Truffle Shuffle: Here's What Happened After Shark Tank
Chefs Jason McKinney and Tyler Vance, who met while sizzling up high-end fare at Napa Valley's Michelin-starred restaurant The French Laundry, landed on the set of "Shark Tank" after a grueling tier-based competition. They incrementally rose above roughly 5,000 other hopeful entrepreneurs for a chance to pitch their Truffle Shuffle idea to the fearsome investor sharks of Season 12, Episode 21, which aired in April 2021. But Truffle Shuffle wasn't just a lofty idea.
The duo had already launched their business sourcing and facilitating high-quality, genuine truffle sales to high-end clients, including Michelin-star restaurants, raking in six figures within 90 days. Then came 2020, when they reached a deal with Whole Foods Market to place Truffle Shuffle products in every store. That was at the end of February 2020, and the over-the-moon newbie business owners made a hefty investment in 20 pounds of notoriously expensive fresh black winter truffles.
The long-awaited delivery, worth about $1000 per pound of truffles, landed on their doorstep in March, the exact same day that California declared a "shelter in place" lockdown due to — you guessed it — COVID-19. The slow rumble over a curious virus became a thundering nightmare in an instant, with restaurant shutdowns, a freeze on all scheduled trade shows, and, tragically, a cancellation of the coveted Whole Foods orders.
Perhaps it was the ensuing resilience of the Truffle Shuffle team and its ability to reinvent itself that ultimately placed the duo on the "Shark Tank" stage a year later.
What happened to Truffle Shuffle on Shark Tank?
By the time McKinney and Vance walked in the tank with infamous Shark investors Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Lori Greiner, Kevin O'Leary, and Robert Herjavec, they had restructured the business focus of Truffle Shuffle to providing gourmet meal kits for home use, along with an 84% business focus on upscale virtual cooking classes, some hosted by celebrity chefs and even the likes of Snoop Dogg. In the nail-biting "Shark Tank" episode, a live version of those classes featured McKinney and Vorce creating crêpes Suzette, with a flourish, for the Sharks.
The investment ask was big: $500,000 in exchange for 5% ownership of the Truffle Shuffle business. Though an outsized request by some measures, the duo already had some impressive figures to toss into the equation. Before the pandemic, the company had garnered $65,000 in sales revenue during its first business year, which morphed to well over $400,000 in year 2. Subsequently, thriving amid a worldwide pandemic was no small feat, which got a nod from the Sharks.
Still, three investors dropped out, starting with Greiner, then John and Cuban. When Harjavec saw some "magic" in a potential deal, he offered the $500,000 but with double the return, at a 10% stake. O'Leary joined in but with a less-than-enticing offer involving a loan, interest, and 25% ownership. After some counteroffers, the grand deal swung back around to Cuban, who reentered with $501,000 and 18% of the business.
Truffle Shuffle After Shark Tank
After the major infusion of investment dollars from Mark Cuban, Truffle Shuffle expanded its presence in the world of online cooking shows, stepping up marketing efforts and substantially increasing the hundreds of thousands of cooking enthusiasts who join the fun and informative demonstrations, learning to be gourmet chefs in a low-key, at-home environment.
In an interview with Eater not long after the "Shark Tank" episode aired, McKinney noted how being a part of Mark Cuban Investments has dramatically multiplied their resource pool and ability to reach business goals. At the time, they stated an aspiration to nurture a million home cooks into master chefs — and that dream has apparently come true.
As of summer 2023, the Truffle Shuffle website reveals nearly one million fellow culinary sojourners on the Truffle Shuffle journey with them through continuing and expanding cooking classes. Many sign up for delivery of the ingredients ahead of time, enabling them to cook right along with the "truffle shuffler" chefs of the day, which are often still the founders, but sometimes a surprise chef or two.
Truffle Shuffle continues to thrive and add new products
After "Shark Tank," the Truffle Shuffle enterprise has remained part of Cuban's investment family, with no apparent plans to slow their pace of growth. Its Sunday online group classes continue to thrive with energy, humor, and a passion for cooking. Though some viewers are only observers, those who receive overnight ingredient kits before the show end up with new skills and a gourmet post-class meal. Classes include gourmet learning and eating experiences such as ratatouille with roasted sea bass, fresh pasta carbonara with black truffles, and northern Italian squid ink tagliatelle fresh pasta.
From a mere handful of pre-pandemic employees, Truffle Shuffle now includes more than 50 culinary and hospitality coworkers, most of whom previously lost their jobs elsewhere during Covid shutdowns. They now pitch in across the board, from filming classes to sourcing ingredients, packaging, and processing sales of the company's expanded and enhanced collection of products. Offerings currently include fresh Australian black truffles, brown butter truffle honey, salt, carpaccio, and kitchen gear like a truffle shaver and cookbook by a Ukrainian chef.
As of 2023, the company states $13.3 million in total sales from cooking classes and $7.8 million from partner alliances. It has also conducted direct-to-customer transactions worth $4.5 million.
What's next for Truffle Shuffle?
Truffle Shuffle appears poised for continued growth under the Cuban umbrella and launched a new model at the beginning of 2023. It's a monthly membership program that came out of the gate with an accumulated pre-sales value of $400 thousand. At least 250 members have subscribed to the monthly service thus far.
Another development is the ability to create private-event cooking classes in which participants can help customize the experience, collect guest lists, and send out their own invitations. Truffle Shuffle also helps sponsor community events and fundraisers for the Alameda Country Community Food Bank.
A big revelation — and opportunity — for Truffle Shuffle is the current community-funding investment offering through StartEngine. It's open to anyone and allows individuals to own a communal share of Truffle Shuffle's future. It's an equity-type offering, and the holding for the investment is common shares, currently priced at $2.49 per share. The minimum investment amount is $197.60. The current offering is set to expire on August 11, 2023.