking for channels to reach more people. There needs to be a solution, a platform, that makes wellness resources more accessible for all sides.
What would you say to people who want to start their own business?
Find smart people who care about the product to help you on this journey. The most important thing you can do is build a team of people who move fast, work hard and genuinely care. Your products and ideas will always change, and your early team members will have a huge impact in shaping what you ultimately create.
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who want to make it on “Shark Tank”?
Make your pitch visual. Bring tangible experiences into the room that can bring your product to life.
Anything else you’d like to add?
We are listening to users to create relevant content based on demand and needs. We’re learning that lifestyle factors drive people to start meditating – chronic pain, stress, depression.
We’ve received thousands of emails from users who tell us how Simple Habit has helped – from college students to entrepreneurs to new mothers to lawyers to a surgeon who even uses Simple Habit before performing in the operating room. We continue to get daily stories from users and they serve as the best inspiration that pushes us to keep building the best platform to help people stress less, achieve more and live better.
Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length
Read more: Shark Tank: ShowerPill Fails to Get A Deal
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Connor Brooke.
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Hate to say it but a sh*tty low equity offer and leaving without a deal totally made her a ‘gold digger’ – pure publicity