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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Mark Cuban

After Cold Email Pitch, Mark Cuban Invests in SAVRpak (Formerly Soggy Food Sucks)

Perhaps the old addage “It never hurts to ask” has never been more true than in the case of SAVRpak. The company announced today that it has closed a $3.5 million Series A round of funding led by famed investor Mark Cuban. How did Cuban get involved? SAVRpak’s co-founder and co-CEO Greg Maselli skipped the Shark Tank and sent Cuban a cold email directly.

We don’t know what magical combination of words Maselli used to sway Cuban (presumably it did not involve NFTs or Dogecoin), but SAVRpak is actually a pretty good pitch in and of itself. The company produces special patches made from paper and a plant-pup-based solution that are affixed inside food takeout containers. Using the principles of thermodynamics, the patches absorb moisture to keep delivery food crisp and fresh (no soggy fries). The patch does not use chemicals and will receive its biodegradable certification later this year. 

We hate to brag, but we knew SAVRpak was cool way before Cuban. The company used to be known as Soggy Food Sucks, and it won the Startup Showcase at our 2018 Smart Kitchen Summit. The company changed its name to SAVRpak in September of last year when it realized that family-friendly brands didn’t necessarily want to do business with any company with “Sucks” in their name.

When we spoke to SAVRpak last September, company co-founder, Bill Birgen said that COVID-19 had been a double-edged sword for his company. On the one hand, with restaurant dining rooms shut down, delivery and takeout were bigger than ever. But at the same time, restaurants hanging on by a thread were reluctant to add another item to their expense sheet.

In September, SAVRpak was producing 1 million units per month and had plans to scale production up to 15 million units per month by the end of the year. With this new funding, SAVRpak said it will expand production capacity by up to 50 million units a month, and advance applications in the agriculture, grocery, and consumer markets.

It was actually a Mark Cuban-heavy weekend for Spoon-related companies. In addition to SAVRpak, home beer brewing appliance startup, BEERMKR, appeared on Shark Tank last Friday. But while the cold email from SAVRpak resulted in an investment from Cuban, BEERMKR’s pitch got the cold shoulder from Cuban (though to be fair, BEERMKR taped that episode back in September, before the wider shipments of its devices).

Stasher’s Silicone Storage Bags Snap Up $400,000 from Mark Cuban

Companies like ChefSteps and Anova have pushed home sous vide more into the mainstream. One drawback to sous vide, though, is the one-time use of either a vacuum-sealed or Ziplock bag. It just feels wasteful. Which is why I’m excited to try out Stasher‘s re-useable, re-sealable silicone bags that can be used for many things including storage or sous vide.

Stasher founder and CEO, Kat Nouri, dove into ABC’s Shark Tank earlier this month to pitch her wares. After some serious back and forth about product positioning, Mark Cuban bit, and put $400,000 into Stasher for 15 percent of the company as well as a $400,000 line of credit. You can watch Nouri’s episode here (Stasher’s pitch is at the 32-minute mark).

According to Stasher’s FAQ, it’s bags are made from sand (silica), oxygen and “natural resources” that the company claims make it “safer, more flexible and more sustainable than plastic.” The Stasher FAQ goes on to say that “there are no fillers or petroleum-based products” in its bags as well as no BPA, BPS, lead, latex or phthalates.

I’m not enough of scientist to confirm the claims, and it looks like the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t studied silicone since 1979. But the Canadian government says “There are no known health hazards associated with use of silicone cookware”

Providing a safer sous vide experience is definitely a selling point. I’m not thrilled with the idea of wrapping my steak in a cheap plastic bag and bathing it in 130-degree water for an hour. Plus, the Stasher bag is re-usable, so there’s less waste, and dishwasher safe, so its easy to clean. And, of course, when not being used to cook, the bags would be a great alternative for general food storage and packing kids’ lunches.

All those benefits don’t come cheap, though. Stashers range in price and from $9.99 for a snack size, to $11.99 for a sandwich bag and $19.99 for a half gallon. On Shark Tank, Nouri said that Stasher did $1.6 million in sales last year.

With a shark like Mark on board, it will be interesting to see if Stasher can now move the needle and people off of plastic and into a new silicone-based solution for sous vide and storage.