What Happened To MuteMe From Shark Tank Season 13?
On October 15, 2021, the second episode of the 13th season of "Shark Tank" premiered on ABC. The second of four businesses pitched to the Sharks that day was "MuteMe," a USB-connected and illuminated hardware mute button to allow for quick muting of conference calls.
The idea was born out of the dramatic uptick in video conference calls and meetings during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The idea was likely born out of the subsequent pattern of people forgetting to mute themselves, accidentally muting themselves, or struggling to find the call app's onscreen mute button.
The Sharks understood that there was potentially a market for such a device, but bristled at both the manufacturing cost and retail consumer pricing. Between that, MuteMe's shockingly anemic sales at Staples to date, and the lack of a clear marketing plan, there was only one offer — but it was pulled by the end of the segment.
Still, it seemed like there was an agreement that there was a viable product. Did MuteMe pull it together after the taping?
What happened to MuteMe on Shark Tank?
MuteMe co-founders Paramveer "Parm" Dhoot and Tye Davis entered the Tank asking for a $200,000 investment in 20% of their USB-connected mute button business. With the use of video conferencing apps increasing dramatically since COVID-19, everyone got used to refrains of "you're on mute" and "you forgot to unmute" in many a meeting.
Dhoot and Davis argued that there are many video chat apps with different user interfaces, and the onscreen mute buttons be easy to miss in a pinch. Hence MuteMe's existence, which pairs the button with an app that lets it control your microphone volume at the system level of the device.
The Sharks initially bristled at the relatively high cost of manufacturing ($11.66 at the then-current scale) and at retail ($39.00). The $280,000 that MuteMe grossed across a pair of crowdfunding campaigns stood out as impressive, but their direct sales of $61,000 to date (roughly 1,500 units) dampened the enthusiasm a bit.
The mood only got worse when Davis explained that MuteMe had been available in every Staples store in the country for four weeks — and had only sold 150 units. Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary opted out over unfocused marketing.
Daymond John and guest Shark Peter Jones both felt the cost and retail price needed to come down, but Daymond offered the $200,000 for a 50% stake because he felt it would take a lot of work on his part. Lori Greiner felt undecided enough that she opted out, as did Jones, with Daymond changing his mind and withdrawing his deal to close the segment.
MuteMe after Shark Tank
Right after the episode aired, Dhoot commented multiple times on a Reddit post about the pitch. He claimed that Greiner and another Shark made offers that were cut from the aired version. However, those were pulled when Jones, with his electronics experience, showed preliminary interest.
In the two years since the MuteMe episode aired, the retail price has not come down on the original flagship device. The company did, however, introduce the $19.99 MuteMe Mini, which is simply a MuteMe that's about the size of a small thumb drive. Though Staples.com still hosts a page for MuteMe as part of the chain's "Innovation Table," the item page it links to is gone, and there are no relevant search results for "MuteMe" on the site.
MuteMe opened an Amazon store in July 2022 to supplement its direct sales, but it's hard to tell exactly how well the product is doing. At the time of writing, the MuteMe Mini is not available at Amazon, while the original MuteMe's "Best Sellers Ranks" are mainly in obscure categories: #1,872 in "Unique Finds" and "#60 in Unique Electronics."
It does, however, have a solid ranking in a much more competitive and specific category, albeit one it doesn't fit into perfectly: #27 (on the item page; #31 in the actual list) in "Computer Microphones." That puts it behind Blue's famous Snowball and Yeti microphones, but ahead of the category's best-selling microphones.
Is MuteMe still in business?
MuteMe is still in business, and the best indications of where the company stands appear to be in an August 2022 story from KOVR-TV in Sacramento and a January 2023 Sacramento Business Journal article. Per KOVR-TV, MuteMe had sold more than 30,000 units in about a year to the tune of $1.2 million. "So, not bad for a little company running out of a garage at home still," Dhoot told the CBS-owned TV station.
At that point, though, his company still had the Staples deal that has seemingly evaporated since. Four months later, per the Journal article, that number had crept up to 45,000 units to date. The increase in sales was attributed to a Christmas shopping season appearance on "CBS News Sunday Morning" in a "Techno Claus" segment hosted by David Pogue.
Overall, it looks like the core business is doing pretty okay, albeit maybe not as expected. Meanwhile, to try to promote the product better, Dhoot started posting vlogs titled "Hardware Hustle" on the MuteMe YouTube channel in March 2023 — though none of these videos amounted to more than 100 views each, as of this writing.
In June 2023, Dhoot and Davis started a series of longer-form videos to a similar lack of interest. However, their most recent video, a July 10 video upload, shows some promise: A 96-minute conversation with fellow "Shark Tank" alumnus, Scotty Trujillo of Copy Keyboard, to discuss their experiences on the show.
What's next for MuteMe?
In a June 14 YouTube vlog, Dhoot explained that MuteMe has a new product almost ready to release, the MuteMe "Click." He said he was hoping to be able to produce in China for $4.50 per unit and sell in the United States for $29. Later that same day, he explained the specific technological goals of the Click in another vlog.
"It's a new MuteMe device that will give you four degrees of control," he said. "It's going to give you your end call functionality, your raise hand functionality, your camera functionality, and then, of course, your mute functions, all in one device."
Dhoot added that to keep costs down, parts are being recycled from the original MuteMe, such as the plastic shell. Dhoot concedes they should have selected a cheaper plastic instead of the unusually strong, scratch-resistant variety used on the original device.
In Dhoot's most recent vlog, he explained that they were testing out how easily they could engrave different types of plastic. According to Dhoot, 30% of their business is enterprise customers, almost all of whom request the custom engraving option.
If MuteMe has any further plans for the YouTube channel, they're not immediately apparent, as there has been no upload in over a month and a half as of this writing. The company's X/Twitter account has also been silent since a July 11 post about a Prime Day deal for the original MuteMe.