Uprising Food Update | Shark Tank Season 13
Husband and wife duo Kristen and William Schumacher pitched their wholesome superfood bread and chips during
If you’re short on time, here’s a quick overview of what happened to Uprising Food after
William and Kristen Schumacher appeared on
| Shark: | Result: |
| Mark Cuban | No offer |
| Barbara Corcoran | No offer |
| Lori Greiner | No offer |
| Kevin O’Leary | No offer |
| Emma Grede | No offer |
Shark Tank Uprising Food Update
- Entrepreneur: Kristen and William Schumacher
- Business: Bread and chips packed with superfoods
- Ask: $500,000 for 3% equity
- Result: No deal
- Shark: None
With an enthusiastic intro touting the health benefits of their superfood bread and chips, husband and wife duo William and Kristen Schumacher jumped right into their Uprising Foods pitch and immediately grabbed the attention of the sharks.
Their Ohio-based company claims to make healthy, paleo, and keto-friendly bread that tastes “straight out of heaven.” William notes that his sick father, once switching to their product, made a seemingly miraculous gut recovery.
During the taste test, the sharks note that the bread is actually really good and lives up to the heavenly description.
Kevin O’Leary comments on the chewiness and sponge-like quality of the bread, which William chalks up to a specifically designed “mouth feel.”
While impressed with the taste, Kevin dives right in asking for the hard numbers and directly questioning their proposed $16.6 million valuation.
Kristen and William share that a half loaf (or cube) of bread costs $5.25 to make and sells for $12 on their website. After shipping, they only make $3.
Even worse, it’s costing them $50 to acquire a customer. This means that they’ll need to sell a lot of bread to each customer before they can turn a profit.
Despite the hefty overhead, in 2020 Uprising Food did just under $1 million in sales. In the first six months of 2021, they sold $2.1 million worth of bread and chips.
Unfortunately, the company is not cash flow positive despite high sales and lost $1 million in the last 12 months.
William shares that they don’t expect to turn a profit in the near future and that their ultimate goal is to sell off the business to a bigger brand or take the company public.
Even though they have an impressive product, Uprising Food’s inability to show profitability scares the sharks away.
Barbara Corcoran is the first to decline, noting that the couple threw around a lot of fancy marketing terms and doesn’t see their business as a safe place for her money.
Lori Greiner is next to bow out. She shared that while she does see the potential in the on-trend healthy food products, their financial ask is just too big.
Kevin mentions the astronomical potential valuation that would be necessary for him to see a return on his investment and goes out.
Guest shark and self-professed foodie Emma Grede points out that even though the product is good, the couple failed to showcase a path to profitability.
Mark Cuban has a lot of reasons for saying no, most importantly that they’ve dug themselves into a hole and are losing money with every sale. Despite being “driven nuts” by their overuse of jargon, he advises them to simplify their sales pitch, focusing on what makes the product unique.
Even though they left without a deal, William and Kristen definitely benefited from appearing in the tank, and paid homage to the show with a special
Unfortunately, the latest Uprising Food update comes with some bad news. As of March 2023, Uprising Food appears to have shut down its operations.
Despite doing around $5 million in lifetime sales, their online store is down, and social media accounts have been deactivated.
Although this seems like the end of our Uprising Food updates for now, we’re sure William and Kristen’s entrepreneurial spirit and the media exposure they received from appearing on
This will be our final Uprising Foods update.
Before you go, be sure to check out more company updates from
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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!