Product Update
Is iReTron Still in Business? (2026 Update)
Is iReTron from Shark Tank still around in 2026? The deal it made, the sharks who invested, and where to buy iReTron today.
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Jason Li was sixteen years old when he pitched iReTron, an electronics recycling and trade-in service, out of Los Gatos, California. A teenage founder with a real, profitable business already running was a rare enough combination that it made for one of the more memorable pitches of Season 5. The company did not make it to its tenth anniversary.
The Short Answer
No, iReTron is not still in business. The company shut down in 2019, roughly five years after its Shark Tank appearance, and attempting to load iretron.com today returns a connection failure rather than a working site, confirming there is no active service left to visit.
This is a case where the on-air deal itself never actually closed, which likely contributed directly to how the company's runway played out over the following years.
The Shark Tank Pitch
iReTron appeared in Season 5, Episode 20, pitching a consumer services business out of Los Gatos, California, an electronics recycling and buyback service that let customers trade in old phones, tablets, and other devices for cash.
Li asked for 100,000 dollars for 20 percent of the company, backed by real numbers: the business had generated 40,000 dollars in revenue with 10,000 dollars in net profit over the prior twelve months, a 25 percent profit margin that is unusually strong for a teenage founder's first business.
The Deal That Got Done
Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban agreed to invest together, matching Li's ask exactly at 100,000 dollars for 20 percent, on air. That part of the story matches the official deal recap. What is less commonly known is that the agreement reportedly never finalized once it moved into the post-show due diligence process, one of the deals that looked complete on television but fell apart afterward.
That gap between the on-air handshake and an actual closed investment is common enough on the show that it has its own name among people who track these outcomes, and it means the capital and mentorship Li expected from two heavyweight investors never actually materialized.
iReTron net worth in 2026
There is no net worth to report for iReTron because the company has been closed since 2019 and the deal that might have funded a longer runway never closed in the first place. No Shark Tank tracking site publishes a specific valuation for the business at the point it shut down.
The only verifiable financial detail on record is the pre-show figure, 40,000 dollars in revenue and 10,000 dollars in net profit over twelve months, and that number is nearly fifteen years old at this point. Any current dollar figure attached to iReTron would not be grounded in real information.
Five Years Without the Promised Investment
Without the capital and connections from Corcoran and Cuban actually landing, iReTron was left to grow largely on its own momentum from the television exposure. Electronics trade-in and recycling is also a category that got significantly more competitive over the following years, as major carriers, Apple, and dedicated trade-in platforms all built out their own buyback programs, undercutting a smaller independent player on both convenience and marketing reach.
Customer acquisition costs reportedly climbed as those bigger, better-funded competitors entered the space, exactly the kind of pressure a small business without its promised shark backing struggles to absorb. By 2019, five years after the episode aired, the company had shut down.
Li's path afterward moved well outside entrepreneurship. He later worked as a manager at a virtual healthcare company before leaving that role in September 2022 to pursue life as a surfer, a notable departure from the fast-growth startup track his teenage pitch once suggested he was headed toward.
Where Things Stand Now
iReTron is closed and has been since 2019. Jason Li pitched in Season 5 at just sixteen years old, asking for 100,000 dollars for 20 percent with real revenue already behind him, and appeared to land a deal with Barbara Corcoran and Mark Cuban on air, an agreement that reportedly never closed once due diligence began.
Without that capital, the company spent five years competing against a rapidly consolidating electronics trade-in market before shutting down. The website is dead, confirmed by a direct connection failure when attempting to load it today, and there is no service left to use.
Li's own path since has taken him far from the electronics recycling business entirely. iReTron itself is a closed chapter, notable mainly for how promising the pitch looked and how little of that promise the on-air deal actually delivered once the cameras stopped rolling.
Where to buy iReTron
Still selling as of March 31, 2026. Check today's price and availability.
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See the full iReTron deal breakdown and term sheet →
