Mrs. Goldfarb's Unreal Deli
What happens if you're from New York City but now live in Los Angeles? And what happens when you've become a vegan because of animal cruelty but your favorite food is New York Deli? Do you just give up, take a long bath with a white wine, cut your wrists, and drift off because, let's face it... there's just nothing left to live for?
Come on! This is Shark Tank! Of course, not!
No, if you're the titular Mrs. Goldfarb of Mrs. Goldfarb's Unreal Deli, you get inspired by the existence of vegan "hamburgers" and go and create your own vegan corned beef made out of beets, chickpeas, and tomatoes to create a "meat" like the one that you used to eat. To her credit, she even created her own "signature Russian dressing."
Mrs. Goldfarb's Unreal Deli has 100 calories per two ounces. It costs just $3.80 per pound to create this "corned beef" and sells for between $8 and $10 per pound to the end consumer.
Mrs. Goldfarb claims that her "meat" is sold in a half-dozen "iconic" LA delis and, in January following the airing of this episode, will be in thirty restaurants. In the next month her meat will also be in 58 Whole Foods locations.
In terms of sales, the half-dozen delis have grossed Mrs. Goldfarb $10,000 in sales. Additionally, she launched her website a week before the pitch and sold $2,000 in product in the first twenty-four hours without any marketing.
Making A Deal
Daymond speaks up first, filling Mr. Wonderful's usual role of asking about the value being put on the company. In this case, a $1,000,000 for about $12,000 worth of sales. Mrs. Goldfarb says that she has interest from "vegan investors" but that she feels that every "shark dollar" is worth five or regular dollars. Which is sweet. She then says that she projects earning $3,000,000 in sales in the next year to which Daymond replies that in the next years he projects that he'll "look like the guy that plays Thor", clearly not believing her projections to be entirely accurate.
Kevin, calling himself Chef Wonderful again, offers $100,000 in exchange for 20% in equity.
Guest shark Anne Wojcicki says that plant based foods are a super hot space to be in but that she wants to make a deal that will keep her (and her money, one assumes) protected. But, before she can make an offer, Mark says that he loves the product. He's also gone vegetarian recently (because, of course, he has[1]) and that's made him want to make a deal if Mrs. Goldfarb says yes right away. He then offers $250,000 in exchange for 20% equity, saying that he'll be the poster child for her "meat."
Given that Mark's offer actually adds $250,000 in value to Mrs. Goldfarb's Unreal Deli, a kind of reverse Shark Tank Bite(?), it makes sense that Mrs. Goldfarb would, of course say yes.
Updates
According to what reads like a press release Mark Cuban linked to in a tweet on October 27th, 2020,[2] Mrs. Goldfarb's meat-like food is now available at Whole Foods, Veggie Grill, Mendocino Farms, and Quiznos marking a substantial increase in retail presence since the episode.
- ↑ His bio page needs to be updated but, if there's a fad diet out there, Mark Cuban seems to have tried it. It's almost like being a billionaire doesn't stop someone from being afraid they'll get fat and/or die! He's been vegetarian and gluten free to name two but your Stats Shark also won't discount the idea that he's tried even more fad diets. Check his bio page, this will be something that we track from now on.
- ↑ Supermarket Perimeter, "Mrs. Goldfarb’s Unreal Deli has solutions for vegan holiday celebrations", October 26th, 2020.