Whatever Happened To KidsLuv After Shark Tank?
On "Shark Tank," the Sharks bring their decades of experience in management and investing to the table, along with their sizable pocketbooks. And that experience guides them in deciding whether or not to back a particular venture.
In Season 11, Episode 15, a California mother of three named Ashi Jelinek came on the show to request funding for a juice product called KidsLuv, which she had been making at home after raising $1 million from friends. She made KidsLuv with no added sugar, using natural fruit juices and a small amount of Stevia. All of the sharks agreed KidsLuv passed a basic taste test, although they noticed a slight aftertaste from the artificial sweetener. But after hearing that she had burned through all but $50,000 of the funds she had raised, they all passed on investing in KidsLuv.
"You're not owning your own mistakes," Barbara Corcoran told Jelinek. "The investors that gave you their money are really owning your mistakes. And then you come here and you're asking us to follow your other investors down that little yellow path. It makes absolutely no sense." Meanwhile, Mark Cuban challenged her to do the selling herself instead of hunting for a distributor before also passing on the chance to invest in Jelinek and her juice.
Without investment from the sharks, it appears the company may now be out of business. While KidsLuv once had an active Instagram page touting partnerships with Instacart, Amazon, and Walmart, the last post from the company was made in September 2022. In addition, the company's website is now down, and its products are no longer available via any of the aforementioned outlets.
Ashi Jelinek dumped sugar on her son as part of her investment pitch
As part of her pitch, Ashi Jelinek brought her son Phoenix on stage, clad in a red helmet with a clear plastic face mask. To demonstrate how much sugar kids would consume by drinking an eight-ounce glass of a typical juice product each day for a year, Jelinek dumped a 20-pound bucket of sugar on Phoenix while the sharks gasped in horror.
While the theatrics were effective in making her point, the stunt did not negate the fact that she had burned through nearly $1 million in other investors' funds.
The sharks made it clear that they were not only investing in products, but also betting on the business acumen of the entrepreneurs themselves — and they all seemed to be scared off by the speed at which she had gone through her initial allotment of funding. As a group, they seemed simultaneously impressed and flabbergasted by her ability to raise $1 million from her family and friends. However, they were equally unanimous in their disapproval of how she overspent on legal and licensing fees. "Oh," moaned Mark Cuban. "Ashi, just listening to this is so painful."
Kevin O'Leary appeared most enthusiastic about the potential of KidsLuv, but was unwilling to move forward without concrete sales figures. "This idea has merit, but we need sell-through data," O'Leary told Jelinek. "I don't know if the kids are going to love it. I don't want to take this journey with you. I'm out. I'm sorry."