What Happened To The Banana Phone From Shark Tank Season 14

Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring... what's that? Yeah, it's the Banana Phone. The Banana Phone is a Bluetooth headset that made its debut on Shark Tank in 2022. The fruity accessory connects to any Bluetooth-accessible phone, and can also be used as a speaker. Is the Banana Phone going to be a hit, or is it all but forgotten now? Let's dive into where it started and where it's at today.

In 2017, Brian Brunsing, Max Brown, and Charlie Katrycz — three Ontario-born friends who met at a wilderness canoe camp — came together to create and market a product with the goal of making the world a little more fun. Although all three friends also hold other jobs and have different business ventures, they pooled their skills together to create the Banana Phone.

Business experience isn't the only thing that the trio came to the table with. They also want to make a difference in the world with the Banana Phone, which is one of our favorite weird gadgets you can buy from Amazon. The device is made from ethically sourced materials using 100% recycled ABS plastics. A portion of sales (or, as they phrased it, a banana-split portion) totaling one percent annually from each device goes to a gorilla conservation charity, Gearing Up for Gorillas.

Before entering the tank, they utilized the Indiegogo campaign platform to raise funds. In the end, they managed to collect almost $45,000 — an impressive 145% of their fundraising goal. The initial run of pre-orders for Banana Phone, which now sells for $40, totaled over a thousand orders, spread over 18 countries.

Season 14 of Shark Tank was filed with wild gadgets from Chubby Buttons to Actionglow lights. On season 14, episode 2 was no exception when Brunsing, Brown, and Katrycz approached the Sharks asking for $250k in exchange for 10% of their company. They valued their company at $2.5 million. The pitch was simple: they saw three problems with the nine-to-five work/life balance that needed to be fixed. One: it's boring. Two: establishing a real human connection is almost impossible. Three: there's not enough fun in the world, "And that's bananas!" To sum it up, they wanted to use the Banana phone to live their motto of "talk more, smile more, and save gorillas."

Unfortunately, the sharks weren't in the mood for fruit salad. The levity was appreciated, but they couldn't withstand the questioning from the panel. Barbara Corcoran and Kevin O'Leary were less than impressed to find that this was a side gig for all three men and that none of them were prepared to leave their full-time jobs to invest their time completely in Banana Phone. Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner both passed on the basis that they didn't have any interest in the project, while Robert Herjavec was amused but not convinced that the company had any scalability. The episode aired on September 30th, 2022.

In a post-Shark-Tank world, the Banana Phone has not lost its novelty value. The founders navigated their way through the holiday season by marketing the phone handset as a white elephant gift (and let's be honest, we wouldn't be disappointed if we got one of those at a holiday work party), and even jumped onto the Barbie meme train on their Instagram. "This Barbie is more than just a banana," said the post on Banana Phone's Instagram profile.

As a company, Banana Phone also continues to do its part for gorilla conservation and the environment. The business is a part of 1% for the Planet, which specifically helps gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The Banana Phone also continues to be an ethical and sustainable product. The company uses conflict-free minerals in its Qualcomm controllers. In addition, it also utilizes recycled plastics and uses packaging that is fully recyclable and made from 100% paperboard.

Banana Phone may have been a bust with the Sharks, but the company itself is still chugging along. For anyone reading this and dealing with a sudden burning desire to have a Banana Phone you can call your own, it's available for $39.95 on Amazon, with occasional dips in price. The handset will connect to an iPhone or Android system and is compatible with Alexa, Siri, Google, and other voice assistant Bluetooth devices. Using the Banana Phone, you can answer calls, end calls, and reject calls.

The Banana Phone charges using a Micro USB cable (which is included in the purchase), and each charge will last up to twenty hours of talk time or 120 hours when idle. The Bluetooth range on the Banana Phone is sixty feet.

f you feel the need for a bunch, they also sell them in sets of three. (And yes, they are actually called a bunch.) The handset currently has a 4.5-star rating on Amazon, proving that people are bananas for this product.

Fruit-shaped communication devices may not be a common niche to make your money in, but it served the original founders well. According to the LinkedIn account of Brian Bunsing, their initial personal investment of $6,000 led to a company that was debt free and cash flow positive by year five. Eventually they peeled off profit of over double the company's year six net income by selling it.

Founder Max Brown stepped down as the CEO of Banana Phone and left the company. He has also been president of Garrett Leather since 2019, growing the company with multiple acquisitions over the last few years. Brian Brunsing also stepped back from Banana Phone after the sale. He has continued in his position as head of digital and fintech partnerships with Visa, keeping busy in the fintech world and expanding his team within the company. Charlie Katrycz, the third in the founding trio and the only one absent from their Shark Tank appearance, has not publicly disclosed if he still holds his previous position of Chief Technical Officer within the company. If so, he's pulling double duty since he also serves as founder and CTO for Undu Wearables.

While this company may not have set them up for life, they still found a way to turn banana (phones) into bread. As for the Banana Phone itself, it seems like business as usual. While the social media accounts of the company have gone stagnant, the phone is still available for sale on the company's website.

You can buy this episode and more on Amazon Prime Video.