Yes, Potato Parcel got a deal on Shark Tank. The company, which mails real potatoes with a printed message or photo on them, pitched in Season 8 in October 2016, asked for $50,000 for 10%, and accepted Kevin O’Leary’s offer: the same $50,000 for 10%, plus a royalty on every potato sold until he had collected $150,000. Mark Cuban called it “stupid on a stick.” O’Leary later told USA Today he made “a ton of money” on it, which is the clearest sign the deal closed. Ten years on, Potato Parcel is still in business, still taking orders in October 2026, and selling a much wider range of novelty gifts than potatoes. The founder you see in old clips is not the one who owns it: the idea’s originator sold the company before the episode was ever filmed.
The Potato Parcel Shark Tank deal at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Episode | Season 8, aired Oct. 28, 2016 (Episode 5 in Shark Tank Blog’s listing) |
| Pitched by | Riad Bekhit and Alex Craig |
| Ask | $50,000 for 10% (a $500,000 valuation) |
| Sales claimed on air | About $215,000 from roughly 12,000 potatoes in 13 months |
| Other offer | Robert Herjavec, $50,000 for 25% |
| Deal | $50,000 for 10% plus $0.50 per potato for 60 days, then $1 per potato until $150,000 was repaid (Kevin O’Leary) |
| Did it close? | O’Leary said in 2019 he made “a ton of money” on it |
| Status, Oct. 2026 | Active |
A Reddit joke, a $40,000 sale, then the Tank
The idea came from the internet. Food Republic, citing a 2015 WFAA report, says Alex Craig, then a 24-year-old app developer in North Texas, was inspired by a Reddit post showing a potato covered in stamps, and that his girlfriend told him, “You will not sell a single potato.” Wikipedia dates the launch to May 2015.
It sold well enough to change hands within months. According to Wikipedia, the company was sold to Bay Area entrepreneur Riad Bekhit for $40,000 in October 2015 and moved to San Bruno, California. That sentence carries no citation on the page, but Food Republic independently reports that Bekhit bought the company from Craig before the two went on the show. Wikipedia also records the business clearing $10,000 to $13,000 a month in 2015 and, by Bekhit’s account in April 2016, $20,000 to $25,000 a month.
What happened in the Tank
Bekhit and Craig pitched in potato costumes, which helped. Food Republic records the ask as $50,000 for 10%, a $500,000 valuation, and the founders’ claim of about 12,000 potato greetings and $215,000 in revenue in their first 13 months. That is an average of about $18 a potato. Cuban, Daymond John and Lori Greiner went out. Robert Herjavec offered $50,000 for 25%. O’Leary offered the full ask, $50,000 for 10%, but with a royalty: 50 cents a potato for 60 days, rising to $1 a potato after that, until he had been paid $150,000. They took it.
How long would the O’Leary royalty take to pay off?
This is the part of the deal that is rarely worked through. A royalty is paid on top of the equity, from revenue, until a cap is hit. Here the cap was $150,000, three times the money invested. Using only the figures reported for the company, the payback looks like this:
| Step | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average price per potato before the show | about $17.90 | $215,000 ÷ 12,000 (as claimed on air) |
| Royalty as a share of that price | about 5.6% at $1 | our arithmetic |
| Potatoes sold after the episode, to spring 2018 | about 70,000 | CNBC Make It (2018), as reported by Food Republic and Looper |
| Implied pace | roughly 3,900 a month over 18 months | our arithmetic |
| Time to collect $150,000 at that pace | about 3 to 3.5 years | our estimate (60 days at $0.50, the rest at $1) |
That estimate assumes the sales pace held and that the royalty was paid as described on air. We found no public statement of when, or whether, O’Leary’s $150,000 was fully repaid. What it shows is why a royalty matters more than the equity line: on a $500,000 company, a 10% stake is worth $50,000, but the royalty was designed to return three times his money in cash first. Our post-money valuation calculator shows the equity side of any ask; royalties never appear in it, which is exactly why founders should model them separately.
Did the Potato Parcel deal close?
It appears so, on O’Leary’s own word. In 2019 USA Today asked the Sharks about their best and worst pitches, and, as quoted by Food Republic and Looper, O’Leary described Potato Parcel as “the best pitch for the worst product” and said he had made “a ton of money” on it. Neither side has published the closing documents, and neither has said whether the royalty has finished paying out.
What happened to Potato Parcel after Shark Tank
The business grew but stayed small. According to Food Republic, CNBC Make It reported in 2018 that the company had sold about 70,000 potato greetings since the episode and had seven employees, with yearly revenue in six figures. “People respect it and they actually find it really funny,” Bekhit told CNBC. Food Republic adds that by 2021 the company was projected to be worth $1 million, with more than $700,000 earned since the show. Those are company figures relayed by secondary outlets, not audited results.
The product range has changed more than the business model. Potato Parcel’s website in October 2026 lists potato bundles for birthdays, anniversaries, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas from about $22 to $30, alongside “glitter bomb” gift boxes, oversized cardboard head cut-outs and flower bouquets. It says it donates one potato for every one sold, and that “tens of thousands have been donated and consumed thus far!” It ships only to U.S. addresses.
Who owns Potato Parcel now, and is it still in business?
Potato Parcel is privately held. Riad Bekhit is the owner on the public record, and Kevin O’Leary holds, or held, 10%. We found no report of a later sale. The company is still in business: its site was taking orders and running a holiday sale in late October 2026, with customer reviews dated that month. We could not verify an official Amazon listing for its products, so there is no Amazon link here.
What founders can take from it
First, a joke product can be a real business if people keep buying it as a gift. At about $18 an order, Potato Parcel was always a novelty-gift company, and its later range makes that explicit. Second, the person who has the idea is not always the one who scales it. Craig sold early for a modest sum; Bekhit took it to Shark Tank. Third, read a royalty deal as debt with a cap, not as a gift. At the reported pace, O’Leary’s royalty would have taken years of revenue to pay down. For a very different shape of Shark deal, compare Legacy Shave, where Lori Greiner bought nearly the whole company.
