Yes, Wicked Good Cupcakes got a deal on Shark Tank, and it is the purest example of a Kevin O’Leary royalty. Tracey Noonan and her daughter Dani Desroches, who bake cupcakes into Mason jars so they can be shipped, pitched in an episode that aired on April 26, 2013. They asked for $75,000 for 20%. O’Leary was the only Shark to offer, and he didn’t want equity: he paid $75,000 for $1 on every cupcake until he was repaid, then 45 cents a cupcake after that, with no end date. The deal closed. In 2021 Hickory Farms, the gourmet food-gift company, bought the business, and in October 2026 the Wicked Good Cupcakes website describes itself as part of the “Hickory Farms family of gourmet food gifts.” What the royalty was worth to O’Leary is a question that can be estimated from the reported figures, and it is a useful model for any founder offered one.
The Wicked Good Cupcakes Shark Tank deal at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Episode | Season 4, Episode 22 (aired April 26, 2013) |
| Pitched by | Tracey Noonan and Dani Desroches |
| Ask | $75,000 for 20% (a $375,000 valuation) |
| Sales claimed on air | $73,000 in mail-order sales; $360,000 projected for the year, per Shark Tank Blog |
| Offers | Kevin O’Leary only |
| Deal | $75,000 for a royalty: $1 per cupcake until repaid, then $0.45 per cupcake in perpetuity |
| Did it close? | Yes |
| Status, Oct. 2026 | Owned by Hickory Farms (acquired 2021) |
The founders’ ask valued the company at $375,000 (our post-money valuation calculator shows the sum). O’Leary’s offer implied no valuation, because he took no equity at all.
Cupcakes in a jar
According to Wikipedia, the mother and daughter started after a cake-decorating class, posted photos of their baking online, and began selling when friends and family asked to buy. Putting cupcakes in jars solved the shipping problem. They opened a store in Cohasset, Massachusetts, in 2011. A 2011 Transportation Security Administration seizure of one of their cupcakes at an airport became a news story and, by Wikipedia’s account, “sparked an increase in sales and publicity.”
What happened in the Tank
Shark Tank Blog’s account of the episode records the ask of $75,000 for 20%, mail-order sales of $73,000 and a projected $360,000 for the year. Robert Herjavec, Daymond John, Lori Greiner and Mark Cuban went out. O’Leary offered the money as a royalty, initially asking for 50 cents a cupcake in perpetuity after repayment; the founders countered at 40 cents and they settled at 45 cents, according to the same account. Wikipedia records the final terms as $1 a cupcake until his investment was repaid, then 45 cents a cupcake.
What the royalty was worth: an estimate
O’Leary’s royalty has two stages. First, $1 a cupcake until he gets his $75,000 back, which takes 75,000 cupcakes. After that, 45 cents a cupcake, forever. Shark Tank Blog reports that the company later did $40 million in sales after the show and that O’Leary earned “over $1 million” in royalties. Neither figure is from an audited source, but they can be checked against each other.
| Assumption | Figure |
|---|---|
| Price per cupcake today | About $12.50 (a 4-jar pack is $49.99 on the brand’s site in Oct. 2026) |
| Cupcakes implied by $40 million in sales | About 3.2 million |
| Royalty on the first 75,000 | $75,000 (repays the investment) |
| Royalty on the remaining ~3.1 million at $0.45 | About $1.4 million |
| Implied total royalty | About $1.5 million |
That is consistent with “over $1 million.” Prices were lower in earlier years, which would mean more cupcakes for the same sales and a somewhat higher royalty, so treat this as a rough check rather than a calculation of what O’Leary received. It shows the shape of the deal: $75,000 turned into a stream worth roughly 20 times the investment over a decade, without O’Leary owning a share of the company. Whether the royalty survived the 2021 sale has not been made public.
For the founders, the cost was 45 cents on every product they would ever sell, about 3.6% of today’s price per cupcake. A 20% equity stake would have cost them a share of the sale price instead. Our Potato Parcel profile works through another O’Leary royalty, one with a cap.
What happened to Wicked Good Cupcakes after Shark Tank
The business grew into a regional brand. Shark Tank Blog reports that the founders told a later update segment they had reached $5.5 million in sales, that they moved into a 15,000-square-foot commercial bakery, opened shops at Boston’s Faneuil Hall and the South Shore Plaza in Braintree, and repaid O’Leary’s initial $75,000. In June 2021, according to Wikipedia and Shark Tank Blog, Hickory Farms bought the company. Terms were not disclosed. Estimates of the price from net-worth sites are not reliable, so we don’t repeat them.
Is Wicked Good Cupcakes still in business?
Yes, as a Hickory Farms brand. In October 2026 its website was selling cupcake-jar packs from $25.99 for two to $49.99 for four, along with brownie bites, subscriptions and corporate gifts, and running Halloween promotions. It still credits “Boston natives and mother-and-daughter team Tracey & Dani” with starting it, and still advertises its Shark Tank appearance. Its footer reads ”© 2025 All Rights Reserved.” We could not verify an official Amazon listing, so there is no Amazon link here.
What founders can take from it
First, a royalty with no end date is the most expensive kind of money if the business works. At 45 cents a cupcake, O’Leary’s share kept growing long after his investment was repaid. Second, it can still be the right deal. The founders kept 100% of the equity, and that is what they eventually sold to Hickory Farms. Third, model the royalty before you sign: multiply it by the units you expect to sell in five and ten years, and compare that with the equity you would otherwise give up. Our analysis of Shark Tank deals by the numbers shows how unusual a no-equity deal is, and how much more equity founders typically give up instead.
