If You've Ever Pictured Dave Ramsey On 'Shark Tank,' Here's What Happened When He Put Himself In The Shoes Of A Shark

A recent call on “The Ramsey Show” gave listeners a glimpse of what it might sound like if personal finance expert Dave Ramsey ever sat in a “Shark Tank” investor chair, and it was classic Ramsey.

Riley, a small business owner in North Carolina, phoned in to ask how to raise funding for a product he developed while running his heating, ventilation and cooling system service company. He'd already spent $80,000 bootstrapping it and had built a minimum viable product. His plan? Launch a separate LLC and start pitching investors.

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Not Ready For The Tank

Ramsey didn't sugarcoat it. “If you were Shark Tanking this, they'd throw you off,” he said. “You got no history of cash flow. You didn't come in and say, ‘I've sold 80,000 units.’ You came in and said, ‘I have a dream and a prototype and I've made no money so far.'”

Riley had plans to sell the product for around $220 per unit, with estimated costs of $98 each. But when Ramsey asked for concrete bids or production volume projections, the numbers weren't straightforward. That only strengthened Ramsey's case that investors wouldn't bite.

“It's very difficult to attract an investor to this,” Ramsey said. “All you've got is a modified dream at this point.”

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Own More, Go Slower

Instead of chasing funding, Ramsey urged Riley to self-fund the next step: make a small batch of units, get them out to real customers, and see how they perform. “Pay cash for your experiments,” he said. “Let people kick it around. Let them tell you your baby's ugly. Then put some lipstick on that sucker and put it back out there.”

Ramsey warned that outside capital almost always comes with strings. “When you bring in a venture capitalist, it's like picking up a hitchhiker and then they hijack your car. They're going to take your little baby, and they ain't going to rock it the way you want it rocked.”

He encouraged Riley to stay in control. “I’d rather you sell 1,000, then 10,000, then 100,000 and 10 years from now sell 800,000 and you own 100%.”

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The Slow Company Approach

Co-host Rachel Cruze backed him up, noting how many success stories they've seen from people who built their ideas slowly and then cashed out big. Ramsey also shared his own experience: building his company without ever being “discovered.”

“There are people who still don't think I'm in radio,” Ramsey joked. “We got every one of those stations one at a time. No one has still discovered me.”

Ramsey ended with a dose of realism: “The three rules of business: it takes twice as long as you think it's going to, costs twice as much as you think it's going to, and you're not the exception.”

To entrepreneurs dreaming big, his advice was to stay patient, stay frugal, and don't give away your company before it has a chance to prove itself.

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