Plated Meal Subscription Update | Shark Tank Season 5

Most people have a hard time getting fresh and nutritious food on the table, in a reasonable amount of time. That’s why Nick Taranto and Josh Hix created a meal kit subscription service. Will their company earn a deal on Shark Tank Season 5? Find out in our Plated update!

Shark Tank Plated Update

Plated Update

  • Entrepreneurs: Nick Taranto, Josh Hix
  • Business: Meal kit subscription service
  • Ask: $500,000 in exchange for 4% equity
  • Result: $500,000 in exchange for 5.5% equity
  • Sharks: Mark Cuban

Harvard Business School alums Nick and Josh hired a chef to design tasty, healthy recipes and meal plans that could be prepared and served within 30 minutes. Then they compiled the recipes and meal plans on their Plated website, made instructional cooking videos, and sourced ingredients for the variety of dishes.

Customers went online, selected what they wanted to cook and eat, and the company then overnighted the customers a box with everything they needed to make the meal. In early 2014, when this episode was filmed, meal kit subscriptions were just about to explode onto the scene, but were relatively unheard of at that time, so the sharks took awhile to warm up to the idea.

The company launched six months prior to filming, and had $350,000 in total sales, with $100,000 of that coming within the last month alone. They were growing at 40% month over month, with projected sales to reach $2.5 million that year, and $10 million the next. Each meal cost customers $10, and there was a $40 minimum, with no shipping charge.

Robert Herjavec said he loved to eat healthy, but didn’t want to order something he had to cook himself, so he was out. Kevin O’Leary was out next, saying he could make a company just like it for $3 million, less than one-third of the company’s valuation. Lori Greiner said the company’s customers were probably too busy to cook, so she was out. Barbara Corcoran believed people would choose takeout over this service, so she too was out.

Mark Cuban offered $500,000 in exchange for about 5.5%, plus he wanted advisory shares– that is, exclusive stock option deals that are saved for the expert advisors and are not sold on the open market. Nick and Josh agreed, and Plated walked away with the deal. What happened next for the company? Keep reading our Plated update to find out!

While the deal never finalized with Mark, Kevin did come back and invest. After their episode aired, they had a huge bump in sales, proving that people loved subscription meal plans after all. Then in 2017, the company was acquired by Albertsons Companies for $300 million. Sadly, the store chain discontinued the subscription service in 2019. This will be our final Plated update.

Would you like to learn about the other companies featured on Season 5 Episode 22? Follow the links below for our other company updates from the episode.

For even more on companies and products, be sure to stop by our Season 5 Products Page!

 

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Andrew Smith is the founder and owner of Shark Tank Recap. He is a longtime Shark Tank fan that has been watching it for years and has seen every episode multiple times. His friends know him as the Shark Tank expert, because he can answer any question about the show! His favorite Shark Tank products are Bertello's pizza oven and Bug Bite Thing!