Madison entrepreneur scores a $350,000 ‘Shark Tank’ deal
Madison entrepreneur Kate Field scored a deal Sunday on an episode of ABC’s entrepreneurial pitch competition show “Shark Tank” for her kombucha supply company.
Field started her home-brew kit company, The Kombucha Shop, with $800 in a storage closet in Madison in 2014. Field asked the sharks for $350,000 in exchange for 10 percent equity in her company, which sells kits to brew the fermented tea beverage kombucha at home.
The Kombucha Shop made around $1.2 million in sales last year. It sells a brewing kit for $49. The kit includes the ingredients — kombucha culture, tea, sugar — and equipment to brew the fermented beverage.
The sharks didn’t like the kombucha samples — Field assured them it’s an acquired taste increasing in popularity.
They did like her numbers: $3.2 million in lifetime sales as of filming this summer, $500,000 in profit this year, no crowdsourcing and no money spent on advertising. Field told the sharks she needed a partner to scale and get her kombucha brew kits into retailers such as Whole Foods.
Shark Barbara Corcoran bit, offering $200,000 cash and a $150,000 line of credit for 10 percent equity in The Kombucha Shop.
“You are probably the healthiest looking person I’ve ever seen in my entire life,” Corcoran said. “You are a poster child for this. If I could be as healthy looking as you I would swallow this stuff every day of my life.”
Guest shark Sara Blakely, the founder of Spanx, teamed up with Corcoran on the deal. Field turned down an offer from shark Kevin O’Leary, who wanted 20 percent equity in The Kombucha Shop for $350,000.
Field brewed kombucha for years before starting the company in 2014. The idea to sell at-home brewing kits came after she tasted a batch made by a coworker from a kit.
The goal in the coming year, with the help of the sharks, is to break into retail distribution.