In early 2021, Chicago food startup Quevos appeared on Shark Tank to pitch its egg-white-based snack chips. It landed a deal from guest shark Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND Snacks, who agreed to invest $200,000 in the then 3-year-old startup.
Lubetzky has since doubled down on his Quevos investment, and last year pumped another $1.35 million into the better-for-you snack startup.
Quevos doubled its sales last year to $2 million, co-founder Nick Hamburger said in an interview, and has brought the brand to retail stores including GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, Whole Foods and Wegman's.
Quevos will appear again on Shark Tank this Friday with an update on the business and why Lubetzky decided to invest more capital in the startup.
Its first Shark Tank Appearance resulted in a major boost for the company, Hamburger said.
"It was pretty crazy. We did half a million in sales in two weeks following the episode," he said.
Quevos built up three months worth of inventory leading up to the appearance, which sold out in two weeks.
That's a somewhat atypical Shark Tank experience. Many companies leave the tank without a deal; others land a deal on camera only to see the investment eventually fall through behind the scenes. Quevos not only hooked a shark, but got him to invest even more capital into the business.
Quevos has raised $3.6 million in seed funding to date from investors like Cameo CEO Steven Galanis, Raise founder George Bousis, Sandolphon Capital, CompanyFirst and others.
Amazon is Quevos' strongest sales channel, Hamburger said, but the startup is planning a big retail push in 2022.
"It's all about retail growth for us," he said, adding that the company hopes to go national in Whole Foods and add other major retailers this year.
The startup, led by Hamburger Zack Schreier, who both dropped out of the University of Chicago in 2018 to pursue the business full time, is planning to raise a Series A round later this year, Hamburger said.
Quevos is also soon launching its seventh and newest flavor: original.
Hamburger admitted the irony of launching an "original" flavor four years into building a brand, but said he expects it to soon be the startup's top selling flavor.
