“A Sign You Are Innovating”: Mirai Clinical Founder Koko Hayashi On Two “Shark Tank” Appearances With No Deal
Six years after failing to secure a “Shark Tank” deal for app and sleep tape seller Koko Face Yoga, founder Koko Hayashi was back on the ABC pitch contest television program Friday with another business, Mirai Clinical, but achieved the same outcome.
The five small-screen investor judges or “sharks”—Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec—rebuffed the brand’s ask of $500,000 in exchange for 5% equity at a $10 million valuation. Mirai Clinical, which addresses body odor associated with aging or nonenal, a compound from the oxidation of fatty acids on the skin, generated $3.2 million in sales last year and is on track to hit $6 million this year, Hayashi tells Beauty Independent. She’s confident it could sell in 2027 for $10 million.
The lack of a “Shark Tank” deal didn’t deter people from visiting Mirai Clinical’s website, and traffic to it jumped 100X immediately following the episode featuring the brand. It offered a Shark Tank Bundle with its signature Deodorizing Soap with Persimmon, Purifying and Deodorizing Body Wash with Persimmon and a holder along with a free set of wipes for $48.66. It also offered 15% off products site-wide through the weekend.
However, the site traffic spike didn’t translate to the sales volume Mirai Clinical anticipated. The brand hired temporary staff for its warehouse in Reno to handle sales volume induced by “Shark Tank” for the weekend, but decided to close Sunday due to lower than expected sales volume. Hayashi says, “I really don’t know if it’s just us, that we’re not an attractive business, or if there’s less of an impact from ‘Shark Tank’ in general.”
On the show, the sharks were skeptical of Mirai Clinical’s valuation and its raison d’etre. Greiner and Corcoran questioned whether “old people smell” is a real problem. “I don’t really think that everybody who’s over the age of 40, men and women, smell weird,” said Greiner. Corcoran said, “I’m married to an old guy. He smells good.”
Hayashi is accustomed to adverse reactions to Mirai Clinical. She points to science to neutralize it. In a study chronicled in a 2021 article in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Japanese beauty conglomerate Shiseido showed nonenal was a characteristic of the body odor of the middle-aged and the elderly. Mirai Clinical chose its star ingredient, persimmon extract, to eliminate nonenal.
“Wrinkle cream used to get backlash when it first came out, but now it’s mainstream. So, every time you start something new, you always get backlash,” says Hayashi. “That’s a sign that you are innovating.” Certainly, at the time Hayashi brought Koko Face Yoga to “Shark Tank,” it was long before mouth taping was adopted by wellness influencers and celebrities such as Lauryn Bosstick and Gwyneth Paltrow.
Mirai Clinical was inspired by Hayashi’s grandmother and is built on the belief that elders should be respected. The brand launched in 2011 when Hayashi was living in Japan. She moved to the United States in 2014 to chase the American Dream. On “Shark Tank,” Hayashi shared that Deodorizing Soap with Persimmon accounts for 53% of Mirai Clinical’s sales. It costs $1.85 to make and it retails for $19.97.
“Every time you start something new, you always get backlash.”
Mirai Clinical’s paid advertising focuses on women in their sixties and above. In 2024, 30% of its revenues were put toward Facebook ads. The brand advertises on Google and Amazon, too, and its blended return on ad spend (ROAS) is 2.5. Last week, it began experimenting with a Demand-Side Platform (DSP) marketing campaign on Amazon. The campaign allows the brand to reach consumers on and off Amazon, and is meant to improve visibility on television shows, movies and live entertainment on the e-commerce giant.
In addition, Mirai Clinical committed $100,000 to customer data platform Segment by Twilio leading up to its “Shark Tank” appearance. It enables the brand to accumulate customer data and provide a personalized shopping journey on Mirai Clinical’s site. For example, Hayashi says that, if a customer is interested in menopause, they will be met with menopause messaging on the site until they arrive at checkout.
Hayashi is Mirai Clinical’s only full-time employee. The brand brings in help on a freelance basis. To beef up its customer service despite the lean infrastructure, it introduced an artificial intelligence voice agent to field customer inquiries. Mirai Clinical’s customers tend to prefer talking on the phone about their inquiries rather than typing in an online chat format.
After its “Shark Tank” appearance, Mirai Clinical was able to capture consumer information and retarget consumers with emails as well as Facebook and Google ads with a “Shark Tank” image or keyword. Even if the brand’s sales expectations weren’t met, Hayashi believes that’s incredibly valuable to Mirai Clinical in the long run in addition to exposure from the show. To this day, she encounters viewers who recognize her from her first appearance on “Shark Tank.”
“The show is impactful,” says Hayashi. “Every time I introduce myself now, I say ‘Shark Tank’ twice. It’s really cool.”
