Is ‘Shark Tank’ Real? Investor Matt Higgins Reveals the Difference Between the Show and His Job
Season 10 of Shark Tank is bringing back guest sharks like Bethenny Frankel. But there will also be some new faces including Matt Higgins, who is the CEO of RSE Ventures, which invests in companies. So he’d be the best person to answer whether the show is real or fake.
The Cheat Sheet talked to the cast of Shark Tank on Oct. 14 for PaleyFest. We asked the new guest shark just that and learned a few more things about him and the show.
Matt Higgins said Shark Tank is authentic
The guest shark is a huge fan of the show. “I’m not just a shark,” Matt Higgins told The Cheat Sheet. “I’m a fan so that’s always a process, right? Like I’m also transcending to sit in one of those chairs and take my spot and compete. So it took a little bit getting used to. I’ve seen every single episode.”
The good news is that Higgins said filming the show and watching it aren’t that different. “It’s really just an elongated version of what you see on the couch,” he explained. “They cut it up to make it work. But otherwise, it’s just as authentic.”
Higgins said the main difference between investing at his job and on the show is time
It makes sense that Matt Higgins was such a huge fan before getting on the show considering what he does for a living.
“Well, number one this is my day job,” said Higgins. “So I’m comfortable supporting entrepreneurs, investing and doing deals. Doing it with cameras in your face probably took a little bit getting used to.”
But the other thing he had to adjust in order to be successful on the show was time. He said normally he has months to go over the idea and if the person is capable of being successful. “The idea that you have 60 minutes or less to figure out does this person have what it takes to be successful is pretty extraordinary,” said Higgins.
The sharks gave him two kinds of advice
Higgins said Mark Cuban and Daymond John gave him advice before he was out on his own while filming. So what did they tell him?
“They all gave me [a] similar type of advice,” Matt Higgins told The Cheat Sheet “which is people come on the show and worry ‘what shark am I?’ You always get asked ‘what shark are you similar to?’ And the answer everyone says is ‘just be your authentic self.’”
He also said Kevin O’Leary gave him advice with “don’t reach. Don’t do anything unnatural like don’t feel pressure to do a deal just because you’re on the show.”
Higgins wouldn’t spoil how his time on the show panned out. But he did say, “I didn’t go on the show to not to do deals” and “I definitely will not have disappointed.”
Read more: ‘Shark Tank’: Sharks Tease More Entrepreneurs Could Return as Sharks like Jamie Siminoff
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