What Happened To The Lifebelt From Shark Tank Season 1?

Entrepreneurs looking to solve specific problems will often bring their businesses to "Shark Tank," a high pressure show where multi-millionaires have the chance to fund innovative inventions and ideas. Back in Season 1 Episode 2, Kevin Harrington, Kevin O'Leary, Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, and Robert Herjavec were the Sharks waiting to take a bite. One of the inventors coming in that day was Robert Allison with Lifebelt, who was hoping to encourage more teens to wear seatbelts, which can save your life during a collision. 

After experiencing a devastating loss, Allison came up with Lifebelt to try and prevent further tragedies. The device won't allow cars to start unless it can sense that everyone has a seat belt on. It would also ring the alarm if someone took off a seat belt while the car was in motion. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 50% of passengers killed in motor vehicle accidents were not buckled up. Despite Lifebelt's focus on saving lives, the Sharks were not having it.

Allison went on "Shark Tank" determined to get $500,000 for 10% of his company, Lifebelt, but this large evaluation wasn't a huge hit with the Sharks. During his pitch, Allison explained that he was hoping to scale his production and make deals with auto manufacturers. In response to this, the Sharks questioned his decision to not just license his product to car companies instead. Even though Allison said he'd considered this before, Harrington and John decided to opt out due to the valuation.

No stranger to making deals with automotive inventors like WaiveCar, O'Leary decided to bite — but it wasn't the exact deal Allison had in mind. The cut-throat Shark offered $500,000 for 100% of the Lifebelt patent, telling him to "never call him" after. Following suit, Herjavec also asked for 100% of the patent, but for $1 million (and told Allision he could call him once). Allison declined, saying there was no price he'd sell the patent for. He ended up leaving the tank without a deal.

Allison's appearance on "Shark Tank" did get Lifebelt a lot of attention after the episode aired — but maybe not for good reason. The entrepreneurial community reacted with shock not only over Allison turning down the deals, but that the Sharks even made the offers at all due to his invention being "worthless." There have been claims that Allison signed a multi-million dollar deal with Gillman Automotive Group, but there's no official statement or information on this. 

As of 2025, there is no Lifebelt website — some sources recall the site being down since 2016, the same year that Allison's LinkedIn stated the company came to an end. Lifebelt's X hasn't been active since 2009 and the brand's Facebook hasn't been active since 2010. Since 2016, Allison has claimed to be CEO of AQSWW, which doesn't appear to have any further information anywhere online. At this point, it seems as though Lifebelt is no longer in business, likely due to a lack of revenue and interested partners. Some car-related products on "Shark Tank" like the Drop Stop, have proven more useful than others.