Philly’s Simply Good Jars left ‘Shark Tank’ with $500K in investments

Simply Good Jars founder and CEO Jared Cannon had been sitting on a secret for months.

The chef-turned-entrepreneur who launched the healthy food startup back in 2017 was selected to pitch the business to the investors on “Shark Tank” and filmed the episode a while back. (He couldn’t say exactly when.) He walked away from the taping with $500,000 from investors Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner in exchange for 10% stake in the company.

And now that the episode aired as part of the show’s 12th season premiere Friday, the cat’s out of the bag. It’s been an exciting few days since, Cannon said: He’s received hundreds on messages on LinkedIn and in texts, even hearing from old classmates he hadn’t talked to in years.

“I’ve been holding on to that for months,” the founder told Technical.ly. “I couldn’t even tell our team. And then finally, sitting on the couch Friday night, it was like, ‘Everyone knows.'”

Cannon described the filming as a chance to “make an impact in a short window” of time. It’s not unlike pitching to other investors, but while you might take weeks or months to get to know them, you have just a few minutes on the “Shark Tank” set, he said. (The company had raised about $2.5 million prior.)

“You could stumble over words or get a question you might not be anticipating, but as the founder, you have to be confident that you know your business more than most,” he said.

Like many companies, Simply Good Jars has pivoted because of the coronavirus pandemic. Once, the model was built on refrigerated vending machines of healthy salads where the containers could be returned to cut down on environmental impact. But with most of those fridges in office buildings that sat empty amid COVID-19, the company switched to home delivery before finding its footing in retail stores.

2021 for us is a huge year. We’re either going to land on the moon or blow up in the atmosphere.

The company now serves Walgreens locations in Chicago, thanks to an investor connection, and in hundreds of Sheetz convenience stores, plus some local stores like Weaver’s Way Co-Op in Chestnut Hill. Its salads are also delivered via Philly’s goPuff. While the pandemic ended the jar return policy, the company encourages folks to still reuse the containers (theres a QR code with some ideas on the side), and they’ll donate a meal to a local food org.

Although Cannon hasn’t been able to tout the relationship with the sharks until the episode aired last week, he said getting to work with Cuban and Greiner has been “instrumental” in growing the business. Heading into pitching, he said he had a good idea about which sharks might be interested, but he was open to any offer that made sense.

And Cannon said he’s been proud of the deals and growth the company’s made in the months since filming, even though he had to keep their connections to the show under wraps.

“I’m of the mindset of ‘better safe than sorry.’ If they only want to do business because of the future promise, maybe they’re not the right partner,” Cannon said. “We wouldn’t want to get a win and then wonder if when the news breaks, if someone only wanted to work with you because of the exposure.”

But the exposure in the last few days has been rewarding, Cannon said. In about 48 hours of the episode airing, the website’s traffic went through the roof and they’ve gotten hundreds of inquisitions. They’re also getting interest from geographical areas they didn’t realize would bring businesses, he said.

“I think it’s been a re-energizing experience that helps drive teams like ours do better, faster,” Cannon said. “2021 for us is a huge year. We’re either going to land on the moon or blow up in the atmosphere. We’re taking that leap of faith and we’re going fast, with great team around us and new partners that can really help us.”