Yes, Cup Board Pro got a deal on Shark Tank, and it is one of the few in the show’s history that all five Sharks signed. Kaley, Christian and Keira Young pitched the cutting board their father, FDNY firefighter and two-time Chopped champion Keith Young, invented before he died of cancer linked to his work at Ground Zero. The episode aired on October 21, 2018. They asked for $100,000 for 10% and accepted $100,000 for 20%, $20,000 from each Shark, who pledged their profits to charities for sick 9/11 responders. The deal is on the record afterward: Mark Cuban still lists Cup Board Pro in his portfolio in 2026. The board was redesigned, made in Wisconsin and sold exclusively by Williams-Sonoma, which still sells it in October 2026. (People often search for it as “Cut Board Pro”; the product is the Cup Board Pro.)
The Cup Board Pro Shark Tank deal at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Episode | Season 10, Episode 3 (aired Oct. 21, 2018) |
| Pitched by | Kaley, Christian and Keira Young |
| Ask | $100,000 for 10% (a $1 million valuation) |
| Sales before the show | About 300 boards, per FireRescue1 |
| Deal | $100,000 for 20% from all five Sharks, $20,000 each (a $500,000 valuation) |
| Sharks | Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Kevin O’Leary, Daymond John, Matt Higgins |
| Did it close? | Yes: Cup Board Pro appears in Mark Cuban’s portfolio, and the Sharks arranged the Williams-Sonoma license |
| Status, Oct. 2026 | Active, sold through Williams-Sonoma |
On paper the family halved its valuation, from $1 million to $500,000. Our post-money valuation calculator does that arithmetic for any ask. In practice the number hardly mattered, because the Sharks said any profit they made would go to charity, and the deal’s real value was the retail introduction that came with it.
A firefighter, a chef and a cutting board
Keith Young invented the board in 2010, according to Food Republic: a cutting board with a detachable cup along its length and channels that guide liquid into a tray, built so a family could cook with less cleanup. The brand’s own site still uses the line “less mess | more family time.”
The project stopped when his wife, Beth, died of breast cancer. Food Republic dates her death to 2011 and FireRescue1 to 2012. Young went on Food Network’s Chopped and won twice, and FireRescue1 reports his daughter Kaley saying those wins gave him the confidence to go back to the product. Around 2015, about when the first shipment of boards arrived, he was diagnosed with cancer that both accounts attribute to his work at Ground Zero. FireRescue1 says he had made 2,000 units by then. He died in 2018, before the episode was filmed, and his three children decided to take the board to Shark Tank themselves. On air they played an audition video Keith had recorded before his death. “We are only able to be here because of how strong our parents were,” Kaley told the Sharks.
The pitch that all five Sharks signed
The Cup Board Pro Shark Tank segment is remembered for the reaction. Daymond John called it the most emotional pitch of his ten years on the show and wrote on Twitter that “it took everything in me not to walk off the set because my emotions ran so crazy.” Cuban told the family, “Your father will live on forever through each of you and this product,” according to FireRescue1’s account.
The family asked for $100,000 for 10%. The five Sharks on the panel, Cuban, Greiner, O’Leary, John and guest Shark Matt Higgins, offered $100,000 for 20% together, $20,000 each, and said all of their profits would go to help firefighters and first responders who became ill after working at Ground Zero. The family accepted.
What happened to Cup Board Pro after Shark Tank
The first problem was demand. Food Republic reports that within 18 hours of the episode airing, 26,000 units were back-ordered, worth more than $1 million, that the family’s inventory sold out in minutes, and that they received more than 100,000 emails. Viewers also gave more than $41,000 to the Fire Department of New York Foundation, the same outlet reports.
The second was manufacturing. The original board was bamboo and made in China. According to a March 2020 report in the Superior Telegram, published by the Duluth News Tribune, Williams-Sonoma approached Epicurean, a kitchen-products manufacturer in Superior, Wisconsin, after the episode because it wanted a U.S.-made version. Epicurean spent about three months redesigning it in a wood-fiber composite, and the new board relaunched in March 2019. It is made in Superior, with the cups shipped in for final assembly, and it is sold only through Williams-Sonoma. Epicurean co-founder Dave Benson told the paper that about 75,000 units had sold since the relaunch. “It’s been a very good seller,” he said. Looper credits Daymond John’s connections with landing the Williams-Sonoma placement.
How big is Cup Board Pro?
There is one hard number: about 75,000 units sold in the year after the March 2019 relaunch, from the manufacturer, in March 2020. At the $54.95 to $84.95 prices Looper reported in 2023, that would be roughly $4 million to $6 million in retail sales in the first year, before Williams-Sonoma’s margin and the licensing split. That is our arithmetic, not a reported figure. The “$15 million valuation” that circulates online traces back to a net-worth site, which Food Republic cites without verifying it, so we don’t repeat it.
Who owns Cup Board Pro now, and is it still in business?
Cup Board Pro is privately held by the Young family, with the five Sharks as investors, and it operates as a licensed product made by Epicurean and sold by Williams-Sonoma. Food Republic reported in 2023 that Kaley Young owns the business. The brand returned to Shark Tank for an update segment in Season 14. In 2022, according to Looper, the family donated $10,000 to the FDNY Foundation and Greiner and Higgins each matched it. In 2021 the siblings published Cooking with the Firehouse Chef, a book of more than 100 of their father’s recipes, and in 2022 they added a larger two-compartment XL board, Food Republic reports.
It is still in business. In October 2026 the brand’s website carries a 2026 copyright and its “Order NOW” button sends buyers to Williams-Sonoma, which remains the only place it is sold. Because of that exclusive arrangement, there is no Amazon listing to link.
What founders can take from it
First, a story opens the door, but the product has to survive the redesign. Williams-Sonoma did not buy the bamboo board from the episode; it paid to rebuild it in a different material and move production to the U.S. Second, a licensing deal can be the better outcome for a small family company: someone else carries the inventory, the factory and the retail risk, and the brand earns from every unit. Third, a halved valuation means little when the Sharks are not in it for the return, and that is rare. Most Shark Tank deals are priced to make money; this one was priced to help. For a deal that also became a license, see Better Bedder and Lori Greiner.
