“Beulr…? Beulr…?” Named after the titular character from the 80s classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Beulr was a bot aimed at helping students skip class without getting caught. It certainly seems like something Ferris would have used if he had the technology back in the 80s. During the pandemic, classes moved from in-person to online, and students faced constant on-camera Zoom lectures. In 2021, Tulane University student-turned-founder Peter Solimine built a bot that could open Zoom and attend online classes for him. One of his online classes started at 7 a.m., and the bot would attend Zoom class so he could sleep in instead.
In 2021, he presented the bot “Beulr” to the investors on season 13, episode 6 of Shark Tank. Despite the ingenuity, he walked away without a deal, but that wasn’t the end of Beulr. In fact, not getting a deal can spell success for some contestants, like MTailor from season 7. Here’s what happened.
What came of Beulr during its Shark Tank appearance?
Like Ferris Bueller, we first meet Solimine in bed. The Shark Tank doors open, but no one is there, leaving the sharks confused. Then the camera pans to a bed with a TV mounted above it. Solimine appears on the screen sipping tea, then, as an alarm clock rings, the real Solimine rolls out of bed, nods at his video likeness, and puts on a bathrobe. He introduces himself and begins his pitch, asking the sharks for $150,000 for 20% of his company.
The sharks were charmed by him, but ultimately worried about the ethical issues of skipping meetings and classes, as well as the business model in general. Robert Herjavec immediately asked what would happen if someone asked a question of his avatar. Solimine admits it’s just a static video and not interactive. Before dropping out of college, he used Beulr to attend lectures with no participation, and he watched the recordings later at 2x speed. The modern-day Ferris Bueller unfortunately would have been outed by his machine if asked a direct question from his economics teacher about the Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act.
The sharks dropped out one by one. Herjavec said it’s not a business and didn’t see how it can make money, while Mark Cuban told him to go back to school.
Where is Beulr’s founder now?
Despite not making a deal, Solimine kept Beulr alive for a few years. His sparse LinkedIn profile lists his position at Beulr as ending in November 2023, but there isn’t any indication of why it shut down. There are no active social media profiles for Beulr. Solimine’s profile includes a link to his personal website, but it redirects to an error page.
In fact, there is little information available online about Beulr aside from a slew of Shark Tank blogs not directly affiliated with the show, many of which have inaccurate or outright fabricated information. One erroneously says that Beulr did get a deal on the show.
In 2022, Solimine sat for an interview with podcaster Joe Pardo about his experience on Shark Tank, explaining what it was like to shoot his segment and how it differed from what aired. Since Buelr shut down, he has done some freelance programming work and co-founded Parallel Distribution, a social media consulting firm.
