Potato Parcel Update | Shark Tank Season 8

Andrew Smith May 23, 2021August 23, 2021

Shark Tank Season 8 Episode 6 ended things on a high note with arguably one of the funniest products pitched to date, Potato Parcel. The brainchild of Alex Craig, which he eventually sold to Riad Bekhit, Potato Parcel is a business built on delivering customized messages written on potatoes to anyone everywhere in the world. After pitching the sharks and asking for $50,000 in exchange for 10% equity, Alex and Riad would walk away with exactly what they’d ask for from no other than Mr. Wonderful himself, Kevin O’Leary. Here’s a recap of the pitch and Potato Parcel update!

Shark Tank Potato Parcel Update

Entrepreneur: Alex Craig and Riad Bekhit
Business: Customized messages written on a potato
Ask: $50,000 for 10% equity
Result: $50,000 for 10% equity and $1 royalty until $150,000 is paid back
Shark: Kevin O’Leary

Entering the Shark Tank, Potato Parcel founders Alex Craig and Riad Bekhit valued their company at $500,000. Naturally, the focus of the sharks wasn’t on the valuation as much as it was on the potato puns and the novelty that someone was trying to pitch them a product that you never would have thought of in a million years.

As the pitch went on, however, the sharks started taking the Potato Parcel founders more seriously when they revealed that they’d sent over 12,000 messages and already made $215,000 in sales. This came out to an average of $10,000 in sales per month since Potato Parcel first launched in May 2015.

Despite being impressed with the numbers, most of the sharks backed out pretty quickly. Both Lori Greiner and Daymond John thought that Potato Parcel was more of a gag company while Mark Cuban, although not thinking that the idea was completely crazy, went out anyway. This left Robert Herjavec, who thought that the valuation was too high, and Kevin O’Leary, who isn’t a stranger to weird investments, having had done so before with the wildly successful Illumibowl.

Despite his reservations, Robert offered $50,000 for 25% equity. On the other hand, Kevin was more than happy to offer the entrepreneurs exactly what they asked for, $50,000 for 10% equity in addition to a $1 royalty until $150,000 was paid back. After some thought, Alex and Riad accepted Kevin’s offer.

This now brings us to our Potato Parcel update, in which we can safely say that Kevin is one happy shark. Soon after airing on Shark Tank, Potato Parcel blew up. In fact, in early 2017, Potato Parcel went viral after NBA player and Dallas Mavericks legend, Dirk Nowitzki, shared on social media that he received a lot of anonymous potatoes congratulating him for reaching the 30,000 career point milestone. This was later revealed to have been a publicity stunt by Potato Parcel themselves.

Then, in 2018, a Potato Parcel update from CNBC revealed that Bekhit was already bringing in a 6-figure salary. Fast forward to 2021 and Potato Parcel is now worth an estimated $1 million with the company having already sent over 70,000 parcels and making over $700,000 in revenue since airing on Shark Tank. If you’d like to send someone a potato, you can do so through the official website.

Not bad for a company that initially started because one of the founders stumbled across a Reddit post, right?

For more Shark Tank Season 8 Episode 6 company updates, be sure to check the links below:

For more on Shark Tank Season 8, be sure to check out our Season 8 Products page.

Andrew Smith

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Andrew Smith is the founder and owner of Shark Tank Recap. He is a longtime Shark Tank fan that has been watching it for years and has seen every episode multiple times. His friends know him as the Shark Tank expert, because he can answer any question about the show! His favorite Shark Tank products are Bertello's pizza oven and Bug Bite Thing!