Doughp
Doughp is a company from San Francisco, CA, that operates a location on the touristy Pier 39 and sells a special treat, cookie dough. In just 18 months, having started the business in April of 2017, the company has $850,000 in sales and $240,000 in profit. According to the entrepreneur, this translates into $1,100 in sales per square foot of the retail location.
Besides selling on Pier 39, Doughp also sells product in the San Francisco airport.
The entrepreneur behind Doughp originally came from Dallas, TX, (much to Mark's delight) and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She started Doughp after spending ten years in the technology industry and having started with Intel at just 16 years old. She foresees Doughp as being comparable to Sprinkles with the cupcake trend.
One scoop of cookie dough is made for $0.68 and sold for $6. In the next year, the entrepreneur projects $2,250,000 in sales with a net income between 27 and 35%.
The plan, according to the entrepreneur, is to expand Doughp into other high traffic locations and is in lease negotiations for a spot on the Las Vegas strip. She would also like to expand into selling cookie dough wholesale.
Robert is the first to go out after stating that he really likes the entrepreneur and her compelling story but that he doesn't like cookie dough. Barbara, likewise, doesn't like cookie dough and goes out as well.
Lori says she's also not a fan of the product category in general and that it's just not healthy enough for her.To this, the entrepreneur states that she's looking into making smaller snack portions but this doesn't impress Lori and she leaves the deal also.
Because it may be coded into him genetically, Mr. Wonderful says that he believes Doughp's value is closer to $1,800,000 than the $4,500,000 that the entrepreneur came in looking for. And, because he sees the company as over-valued, he drops out of the deal as well.
Mark, then, was the last shark in the tank and, pretty clearly, the one the entrepreneur hoped to make a deal with. And, while he states that he thinks the product is great, he has "issues" with the consequences it might have on American obesity rates and, because he would prefer that his portfolio represent healthy living, he has to go out and the entrepreneur leaves without a deal.
Analysis
This deal sticks in your Stats Shark's craw for one major reason. As is his wont, occasionally, he watches episodes in blocks. And this time, he happened to watch this episode with the next one where Mark went on to make a deal with The Fat Shack, a company that has no pretensions to health in any sense. In fact, The Fat Shack entrepreneur even stated that most menu items are between 700 and 800 calories but that some can go up to as many as 2,000!
This is not to shame The Fat Shack in any sense. People are free to eat what they want and companies should be free to provide foods that, while terrible for people, a reasonable person might want. But, which is more likely? That a college student over the course of their time in one of the college towns The Fat Shack serves might over-indulge as part of a generally unhealthy lifestyle or that people might occasionally indulge in a scoop of cookie dough while walking around a tourist district of some town? Actually... both a pretty likely... but one is a lifestyle while the other is a treat when in a special place.
So the question becomes, if one is truly concerned about the "American Obesity Epidemic", which is likely worse for it. Your Stats Shark would make the case that an occasional indulgence is always the better option. And, yet, with this deal and this extraordinary entrepreneur, Mark decided to make some kind of "principled" stand for the state of American health and in the very next episode chase the dollars of a company literally called "The Fat Shack".
It remains the belief of your Stats Shark that so long as a business does not defraud or harm its customers in anyway (that the customer's don't ask for) then it should be allowed to sell products and services there is clearly a demand for. (And, yes, this even includes prostitution and drugs since legalized, regulated markets are always better than black markets.) Conversely, investors should be free to invest (or not) in companies for whatever reason, be it because they satisfy certain social goals or just because they'll make a significant amount of money. But, what always gets under his skin is inconsistently. Don't go around virtue signaling to the detriment of one entrepreneur in one episode then abandon the exact same principle in the next.
If Mark just didn't like the business and didn't want to put his money into it, that's more than fine. But say so. Don't hide behind some made up concern for health when it's clearly not an issue.