Hidrent did not disappear after Shark Tank. The firefighter-focused gig platform eventually became Helpful Heroes, joined the BELFOR Franchise Group, and is now being expanded through a franchise model.
That is a considerably different outcome from the one implied by many older “Hidrent update” pages, which stop around the company’s crowdfunding campaign or repeat the television deal as though it definitively closed.
The current picture is clearer. Hidrent is still operating, but under a new name and with a much larger corporate structure behind it.
Hidrent asked the Sharks for $300,000 for 8% of the company
Dave Heimbuch entered the Tank with a simple proposition: homeowners could hire off-duty firefighters to handle jobs around the house.
At the time of his appearance, Hidrent had generated about $850,000 in sales since launching in 2018, according to the figures presented during the pitch. About $320,000 had come in during the year to date. Hidrent's platform took roughly 23% of the revenue from each job. (sharktankrecap.com)
The idea was not to turn firefighters into conventional handymen. Hidrent was built around the trust already associated with the profession. A customer could request help with jobs such as moving furniture, hanging items, cleaning gutters or other household projects, while an off-duty firefighter could earn additional income on days away from the firehouse.
Heimbuch was looking for $300,000 in exchange for 8% equity, implying a valuation of $3.75 million.
That number immediately gave the Sharks something to argue about.
Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec offered $300,000, but wanted 33.3%
Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec ultimately teamed up on the offer.
Their proposal was $300,000 for 33.3% of Hidrent, dramatically more equity than Heimbuch had initially offered. The deal shown on television was accepted. (sharktankblog.com)
The distinction between an on-air agreement and a completed investment matters here.
Shark Tank deals are subject to due diligence after filming, and the Hidrent deal is one of those cases where the later record is less straightforward than the episode itself.
The Shark Tank Blog reported that there was no evidence immediately after the episode that the Greiner-Herjavec deal had actually closed. It later reported that Hidrent instead raised outside seed funding and conducted an equity crowdfunding campaign. (sharktankblog.com)
So the safest description is that Hidrent accepted the $300,000-for-33.3% offer on the show, but the deal apparently did not close. That conclusion is also consistent with later company and investor histories, although there does not appear to be a public closing announcement from Greiner, Herjavec or Hidrent confirming the final disposition of the television deal.
That distinction is often lost in Shark Tank update articles.
Hidrent raised outside money instead of relying only on the Sharks
After the episode, Hidrent continued raising capital.
The company was reported to have raised $662,000 in seed funding from nine investors by June 2022. Around the same time, it launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine at an $8.5 million valuation. The campaign ultimately raised $149,761, according to the Shark Tank Blog. (sharktankblog.com)
The company also pursued a significant partnership with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).
That partnership was particularly relevant to Hidrent's business model because the company's biggest challenge was never simply building an app. It was building enough local supply of trusted workers for the marketplace to function.
Access to a national firefighter organization gave Hidrent a way to address that problem at scale.
The company said the partnership gave it access to more than 300,000 firefighters nationwide and included a commitment to donate a portion of profits to the IAFF. Older reports describe that commitment as 2% of profits during the partnership period. (sharktankblog.com)
By 2022, Hidrent was also expanding beyond individual homeowners and pursuing business customers.
The bigger change came when Hidrent became part of BELFOR
The most significant development came later and is easy to miss if you only follow Shark Tank databases.
Hidrent was acquired by BELFOR, according to people involved with the company and later corporate materials. Product designer Dmitri Love's portfolio says Hidrent was acquired by the BELFOR Group in 2023. A later post from GoGrow, Hidrent's technology partner, similarly says BELFOR Franchise Group acquired the company less than two years before the post. (dmitri.love)
There is a little ambiguity around the exact acquisition timing in publicly available material. BELFOR's franchise documents show Hidrent, LLC was formed in Delaware on January 22, 2024, with its principal address in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and describe it as operating under the Helpful Heroes name. (storage.googleapis.com)
What is not ambiguous is the result: Hidrent became part of the BELFOR Franchise Group portfolio.
That changed the company's trajectory from a standalone startup trying to build a two-sided marketplace into a service brand backed by a large franchising organization.
Hidrent is now called Helpful Heroes
The company's own website makes the rebrand explicit:
“Hidrent is now Helpful Heroes.”
Helpful Heroes still describes essentially the same core proposition. Homeowners can hire firefighters or EMTs for jobs including furniture moving, gutter cleaning, smoke-detector work, light fixtures, TV mounting and other household projects. (helpfulheroes.com)
The important difference is that the company is no longer presenting itself simply as the Hidrent app.
Helpful Heroes now operates as a home-services brand and says it is available nationwide, subject to having a participating firefighter or EMT close enough to the customer. The company also offers phone scheduling, which is a practical extension of the original app-based model. (helpfulheroes.com)
Its current site identifies BELFOR Franchise Group as part of the business's corporate structure, while BELFOR's brand portfolio lists Helpful Heroes as a company connecting property owners with off-duty firefighters and EMTs. (belforfranchisegroup.com)
That is a meaningful evolution from the company Heimbuch brought into the Tank.
Helpful Heroes is now being built as a franchise business
This is where the 2026 picture becomes especially interesting.
Helpful Heroes is no longer merely an app looking for enough users and firefighters in each market. It is being rolled out through local franchise operators.
In July 2026, Helpful Heroes announced new franchise locations in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Coatesville, Pennsylvania. Earlier in 2026, it also announced a Florida location, while a November 2025 announcement covered its first franchise location in Arizona. (franchise.org)
The Cincinnati expansion illustrates the new model particularly well. The franchise is operated by Mendel Rosenblum, a firefighter and paramedic, with a local team of off-duty firefighters and EMTs. Customers submit their projects, receive an estimate and are connected with a local hero who can perform the work. (franchise.org)
The Pennsylvania launch similarly describes Helpful Heroes as part of the BELFOR Franchise Group family of brands. (franchise.org)
BELFOR's own website now markets Helpful Heroes as one of its brands and lists services such as furniture moving, gutter cleaning, light fixtures, smoke detectors and TV mounting. (belforfranchisegroup.com)
So the company has moved from startup marketplace to franchise-backed home-services concept.
The Shark Tank deal is not the real story anymore
For years, the obvious question was whether Lori Greiner and Robert Herjavec actually funded Hidrent after offering $300,000 for 33.3%.
That is still worth mentioning, but it is no longer the most consequential part of the company's history.
The more revealing sequence is what happened afterward: Hidrent raised independent capital, built relationships within the firefighter community, expanded its service footprint, and eventually became part of BELFOR's franchise ecosystem.
The current corporate record also provides a useful corrective to inflated “net worth” estimates circulating online. Some recent sites publish precise valuations or net-worth figures for Hidrent without identifying financial statements that would support them. Those numbers should be treated as estimates, not established facts.
There is stronger evidence for what the company actually became.
As of 2026, Hidrent is not simply a defunct Shark Tank startup. Its original name has been replaced by Helpful Heroes, its corporate ownership has changed, its technology remains active, and the business is being expanded through a franchise network.
The app even remains available. Apple's listing identifies Hidrent, LLC as the developer, while the current Google Play listing describes the Helpful Heroes customer app as a way to hire local firefighters for household projects. (apps.apple.com)
The strangest part of the Hidrent story, then, is not that the Shark Tank deal may have fallen apart.
It is that the company survived the part of the startup journey that usually kills marketplace businesses, changed its name, changed its ownership structure, and emerged as something much closer to a national home-services franchise.
The firefighters are still the product.
The business around them is what changed.
