Here's What Happened To Coffee Joulies After Shark Tank
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On any given day, the world consumes more than 2 billion cups of coffee. Nearly every one of those cups is initially too hot to drink and then, several hours later, too cold. And who even has time to properly reheat coffee? No one.
Enter Coffee Joulies, the metal coffee beans that can cool your coffee to drinking temperature within minutes and keep it at that temperature for hours. The beans use a special material that absorbs excess heat from coffee (or any hot beverage) and releases that heat back into the coffee once it reaches the ideal drinking temperature.
Entrepreneurs Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson launched Coffee Joulies in 2011, raising more than $300k on Kickstarter. The duo brought their coffee creation to "Shark Tank" in 2013, hoping to score an investment of $150,000 in exchange for 5% equity. Little did they know, the Sharks would be jumping all over their product.
All five Sharks want a piece of Coffee Joulies
Drawing interest from all five Sharks, Coffee Joulies quickly established itself as one of the most memorable "Shark Tank" food companies. At the time of Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson's pitch, they had sold more than $575,000 in Coffee Joulies beans.
Although the sharks were less than thrilled with the prospect of needing one Coffee Joulies bean for every 4 ounces of coffee, they were very much intrigued by the company's estimation of $1 million in sales for 2013. Petrillo and Jackson had already gotten Coffee Joulies into thousands of Bed, Bath & Beyond and OfficeMax locations and wanted help in further expanding Coffee Joulies.
Sharks Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and Daymond John went in on a deal of $150,000 in exchange for a $6 royalty. Once their money was paid back, the royalty would drop to $1 per Coffee Joulies pod. Mark Cuban, on the other hand, disagreed with the retail strategy and instead offered $250k in exchange for 12% equity. Ultimately, Petrillo and Jackson turned down Cuban's offer in favor of the royalty deal.
Coffee Joulies became a hot commodity after Shark Tank
While some "Shark Tank" food inventions flop after the show, Coffee Joulies was successful. Immediately after reaching a deal with sharks Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and Daymond John, entrepreneurs Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson couldn't have been more pleased. That being said, it seems the deal was never actually finalized.
In an interview with the Observer-Dispatch, Petrillo said that the exposure from "Shark Tank" had given them "larger increases than we expected in every category." Despite emphasizing the retail and wholesale path during their pitch, the duo seemed to back off from the idea. Instead, they focused on selling directly to consumers through the Coffee Joulies website, with retail and wholesale pushed to the back burner.
Even without a team of Sharks behind the company, Coffee Joulies managed to sell out, necessitating multiple hiatuses to restock. Needless to say, the inconsistency in Coffee Joulies' availability could prove to be a big problem, so where is the company today?
Coffee Joulies are hard to come by in 2023
As of August 2023, Coffee Joulies is valued at approximately $5 million. The company has also expanded its product line to include glass mugs and Beer Joulies, which keep drinks cold.
However, the company seems to be shifting gears again, as its website has been deactivated. In February 2023, Coffee Joulies posted on Facebook after a six-year hiatus, saying its products would be available for a limited time through Thread & Leather. The only products available, though, are the original Coffee Joulies, and they cannot be purchased separately. For $119, you can buy five Coffee Joulies and an insulated travel mug. For $139, you can buy six Coffee Joulies and two insulated travel mugs.
Coffee Joulies (sold separately) can be purchased on Amazon, costing $39.99 for a five-pack. Unfortunately, the product has a three-star rating, with some customers complaining that the beans only work in insulated tumblers. Others were displeased with how many beans are needed to keep coffee warm.
Are Coffee Joulies finally cooling off for good?
Sadly, it seems that Coffee Joulies might be nearing the end of its story. As mentioned previously, the company's website has been deactivated, and its social media profiles have seen little — if any — activity in the last several years.
Dave Petrillo is still listed as company president on his LinkedIn, but he has also spent the past five years working at Peloton as an engineer and hardware lead. On the other hand, Dave Jackson lists himself simply as a Coffee Joulies co-founder on Facebook. He founded a second company, SpeedBoard, in 2019. However, SpeedBoard doesn't appear to be doing much better than Coffee Joulies, with only $44k raised on Kickstarter and no Facebook updates since 2020. Many Facebook users have demanded answers, with one going so far as to accuse the company of pulling a "grab and go" with people's money.
We're hoping this isn't the case and that, like Coffee Joulies, SpeedBoard is just calculating its next move, but we can't be sure. All this just goes to say that we're back to reheating coffee in the microwave or else forced to find some other method of keeping our coffee hot but not too hot.