What Happened To Coconut Girl After Shark Tank?

When Francheska "Frankie" Yamsuan rode onstage on her "Icicle Tricycle" pitching her dairy-free ice cream business on "Shark Tank," you could tell she meant business. Yamsuan founded Coconut Girl, a line of ice cream sandwiches made from coconut milk and other better-for-you ingredients. She was seeking $180,000 for 18% of her company in episode 14 of season 11 of "Shark Tank."

As explained by Yamsuan in a Coconut Girl Instagram post in 2020, the idea to make healthier, dairy-free ice cream sandwiches came from her then newfound passion for fitness and wellness. As she dove into CrossFit and the paleo diet, she became tired of foods that marketed themselves as healthy but were full of processed ingredients. Coconut Girl was soon born out of her home kitchen, providing an ice cream sandwich for those who were dairy-free, paleo, or wanted to indulge without worrying about ingredients. 

Before Coconut Girl hit the "Shark Tank" stage, it had already seen some impressive accomplishments; a year prior, it had made $120,000 in sales, and in the year of the show, it was on track to reach $300,000. The company had already gotten its product into grocery retailers in southern California, with Whole Foods as its biggest account. A week before the taping of the show, Coconut Girl signed a distribution deal with United Natural Foods to expand to other states, like Arizona, Nevada, and Hawaii.

Yamsuan delivered an enthusiastic pitch that connected with the Sharks, especially because she brought all three flavors of Coconut Girl's ice cream sandwiches to sample. The pitch fared a lot better than another paleo company that pitched on "Shark Tank" called Paleo Diet Foods, which sold bars. The Sharks were impressed by Coconut Girl's profit margins, as the ice cream sandwiches sold for $4.99-$5.49 in stores but only cost $1 each to make. The founder explained that her goal was to lower this even further, to $0.50 per ice cream sandwich.

With an ask of $180,000, Yamsuan explained that she would use the money to hire more staff, as at the time it was largely a one-woman operation with some extra part-time help. Additionally, she was seeking manufacturers and co-packers to scale the product, as she was producing the ice cream sandwiches herself.

Mark Cuban, who has been known to take an interest in health food products, jumped on the deal first, offering $180,000 for 25% of the company. Lori Greiner tried to counter, starting by saying, "I'm your customer," before she was cut off by Cuban. Kevin O'Leary managed to get a word in for a counter offer of $180,000 for 20%. At that point, Cuban made the same offer. Yamsuan accepted Cuban's offer and walked away with only 2% less of her company than what she originally wanted.

Coconut Girl was able to bring on a co-packer due to Cuban's investment in the company. Coconut Girl continued to sell its products in Whole Foods across multiple states after the show. The dairy-free ice cream sandwiches were also made available on Instacart and Amazon Fresh. Between 2020-2023, Coconut Girl expanded into stores like Lunardi's Markets, United Markets, Gene's Fine Foods, and Nugget Markets in California, Central Market in Texas, and Kimberton Whole Foods in Pennsylvania.

After the airing of the episode, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, affecting food supply chains and, therefore, producers like Coconut Girl. Founder Frankie Yamsuan shared with the Badass Basic B**** podcast that supply chain issues made it difficult to produce the ice cream sandwiches at scale. On top of this, distributing a frozen product at a time when transportation was disrupted was incredibly challenging.

While Yamsuan nor her company has made a formal announcement of the company's closure, Coconut Girl's website is currently not operational. The company's social media has not posted since April 2024, and the account hadn't been regularly posting since 2023.

Francheska Yamsuan's LinkedIn profile shows that she worked at Coconut Girl from January 2016 to January 2024 as CEO. The Coconut Girl LinkedIn still exists, but it has not made any posts or had activity. Neither the former CEO or the Coconut Girl's LinkedIn has made any posts about the company shutting down, but the lack of posts, website, and social media activity all point to this.

We can assume that the timing of the pandemic certainly could have put a damper on the brand's success and ability to survive post-pandemic. Yamsuan, who has been quiet on all social platforms and online, had one of the best dessert pitches on "Shark Tank," and we hope to see her next business venture in the future.