Bye Bye Button Shark Tank Update: The $25,000 Deal That Pays the Sharks Back Twice

The smallest cheque in Season 18, measured in fobs. Graphic: Geeks Around Globe

Four Sharks bid on a $35 key fob in Season 18, Episode 4 ("The Mindy Project," aired October 14, 2026), and the founders left with the smallest cheque of the season so far: $25,000. What they gave for it is the interesting part — a quarter of the company plus a royalty that returns the Sharks' money twice over. Here is the deal in units, the haircut in context, and the one line on the Bye Bye Button website that tells you where the real cost lives.

Quick Answer

Bye Bye Button is a key fob that makes your phone ring. Hold it for three seconds and a free companion app triggers a realistic incoming call or text under any name you choose — "Mom," "Boss" — even with the app closed and the phone locked. Bozeman, Montana engineers Adam Lamb and Dan Barnes asked $25,000 for 10% ($250,000 valuation). After a four-Shark bidding war they accepted $25,000 for 25% from Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec, plus a $2.25-per-unit royalty until $50,000 is repaid — a cap the founders negotiated down on air. The fob lists at $34.99 (regular $35.99) on byebyebutton.com, Amazon and TikTok Shop, with no subscription.

Bye Bye Button at a glance

The fob: one button, held for three seconds. Photo courtesy of Bye Bye Button

What is Bye Bye Button?

A garage-door-opener-sized fob that pairs wirelessly with the Bye Bye Button app. In the app you pick the caller name and whether you want a call or a text. Press and hold the fob for about three seconds; your phone buzzes once to confirm, and a few moments later a real incoming call arrives — not an alarm or a ringtone, an actual call that shows on the lock screen. The fob works from a pocket, so you never touch your phone. Use is unlimited under a "generous fair use policy," there is no subscription, and the company is explicit that it is not an emergency device: nobody is on the other end.

Who founded Bye Bye Button?

Adam Lamb has a computer engineering degree from Montana State University and consults on firmware; Dan Barnes builds custom homes in Bozeman and Big Sky. Together they run AEA Lab, an engineering shop that designs connected devices for other brands — refrigeration monitoring, water-use tracking, HVAC control. The fob was born from Lamb's stint as an HOA president, when neighbourly chats ran long and his wife would call to rescue him. Friends kept asking for the gadget; they built it under Ejection Seat LLC. It is the first product the pair has marketed themselves rather than licensed, and a TikTok post is what got them on the show's radar.

Pressed in a pocket or at your side, no phone needed. Photo courtesy of Bye Bye Button

What happened on Shark Tank?

The pitch was a demo — a fob pressed, a phone ringing on cue — and the Sharks enjoyed it enough that four made offers. The founders took Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec together: $25,000 for 25%, with a $2.25 royalty on every unit until $50,000 has been paid back. The founders negotiated that cap down before accepting; Robert later joked about the fob being a "mission-critical" product.

Deal snapshot

Only on GAG: the deal in fobs, and the cost hidden in "no subscription"

Connect the dots:

1. The royalty is 22,222 fobs — exactly the same number as Loli-Med, in the same episode. Loli-Med's $150,000 at $6.75 a unit and Bye Bye Button's $50,000 at $2.25 both work out to 22,222 units. Two royalty deals, one hour of television, identical payback horizons — a coincidence worth noticing for anyone who thinks Sharks price royalties casually.
2. Twice the money back, then a quarter of the company. $25,000 in, $50,000 out through the royalty, and 25% retained. Per dollar invested, this is the most Shark-favourable structure in Season 18's first six episodes. The founders' consolation is that $2.25 is only 6.4% of a $34.99 sale.
3. The valuation is the floor of the season. $100,000 is the lowest implied valuation across all 19 deals we have indexed, and a 60% haircut sits just above the season median of 55%. The ask was already modest; the Sharks still cut it by more than half.
4. "No subscription, unlimited use" is a liability, not a feature. The fob triggers a real inbound phone call. Somebody pays a carrier or VoIP provider for every one of those calls, for the life of the device, out of a single $34.99 purchase. The "generous fair use policy" on the website is the tell: the company has to cap the thing it advertises as unlimited. Every fob sold is a small, perpetual telephony bill — and 22,222 of them is a meaningful one.
5. The app is the product; the fob is the moat. Free fake-call apps have existed for years. What Bye Bye Button sells is the ability to trigger one without touching your phone, which is also the patent-pending part — and the part the founders are already reusing for the Rescue Ring, a fob that messages chosen contacts with your location. That pivot from party trick to personal safety is where a $100,000 company could become something else.

The payoff: a real-looking incoming call under any name you choose. Image courtesy of Bye Bye Button

How does Bye Bye Button make money?

One-time hardware sales at $34.99 through its own store, Amazon and TikTok Shop, promoted largely through creator demo videos on TikTok and Instagram. There is no recurring revenue by design. Two follow-ons are in the works: Bye Bye Bailout, an app-only version that schedules a call in advance (awaiting app-store approval as of October), and the Rescue Ring safety fob, for which the company is collecting interest while it finishes legal and product work.

Bye Bye Button after Shark Tank

Watch the Rescue Ring. If the same fob can summon a friend with your location instead of a fake call from "Mom," the company moves from novelty gift to the personal-safety aisle — a category Robert Herjavec, who built a security business, understands well.

Lessons for founders

• Small asks get cut too. A $250,000 valuation still took a 60% haircut.
• Count the royalty in units. 22,222 is a number you can forecast against; "$2.25 a unit" is not.
• Unlimited-anything has a cost line. If your product consumes a metered service, price it in or cap it before a Shark asks.

Final take

Bye Bye Button is a charming gadget attached to a tough business: a one-time $35 sale funding a service that costs money every time it is used, in a company the Sharks priced at $100,000. The deal is expensive for the founders but tiny in absolute terms, and it buys two Sharks who know how to sell a stocking-stuffer. The upside is not the button. It is the Rescue Ring.

FAQ

Did Bye Bye Button get a deal on Shark Tank? Yes — $25,000 for 25% from Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec, plus a $2.25-per-unit royalty until $50,000 is repaid.

How much does Bye Bye Button cost? $34.99 (regular $35.99) at byebyebutton.com, Amazon and TikTok Shop. The app is free and there is no subscription.

How does Bye Bye Button work? Pair the fob with the app, choose a caller name and call or text, then press and hold the fob for three seconds; a real incoming call arrives moments later.

Is Bye Bye Button an emergency device? No. Nobody is on the other end. The company's forthcoming Rescue Ring is aimed at that use.

Which episode was Bye Bye Button on? Season 18, Episode 4, "The Mindy Project," aired October 14, 2026, with Polygons, Loli-Med and Sunday Club.

More Shark Tank Season 18 updates

• Shark Tank Season 18 episode guide and the GAG Dilution Index
• Loli-Med Shark Tank update — the other 22,222-unit royalty
• Polygons Shark Tank update — same episode
• HeroCovers Shark Tank update

Sources

• ABC's Shark Tank, Season 18, Episode 4; ABC episode page
• byebyebutton.com (product, how it works, Shark Tank page)
• NonStop Local Montana / montanarightnow.com, "Bozeman creators take Bye Bye Button to Shark Tank"
• Shark Tank Success, Shark Tank Index, Primetimer, The Cinemaholic, All Shark Tank Products
• GAG Season 18 Dilution Index (our own computation from on-air terms)