A controversial product made its appearance in Season 4 of Shark Tank, which aired in 2012. The product was called the CATE App, standing for “Call and Text Eraser.” The entrepreneur pitching the product was Neal Desai. The app was designed to hide texts and phone calls on your smartphone from others. The controversy came as Desai was comfortable with the app being marketed as an app for people to cheat on their significant others. Although the panel of potential investors on the show, the sharks, were tentatively interested and offered a deal, the deal was never fulfilled after the show. Today, the CATE App is no longer in business.
Although deals are sometimes made during an episode of Shark Tank, nothing is finalized until the due diligence period after the show. As in the case of the Hopscotch app from Season 12, a deal was proposed but never finalized. Still, the Hopscotch app continued to thrive afterwards.
The CATE App was not actually Desai’s original idea, though he was the one wishing to turn it into a business. It was designed by police officer Phil Immler to reduce domestic disputes. It was based on his experience seeing incidents happen after significant others were unhappy with what they saw on their partner’s phone. Desai, though, had a different idea for the app.
Details of the Shark Tank deal
Neal Desai entered Shark Tank with some momentum already for the CATE App. It had over 5,000 subscribers and he was charging $4.99 per app download. Charging per download is an interesting choice, as those trying to hide cheating or their actions from their abusers may also be forced to justify a charge on the bank account. Desai asked for a $50,000 investment for a 5% stake in the business.
Sharks Robert Herjavec and Mark Cuban didn’t like the morality angle of the app and that it was being marketed as an app for cheaters. They were immediately not interested in investing. The other sharks, however, were more interested if Desai instead promised to rebrand the product as a privacy app, not a cheating app. With some negotiation, a deal was ultimately closed by Kevin O’Leary and Daymond John.
However, just like the ReThink anti-bullying app from Season 8, the deal was never finalized after the show. Despite that, the app’s presence on the show did catch attention. After the episode, there were 10,000 app downloads with the vast majority being women. After that initial interest, however, the app presumably failed to grow the way Desai wanted as it is no longer available to download.
The CATE App after the show
After Shark Tank, Desai did try to market the CATE App to federal agencies as a confidentiality app for sensitive information, perhaps going off of the guidance of the sharks about how it should be rebranded and repurposed. However, it appears nothing came to fruition since it is no longer in business.
The only evidence of the CATE App on social media is a YouTube channel for the product, though the last video was 14 years ago as of this time of writing. It does link to a website that seems to have shut down. One of the videos is titled “Cheaters App for Android! #1 Selling 5-Star CATE”. Perhaps it was Desai’s inability to shake off the cheating angle of the app that led to its downfall. Though the episode aired in 2012, people still remember the app and discuss it on forums.
If Desai had been able to stick to the original spirit of the app, and had successfully rebranded with Shark Tank support, perhaps the app could be on the list of the essential apps for domestic violence victims like Aspire, eBodyGuard, or Looped Fusion Portal. So while the CATE App got interest on Shark Tank, it got no deal and did not survive long after the episode.
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