Samuel AndersonManaging Partner, BevAssets, LLC · Just Pick Up The Phone 📞 | Joy 🦋 | Empowering individuals through meaningful connections, one person at a time.

on Shark Tank, and still had to shut it down. #business #entrepreneur @SeedMoneyVentureStudio

26 Apr 2026 · 2 min

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1:45

In this first‑person narrative, the speaker recounts the final stretch of their beverage startup before and after appearing on Shark Tank. They describe the costly process of obtaining an alcohol license and finally securing a test‑market placement at a local Whole Foods after three rejections. Facing a cash‑crunch, they use the TV show as a last‑ditch “Hail Mary” to raise $150,000, valuing the company modestly. Mark Cuban offers the investment and becomes highly involved. The episode’s broadcast triggers a flood of retailer interest, but the company lacks the capital, distribution infrastructure, and operational bandwidth to meet the sudden demand. The founder feels pressure to prove themselves to Cuban, works themselves to exhaustion, and ultimately the rapid scale‑up contributes to the business’s shutdown.

Chapters

So you, you go on to Shark Tank. Yeah. So Shark Tank was really kind of the Hail Mary. Um, because at this point we had spent so much money on legal to get licensing for alcohol inventory. So we were, you know, running outta money, but I had gotten into Whole Foods after getting rejected 3 times. I finally got Whole Foods to give us, you know, a test, a local test market. Was this before Shark Tank or after Shark Tank? Uh, this was before Shark Tank, right before I was like, had just, when I, when my episode was recorded, we had just shipped in like our first, well, I say shipped and delivered our first cases to our local Whole Foods. Wow. And so I went on the show and you know how the show works, like you can't ask for that much money if your valuation's in the toilet, right? And so I was pretty honest on the show and I practiced like crazy to prep for the show. And I mean, I was in a really bad spot, so it was either that or we were basically gonna have to close the doors. So I was only asking for $150,000, which in the beverage space is like Like nothing. At this point, I had you know raised. I think it was like total seven hundred fifty was in the company, and Mark Cuban is like, "My wife would love it. I'll invest." So he invested, and he was way more involved than I thought. And after years of you know trying to get distributors and trying to get retailers, Shark Tank airs, and all of a sudden everyone's coming to you and wants to carry the product. And we ended up going. You know, too far, too fast for the money we had. I was killing myself 'cause I have to like prove, you know, Mark Cuban's like watching. You are really trying.