Is Luma Soda still in business after Shark Tank? Explored

In April 2019, episode 19 of Shark Tank season 10 was aired. As happens in every season this one too saw many companies come in to pitch their product and seek funding. One such company was Luma Soda.

Founded by Jim Otteson, a trial lawyer and a self-proclaimed diet soda addict who used to consume a dozen or more sodas daily. Keeping the health impacts in mind, he came up with a healthier option.

Initially, he tested out various combinations with his daughter. Eventually, he worked with a food scientist to develop a formula using honey and monk fruit as sweeteners.

However, the company eventually seems to have run out of business since the products were taken down from Amazon and the official website stopped selling the healthy sodas as well. The reason behind the same remains unknown but it's to note that when the company came on Shark Tank it did not get the funding.

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What happened to Luma Soda after Shark Tank?

Luma Soda was launched in January 2017 with four flavors: blood orange, lemon-lime, cola, and cherry cola. These sodas had a healthier calorie break down with each having 25 calories and four grams of sugar.

Initially, the product was sold online and in a few locations around Palo Alto as well. When the company came to Shark Tank they sought $500,000 for a 20% equity stake.

On Shark Tank, he made sure the judges understood what the sugar content in regular soda was and used sugar cubes to portray the amount. Then, he offered the judges samples of his product.

The cherry cola flavor received mixed reviews, while the blood orange was more positively received. The company's sales figures for the year stood at about $180,000, but Otteson revealed a low repeat customer rate of 10%. This was the major red flag for the Sharks.

Otteson had invested roughly $1.75 million into Luma Soda, funded through a home equity line of credit and borrowing against life insurance, with approximately $600,000 spent on inventory for retail distribution. However, this effort was unsuccessful due to issues with salespeople. Ultimately, no deal was made between any of the sharks and the company.

Usually, the episodes are shot in June and September before the upcoming season. However, after filming the episode in mid-2018 at Shark Tank Luma Soda stopped all social media activity and later the LinkedIn page of Otteson showed that he left Luma Soda in January 2019. Considering the dates, it looks like the company stopped functioning before even the episode was released in April 2019.

According to his LinkedIn, Jim Otteson returned to law, joining Dechert LLP as senior counsel in October 2018. By 2020, he founded his own law firm in Palo Alto, focusing on consumer protection, fraud, and intellectual property cases.

Although his tenure at Otteson Law is listed as ending in September 2021, the firm’s website remains active. In October 2021, he became the managing director of the Partner Practice Group at Major, Lindsey & Africa, leveraging his 30 years of legal experience.

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After working on Luma Soda, where he wanted to give the masses a healthy alternative to sugary sodas, Otteson eventually went back to the field of law. The company now lies as a mere page on the internet with no operations taking place. However, it remains to be seen if it will ever revive again or not.