The third entrepreneur into the Shark Tank this week was presenting his business Peaceful Fruits and was seeking $75k in exchange for 20% of the business. He has developed all natural fruit snacks focused on using primarily Acai.
As for his numbers, he has done $20k in sales by selling in Whole Foods and Giant Eagle. They whole sale for $0.85 and retail between $1.25 and $1.50.
Just to get started, Robert had to drop out quickly due to a conflict of interest. He is already invested in a fruit snack company, so he didn’t want to jump into a business that might stand as a competitor. I do appreciate and respect the fact that the Sharks do this. All of them have been in this position in the past on the show and have called it out early in the presentation so the entrepreneur doesn’t waste their time focused on getting their attention.
Why I feel the need to point this out is because the Sharks don’t necessarily have to do this, unless it is covered in some kind of contract with the show and I’m not sure why it would be. Investors have definitely been known to invest in two companies that compete in the same market. It’s called hedging. If an investor is excited about the opportunities in an industry, they can invest in a few or even several companies in that space to give themselves the best chance at ending up with one that is going to exponentially increase their return. From what I understand it’s not an extremely common practice, but this is all just to say that Robert had no obligation to drop out. He just wants to show the utmost respect to the other company he already works with and the people standing in front of him there.
Moving onto the other Sharks, they could not get excited about it. None of them made an offer and they had a few different reasons for dropping out, but the one I want to focus on is Mark’s reason.
Throughout the presentation, the entrepreneur talked about his time in the Peace Corps and how that lead to him connecting with the communities that now supply the Acai he uses for Peaceful Fruits. This is a company that screams “social enterprise” but he never really hit on that. This is what Mark brought up before dropping out, and I agree with him entirely.
This entrepreneur’s presentation was mostly about how great the snacks are, but the problem is that there are a lot of great snacks out there. The average consumer is not going to care about the fact that he is the only one on the market using primarily Acai to make the snacks. What they will care about is how Peaceful Fruits is making an impact on those communities he was talking about in the presentation! In such a competitive and diverse market, he needs something that sets him apart other than just the ingredients.
I did something that I don’t normally do for an episode of Shark Tank Breakdown. Generally, I only base my thoughts on the information given in the episode of Shark Tank, but with this product and the advice Mark gave I really wanted to check out their website. I don’t know what it said or looked like prior to Mark’s advice, but now it seems Peaceful Fruits is really leaning into the social enterprise aspect of their business. Their “How It Works” page is full of info on how they are helping communities and people with their product and business structure.
That makes me much more optimistic about this brand! If Peaceful Fruits is going to beat out any of their competition it’s going to be a social enterprise and marketing play. Obviously the snacks have to taste good, but since they already have that down, it’s going to be about the way they present themselves.
Anyway, good luck to Peaceful Fruits! I hope you are able to sell lots of snacks, help lots of people, and make lots of money in the process!