Vegan alternatives to traditional meat products are on the rise. One example is Pan’s Mushroom Jerky, which was created as an alternative to beef jerky. The product was created by Michael Pan, who pitched his product on Shark Tank and has a deal with Mark Cuban. Pan’s Mushroom Jerky is valued at $1.7 million as of 2024.
Michael Pan’s Background
Although of Malaysian descent, Michael Pan grew up in Vancouver, Washington. After graduating from Starkville High School, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study electrical and electronics engineering.
He interned as an electrical engineer at Motorola and received his bachelor’s degree in 2001. After graduating from college, he worked as an electrical engineer at Raymond Professional Group.
He then returned to Motorola and was promoted to head of the design team, a position he held until he moved to Continental in 2006. For more than two years, Mr. Pan has been vice president of products at IT company Fancred.
Founder Pan’s Dried Mushrooms
One day, the Washington native traveled to Malaysia to meet several family members. Some of them turned out to be vegetarian Buddhist monks. They introduced Michael to many delicious plant-based foods.
However, the electrical engineer was most impressed when he tasted a mushroom jerky recipe that had been passed down in his family for years. It turns out that mushrooms are a great alternative to beef and contain extra vitamins and antioxidants.
This discovery inspired him to create his own vegetarian jerky recipe using shiitake mushrooms in the U.S. In 2018, Pan’s Mushroom Jerky was launched under Panco Foods, and in 2019, the startup had revenue of $755,000.
Shark Tank Appearance
In 2020, Michael Pan appeared on Season 12 and offered the Sharks $300,000 in exchange for a 10% stake in the company. Around this time, his products were available in 500 stores in the United States, but none of them were big brands. Therefore, the entrepreneur needed help to get into larger stores.
In order to get investment, Michael showed the sharks that his dried mushrooms were cheap to produce. He also revealed that his problem was that the profit margin on the product was only 10%. Fortunately, this didn’t seem to bother the sharks.
Guest Shark Blake Mycoskie teamed up with Lori Greiner to offer $300,000 for a 30% stake. However, Mark Cuban, who is actually a vegetarian, was willing to make a better offer. He agreed to the entrepreneur’s offer of $300,000 for an 18% stake.
After Shark Tank
Less than a day after the TV appearance, the dried mushroom company had sales of about $650,000. A week later, that number had soared to a staggering $1 million. Amazon and the official website, MushroomJerky.com, were sold out.
They also encountered shipping issues, which slowed their growth. To address this, the company hired more employees and signed partnerships with retail stores such as Walmart, Whole Foods, and Krogers.
Now, Micael’s business is back to top form, with more than 3,500 retail stores nationwide. This helps them achieve nearly $5 million in annual sales. Pan’s Mushroom Jerky is currently valued at $1.7 million.
Categories: Shark Tank
Source: svlsf.edu.vn