Exclusive: Why Mark Cuban says he wants a bite of a local ‘Shark Tank’ startup’s vegan burger

Juicy, flavorful — and, most importantly, healthy.

They’re the fundamentals of a Prince George’s County startup's plant-based burger, and the ingredients that led the co-founders to seal a deal with Mark Cuban on ABC’s “Shark Tank.”

Duane “Myko” Cheers, Danita Claytor and Jumoke Jackson took their Hyattsville company, Everything Legendary, to the primetime reality show’s infamous stage in an episode that aired Feb. 26. Their pitch: A vegan-cheese-stuffed patty they originally created with a goal of improving health outcomes within the Black community, 8% of whom are vegans.

They founded the business in 2019 and it has since gained traction with a wider audience, they told the sharks.

“One of the largest vegan restaurants based down in Atlanta, they tried to buy us early on,” Cheers said on the show. “But there weren’t any sharks. I don’t want to make deals with stingrays; we came here to do business with the great whites!”

His enthusiasm, along with a burger the celebrity panelists unanimously commended, helped drive the team to a deal with Cuban: $300,000 for 22% of the business.

“Amazing, driven, smart entrepreneurs with a great product always make a great investment,” Cuban told the Washington Business Journal in an email. “Duane really impressed me and has continued to impress me since we started working together.”

Keeping the business afloat in a pandemic

The trio entered the tank seeking $300,000 in exchange for 10%, a $3 million valuation that turned off Kevin O’Leary despite his praise for the product. The price point — about $10 apiece, versus its big competitors’ $3 a pop — sent Barbara Corcoran swimming.

The plant-based meat market is already hot with big-name players, including West Coast competitors Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat — in which Honest Tea founder Seth Goldman has invested and expanded locally with Chef Spike Mendelsohn’s PLNT Burger chain.

But at 250 calories per six-ounce patty, Cheers said each burger warrants the expense.

“The reason why the price is higher is because this is the Wagyu, this is the Kobe beef,” he told the sharks on the segment, referencing ultra-high end beef products, adding: “That’s what we stand by.”

The entrepreneurs started Everything Legendary as a D.C. community center pop-up in June 2019 to give Cheers’s mother with Lupus and Claytor’s mother with cancer healthy food choices they would enjoy eating. They teamed up with Jackson, a chef, to create their burger, made of pea protein and other vegan ingredients and seasonings. They started testing the product with a takeout restaurant pop-up on H Street NE and evolved it to a frozen product they came to sell in retailers, grocery stores and online.

But in its first full year — during the Covid-19 pandemic — the Black-owned business shifted sales entirely online, as it wasn’t really making money from the shelves. It was a pivot Cuban said he understood, but will be difficult to scale going forward. “But I think short-term, the path to money is local kitchens, working with DoorDash and Uber Eats,” the Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire investor said on the show. “I think people are going to love this.”

Everything Legendary already feeling the 'Shark Tank effect'

The deal with Cuban, which has since closed, “means everything,” Cheers said in an email.

“Mark has been terrific, he and his team have been very supportive, and provided a lot of guidance — exactly what we’d hoped when we partnered with him,” he said.

Prior to securing Cuban’s investment, the bootstrapped business launched with $17,000 in personal savings plus another $30,000 in credit, according to Cheers. As of the show’s filming, Everything Legendary had counted $165,000 in sales since its inception with no investment yet in customer acquisition.

“Our only challenge now is to market the business more,” he said. “We have capacity to produce 400,000 burgers a day.” It’s now focusing on a global expansion and staffing up, Cheers told us of the now six-person company.

He declined in an email to disclose 2020 revenue, but said the company is targeting $10 million in revenue for 2021.

Before her mom died from cancer, Claytor told the panel on the show, “she told us we were going to be on ‘Shark Tank.’”

As has been the case for a growing network of D.C.-area companies, the platform has tremendous power, Cheers told us. “The impact has been crazy. We have never seen so many people visit the website and order.”

Everything Legendary joins a growing list of local “Shark Tank” alumni, including a handful who have scored deals within the last year and others continuing to reap the benefits. That group includes Alexandria’s GoOats, D.C.’s Soupergirl and Ashburn’s GloveStix, all 2021 Startups to Watch; Potomac’s CertifiKid, which we’ve followed through the pandemic; other food-focused companies such as District-based Snacklins and Tysons-based TaDah Foods; and more. Here’s a look at that network.