RFID Goes Into the Shark Tank

I've become a big fan of Shark Tank, an ABC television show that features ordinary Americans offering to sell a stake in their startup businesses to five venture capitalists. Virtually all of the businesses featured on Shark Tank are consumer firms that all viewers can relate to, but as I watch each night (I catch the reruns on CNBC), I often think about what would happen if an RFID startup went on Shark Tank. In my experience, RFID companies often make the same mistakes that the newbies on Shark Tank do: They try to sell what they want to produce, not what people want to buy, and they don't market effectively.