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Lucas Bradbury appeared in season 13, episode 24 of Shark Tank, which aired on May 20, 2022. The founder and CEO sought $2.5 million for 5% of his company, Project Pollo, America's first vegan fast food chain. With a $50 million valuation, Lucas quickly caught the attention of the investors, however, not everyone agreed with it. Among them was Kevin O'Leary who refused to make Lucas an offer.
"I gotta give you $2.5 million which is a serious chunk of change. I get basically nothing. I get a tip in equity and as you finance, if it's not going to be debt equity, I get diluted further down. I feel like I'm getting deep-fried, like, it's just, it's brutal. I can't go there. I'm out," Kevin said.
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The other investors, including guest Shark Kevin Hart, bowed out of consideration, citing concerns with Project Pollo's valuation and vision to scale the business in a short period of time. Although they liked the food items and the objective behind having plant-based food in the market, they feared the company would collapse if it continued growing rapidly.
After a while, the company began facing operational issues and failed to maintain its rapid growth rate. An acquisition in April 2023 led to the closure of most of the chain's locations. The company's social media inactivity raised further questions about its shutdown. Additionally, Lucas' LinkedIn profile indicates that his role as CEO ended in 2023, implying that the company is no longer operational.
"Plant-based does not mean healthy" — Shark Tank's Mark Cuban comments on Project Pollo's initiative
While demonstrating his products, Lucas listed all the plant-based items Project Pollo offered, including fried chicken, burgers, wraps, salads, shakes, and buffalo mac 'n cheese. It was the company's objective to provide healthy food to people of all incomes, claiming that the future of consumption was plant-based.
He then handed some samples to the Shark Tank investors and received appreciation for the food's taste. However, the experts were more interested in the company's sales and other statistics. When Kevin asked Lucas to explain why he valued his company at $50 million, Lucas drew his attention to their sales.
The entrepreneur revealed he put all his savings into starting the company, which opened with a food truck but soon expanded into physical stores after receiving a significant response from the public. Lucas said Project Pollo would make roughly $10 million in sales, with a year-to-date revenue of $3 million.
What concerned the Shark Tank investors was the rapid rate at which Lucas had opened around 11 stores in a year. Lucas explained that he focused on scalability because he was unwilling to wait five years to see if his concept had validity. Lori Greiner asked how he managed to execute that if he did not have "proof of concept."
Lucas revealed he invested $60,000 of his own money and "maxed out credit cards" to open their first store in Texas. The Texas outlet became successful, earning $23,000 weekly with a 27% profit margin.
The Shark Tank experts were surprised to hear that Lucas had no debt and faced no difficulty operating in the "chaos" of managing multiple outlets. Lucas mentioned that he raised $1.75 million from a single investor at a $17.5 million valuation and was able to get leases at "great rates" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I signed 10-year deals," he said.
Although impressed by Lucas' execution skills and rush to open units, Kevin disagreed with his company's valuation. Consequently, he removed himself from consideration. Mark expressed a similar sentiment, praising Lucas' accomplishments but disagreeing with the valuation. He raised an additional concern, saying plant-based meals would fall off-trend in the coming years.
"Plant-based does not mean healthy. There's nothing healthy about what you're doing and to me, that's going to fall off-trend very quickly. I think over the next two to three years it's going to go the opposite direction where plant-based and healthy have to go together," the Shark Tank star said.
Like Mark, who backed out of making an offer, Kevin Hart also removed himself from consideration, saying it was "too much of a risk" to invest $2.5 million. He feared the company's rapid expansion would backfire sooner than expected.
Soon after, Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran recalled grilled cheese food chain Tom & Chee from season 4. She detailed their journey from rapid expansion to bankruptcy within four years, citing their focus on scalability as the main problem. Since Lucas proposed a similar framework, Barbara refused to present him with an offer.
Lori said Lucas' business was like a "cyclone" that did not know what the future had in store. Moreover, it was his "astronomically high" valuation that made Lori apprehensive. As a result, she backed out of making an offer.
With no offers presented, Lucas had to leave Shark Tank empty-handed. However, he refused to take the Sharks' advice to "slow down" and announced that he would continue to expand all across the States.
Shark Tank season 16 airs new episodes on Fridays at 8 pm ET exclusively on ABC.
