If you are a peanut butter fan, you’re going to love the Wild Squirrel Nut Butter pitch on Shark Tank. In true entrepreneurial fashion, we have two Oregon college students who started making their homemade peanut butter in their apartment.
Wild Squirrel Nut Butter Seeks Shark Tank Deal
Erika and Keeley step into Shark Tank seeking $50,000 for 10% equity in their new business which already sold thousands of jars through their website. Sales coming into the Shark Tank pitch are $14,000 with $7,000 profit. Oregon Supermarkets are placing Wild Squirrel Nut Butter on their shelves.
The roommates used a food processor and a bag full of peanuts, so they created their peanut butter adding ingredients that they have on their apartment shelves.
Season: 3 Episode 14
First Run: 2012/5/11
Shark: Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, Robert Herjavec
Companies in this episode:
- Wild Squirrel Nut Butter
- Cab20
- Mix Bikini
- Billy Blanks Jr.’s Dance With Me
- I Want to Draw a Cat for You – Featured Update
Company: Wild Squirrel Nut Butter
Entrepreneurs: Erika Welsh & Keeley Tillotson
Ask: $50k for a 10% equity
Location: Oregon
Deal: Barbara Corcoran
Their peanut butter costs $3 to make, they sell them to the stores for $4, and retail for $5.99. They each own 50% and their parents have backed them for 50,000.
The college has a tremendous entrepreneurial program that is helping them to develop the company. They are going to fall classes, and they are going to feel it out and see what direction they go.
Daymond John is out, and he can’t learn the business with them.
Kevin O’Leary says you want me to pay you for the future now. Kevin O’Leary is out.
Robert Herjavec says this is the difference between the real world and going to school. Who is going to work this full time?
Mark Cuban is out because they are not committing to them working the full business time.
Barbara Corcoran makes an offer of $50,000 for 40%. The girls counter at 35%, but Barbara Corcoran sticks at 40%. They agree to a deal.
So what happened to Wild Squirrel Nut Butter after Shark Tank?
The girls ran into an issue with their name, as another company claimed trademark causing them to change their name to Wild Friends Food. Erika and Keeley left college a year later. Keep in mind; they launched their business in 2011. Their peanut butter business generated seven million dollars in sales in 2016.
Barbara Corcoran decided against completing the investment, and it looked like it worked out for Erika and Keeley as their company continues to grow, without giving up that equity in the company.