Whatever Happened To Wicked Good Cupcakes After Shark Tank?
Cupcakes are big business, and it would appear that both the founders of Wicked Good Cupcakes and the sharks of "Shark Tank" know it. Though some entrepreneurs looking for investors do indeed leave the reality show empty-handed, even those who do manage to score a decent investment from the sharks are by no means guaranteed success.
Wicked Good Cupcakes, however, have done quite well for themselves. What started out as a way for a mother and daughter to bond over the shared activity of baking has become a lucrative business.
Their idea was both novel and straightforward. Founded by Tracey Noonan and Danielle Vilagie, Wicked Good Cupcakes' concept was for cupcakes to be made and served in glass jars, making them both easier to eat, a little less messy, and easy to ship. They pitched the idea in 2013, during Season 4 of "Shark Tank."
The shark that bit was Kevin O'Leary. He came forward with a $75,000 investment, but rather than ask for equity in return, he arranged to receive royalties — one dollar for every cupcake sold until his investment was paid off, and about fifty cents for every cupcake afterward.
Kevin O'Leary called Wicked Good Cupcakes his most successful 'Shark Tank' investment
There's no doubt that 75,000 cupcakes — the amount that Wicked Good Cupcakes would need to sell to pay back the investment of Kevin O'Leary — is a rather impressive number. Tracey Noonan and Danielle Vilagie were understandably confident that they would be able to make quick work of it. By the time they appeared on "Shark Tank," they were already clearing $7,000 a month in sales.
Since then, they've expanded into a bigger facility, and, as of 2015, they were selling $400,000 worth of cupcakes every month. That's about $4.8 million in sales annually. At the time, O'Leary called it his most successful investment from his time on "Shark Tank." In 2021, the company was acquired by food gift retailer Hickory Farms, adding them to their list of specialty and boutique foods.
"Shark Tank" was also not the first time that Wicked Good Cupcakes had been in the limelight. In 2011, a traveler flying from Las Vegas to Boston had her red velvet cupcake in a jar confiscated by TSA, who suggested that the frosting might have surpassed the amount of liquid passengers are allowed to bring on board the plane. The publicity resulted in an uptick in sales for the company.