Name: Bay Area chefs win $500,000 investment on 'Shark Tank'
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Bay Area chefs win $500,000 investment on 'Shark Tank'

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Two Bay Area chefs, formerly of The French Laundry, convinced Mark Cuban to invest over half a million dollars in their startup on Friday's episode of "Shark Tank."Oakland's Truffle Shuffle co-founders Jason McKinney and Tyler Vorce appeared on the popular ABC reality show to pitch their virtual cooking classes, where people can learn to cook alongside celebs like Snoop Dogg. After hearing business pitches, the celebrity investors either negotiate the terms or pass on their proposal, often resulting in a bidding war between investors. McKinney and Vorce entertained a small back-and-forth between sharks Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec before coming to terms with Mark Cuban, who offered them a $501,000 loan in exchange for an 18% stake in the company."Mark was our target shark coming in," Vorce said on the show. "I think the future with him is super bright. He's got that strong technology background combined with our cooking experience. I think we've got a solid game plan ahead."Truffle Shuffle went from selling truffles direct to restaurants before the start of the pandemic to during it, with included meal kits and ingredients. Founders McKinney,&nbsp;Vorce and Sarah McKinney started their business together in 2018, but when it came time to figure out what to do with 20 pounds of fresh truffles they had stashed at their apartment for their young business when the world shifted into shelter-in-place due to the pandemic, a pitch to do a virtual cooking class instead turned into an entirely new direction for the business."It [was] a 100% pivot and no, none of us were chef instructors," McKinney said. "We had taught people how to cook in restaurants and we kind of applied those same principles."It was a smart gamble that paid off, and the group has expanded from its initial six-person operation that first worked out of McKinney's 1,000-square-foot apartment, to a 46-person business operating out of its new Oakland headquarters — 10 times the size of that apartment, and with four studio kitchens for live cooking classes and facilities that can pump out 10,000 meal kits a week."[Our class] truly offers a level that you will never be able to achieve in a restaurant kitchen," McKinney said. "It offers a level of intimacy that you'll never be able to achieve in the restaurant kitchen, because as ... we're sharing the knowledge that we spent years to accumulate, we're watching in real time how well we are doing to communicate to the audiences that's taking part in the group. And if we do a well enough job with that, not only do [students] have a delicious dish, but they have a skill and a technique and a memory that they will carry with them forever."

Two Bay Area chefs, formerly of The French Laundry, convinced Mark Cuban to invest over half a million dollars in their startup on Friday's episode of "Shark Tank."Oakland's Truffle Shuffle co-founders Jason McKinney and Tyler Vorce appeared on the popular ABC reality show to pitch their virtual cooking classes, where people can learn to cook alongside celebs like Snoop Dogg. After hearing business pitches, the celebrity investors either negotiate the terms or pass on their proposal, often resulting in a bidding war between investors. McKinney and Vorce entertained a small back-and-forth...

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Bay Area chefs win $500,000 investment on 'Shark Tank'

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