Mark Cuban Reveals His Greatest Regret From ‘Shark Tank’

Mark Cuban evaluates hundreds and hundreds of exciting new ventures that he can invest in on “Shark Tank.” However, there is one company that stands out that he wishes that he had invested in. Cubes revealed that his greatest regret on “Shark Tank” was passing on a brand of frozen shrimp burgers. The episode aired in 2011, but it still haunts Cuban today.

Shawn Davis AKA Chef Big Shake appeared on “Shark Tank” in Season 2 to get an investor in his line of frozen shrimp burgers. Cuban wasn’t the only one to pass on this golden opportunity because the shrimp did not get any of the sharks to bite. Chef Big Shake left with nothing but frozen shrimp in his hand after none of the panel of multi-millionaires and billionaires declined on the shrimp burgers. The mistake turned them from sharks to shrimp.

The day after his episode aired, Davis received dozens of calls from prospective investors. Despite the experts on “Shark Tank” passing, Angel Investors believed in Chef Big Shake’s shrimp burgers and invested $500,000 in his up-and-coming business. Soon, the frozen patties were being sold to grocery stores all over the country. In just a year, his sales grew from $30,000 to $5 million! Chef Big Shake stopped selling his shrimp burgers in grocery stores due to high fees, but many restaurants around the country continue to sell them, including his restaurant chain.

Davis is doing well with his Big Shake’s Hot Chicken & Fish restaurant, which he is planning to franchise out. But he got the idea for the shrimp burger because of his 10-year-old daughter. Delish has the story on how his amazing shrimp burger came to be:

When Davis’s 10-year-old daughter came home from school declaring she wouldn’t be eating meat anymore because of anti-animal cruelty propaganda some classmates had shown her, he had to get clever. “First I tried to convince her it’s okay to eat some meat, but she wasn’t going for it,” Davis laughed. So he started making seafood patties. The shrimp was his daughter’s favorite, and his wife’s. She had Davis made 40 of them for a family reunion, and when those were a hit, she convinced him to start selling them.

Cuban has offered advice to the Chef Big Shake to this day and is still a customer of his shrimp burgers that probably leave a bad taste in his mouth based on the success that it has had.

[Uproxx/Delish]