Here's What Happened To My Fruity Faces After Shark Tank
If you're a parent or work in child care, there's no doubt you've seen a little one struggle to make it through mealtime without a meltdown, especially when it comes to fruits and veggies. The apples are too sour, the broccoli is too green, and even the tried and true choices fail at some point. Entrepreneurs Adam Gerber and Bob Ntoya wanted to create a fun way to deal with picky eaters and entice them to eat their fruits and veggies without a fight.
So they invented My Fruity Faces, a line of edible, gluten-free stickers that can be attached directly to food with the help of a little moisture. Following a turbulent multi-year launch, Gerber and Ntoya appeared on "Shark Tank" in Season 7, Episode 26 seeking $200,000 for 10% equity in their company. Viewers may have hoped that after Ntoya nervously stumbled through the first few sentences of the pitch things might turn around for the company's founders, but after the founders announced the company was valued at $2 million and the company had produced just $2,000 in sales over the last month, the panel began to groan and ready themselves for a fight.
What happened to My Fruity Faces on Shark Tank
To start the pitch, the founders came out with two kids and sat them down to eat a plate of fruit and explained that the stickers would serve as motivation to chow down on fruit at snack time. Afterward, the founders distributed customized My Fruity Faces to the judges who had their own faces on the stickers. This sweetness of the moment didn't last, though, as the Sharks crunched the numbers on My Fruity Faces. Though they had some momentum going with their product, like a licensing agreement with Nickelodeon to use its characters on the stickers, and a tentative deal with Walmart, the two founders failed to convince the Sharks to give their stamp of approval.
Barbara Corcoran was the first to bow out, noting that the duo had only made $125,000 in three years and stated, "I just can't imagine investing my money and thinking I'd really get it back out." Daymond John followed, and Kevin O'Leary made the harsh statement that the founders should stop investing in this business altogether. Mark Cuban stressed the importance of following up with sales to at least help the founders get out of their current six-figure debt and seemed to consider jumping on board, but after Gerber and Ntoya admitted they weren't currently licensed to make and sell Nickelodeon products, he dropped out too. Without any bites, My Fruity Faces left the "Shark Tank" stage with no deal in hand.
My Fruity Faces after Shark Tank
Plenty of food companies don't get a deal on "Shark Tank" but go on to have lots of success. Sadly, that doesn't appear to be the case for My Fruity Face. According to LinkedIn, Gerber terminated their involvement with the company in 2016, the same year the episode aired, and the last Instagram post for the company came in 2017. There doesn't seem to be all that much information about what went wrong, but viewers heard quite a few reasons in the episode alone that the company may have faced its ultimate downfall. It does appear that the company renewed its license with Nickelodeon and produced some branded stickers, but with over $150,000 in existing debt and without enough capital to restock inventory and get their products onto brick-and-mortar shelves, it's possible the founders decided just to cut their losses and walk away from what seemed to be a sinking ship.
In the episode, Mark Cuban emphasized that the two entrepreneurs made a critical mistake by investing too much in the potential of the brand and not enough in turning a profit on sales alone. The Sharks also helped the duo to realize that if they simply sold off their existing inventory for approximately $2.00 per package, they could nearly erase the mammoth debt. So potentially, Gerber and Ntoya just sold off their remaining stock and decided to shutter the business.
What's next for My Fruity Faces founders?
Behind nearly every success story is a series of failures and mistakes, so having a business shut down does not mean the end of the world for any entrepreneur. So what happened to the founders of My Fruity Face after they left "Shark Tank" without a deal and decided to close the figurative doors of their business?
Adam Gerber seems to have kept hustling. They've been a part of many business startups and even worked as the band manager for Puddle of Mudd for a few years. Gerber is also listed as the founder of I Wanna Green Home, a company that specializes in at-home energy efficiency audits. As of the publication of this article, this company is still operating since 2017. Gerber is also a licensed realtor, the V.P. of Acquisitions for a real estate firm, and a "Comfort Advisor" with Home Depot @ Airmax. That's a lot of hats! In the case of Bob Ntoya, we are left with relatively little information.