Wednesday, February 19, 2025

Beyond Sushi 2025 Update – What Happened After Shark Tank

Beyond Sushi Before Shark Tank

Sushi is one of Japan’s most popular meals. In the 1820s Hanaya Yohei developed nigiri-zushi which became very popular and most sushi sold today is nigiri-zushi. Unfortunately, sushi has not had as much popularity out of Japan but one chef is trying to change this with his sushi meals.

Guy Vaknin created Beyond Sushi which is a restaurant that serves vegan dishes with sushi meals being its main attraction. They have created a variety of flavors all vegan. Beyond Sushi does not rely on fake meats for flavor and the meals balance nutrition and flavor. It also boasts of being one of the trailblazers in the vegan sushi movement.

Fake meats are often used by people who do not want to eat meat but still enjoy the flavor of meat. Fake meats are often made with soy or wheat gluten and feel and taste like meat but are clearly not meat. Beyond meals are made with vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Aside from sushi, the menu also includes salads, wraps, and dumplings.

Beyond Sushi is located in New York City and it has 6 locations in Manhattan. Guy’s business was running successfully but he had experienced some turbulent times where he had even lost money.

He wanted to start a new operation on the West Coast and applied to be on Shark Tank to get more money and a partner with experience in the sector. His application was approved and he was invited to be on the 3rd episode of the 10th season. So let’s get into the Beyond Sushi Update from Shark Tank…

Beyond Sushi on Shark Tank

Beyond Sushi 2 First things first, Guy sought $1,500,000 and offered the sharks 25% of his planned venture on the West Coast and 5% of his established venture on the East Coast. He began by giving the sharks his history and showing them some of his dishes. The sharks then asked for some samples to taste which Guy provided.

Guy then gave the sharks three of his best-selling rolls to taste. He brought with him the mighty mushroom, which contained 4-grain rice and baked tofu inside shiitake inoki. He also had micro arugula in truffle with shiitake sauce.  He also brought with him the sunny side roll which had braised fennel, sun-dried tomato, avocado, roasted squash, and pistol sauce.

The sharks thought that the dishes tasted great and after tasting, Mark asked him what the calorie count was. Guy told him that with the sauce a single roll had 200 calories and a roll had about 8 pieces. Lori then asked him how much a single roll costs. She was told that a single roll costs $7.50 and it cost him about $1.50 to make. Matt Higgins commended him for his margins.

Guy then gave them his company history. He opened his first branch in July 2012 and it cost $70,000 to do so. At the time that was all of his life savings. The restaurant had only 12 seats and a single employee. However, he had grown and was realizing about $2,000,000 in annual sales in his bigger restaurant which was about 2,500 square feet. His first restaurant had been 280 square feet and he had made $1,000,000 in revenue from it.

From that success, he opened another unit that was 180 square feet and he made sales of $1,000,000 from it. He said that Beyond Sushi was a commissary kitchen which meant that one kitchen made all the food and it was then delivered to the different locations.

Beyond Sushi 3 He added that a Beyond Sushi restaurant could be as small as 250 square feet. Mark Cuban then asked him if it was a fast food restaurant. Guy confirmed that it was a fast-casual restaurant where people got their orders and they left but that was one model. He had another model where people stayed and ate their meal and that was in the larger, 2500-square foot restaurant.

Matt asked Guy why he had switched business models. Guy said that he had partnered with Samuel Beall who founded Ruby Tuesdays and Samuel had 25% of Beyond Sushi. Guy then confirmed that he had 75% of the company.

Mark Cuban then asked him what his sales were after it was confirmed that Guy owned 100% of the West Coast venture.  Guy sad that he had done $4,000,000 in sales in the previous year. Kevin asked him what his net profit was. Guy said that he had made a loss of $272,000 because he opened the new locations and started the commissary.

Mark Cuban then asked Guy how much he had invested in the business the previous year.  Guy said that he had invested 160,000 of his own money into the business. The year before that, he had realized $2,400,000 in sales and made $600,000 in net profit. Kevin then asked him what his projections for that year were.

Guy predicted sales of $5,600,000 that year and they would make $300,000 in profit. Matt Higgins said that he knew a lot about the profession and worked with Samuel so he wanted a few more details. Guy said that he made about $22 per head for dinner. During lunch, he made about $15 per head.

Matt then asked him how he had been growing. Guy said that he had made $2,000,000 in sales and $78,000 in profit. Before that, they had been at $1,000,000 in sales and $78,000 in profit which indicated their doubling in sales in a single year. Matt Higgins said that a restaurant should ideally be doing 20% profit at a store level.

Beyond sushi 4 Daymond then left, he said that he did not have much knowledge of the hospitality sector. He had listened to some of the questions that Matt had asked and realized that he would not have anything to offer and so he left.

Kevin O’ Leary then left because he felt that the company was overvalued. Kevin said that Guy offering $1,500,000 for 25% of the West Coast venture meant that he, Kevin, would pay 20 times pre-tax earnings which were too high for him.

Matt then asked him what his vision was because he needed a strong sustainable vision. Guys said that the brand was vegan as a plant-based diet was growing in popularity. It was the future and Beyond Sushi had positioned itself appropriately to prepare for this.

Mark Cuban then pointed out that he was not the only one doing plant-based sushi and plant-based comparatives. However, from Mark’s perspective, the East Coast venture was not stable enough for Beyond Sushi to be starting a West Coast venture. He thought it was risky so he left.

Matt Higgins then said that he didn’t like how the business was split so that he got a low share of the business gaining traction and a large stake in the business that wasn’t yet started. He asked Guy to align his interests. Matt then offered to come in with Lori but he would need 30% of the West Coast venture and 15% of the East Coast venture.

Guy offered 12% for the East Coast venture and 30% for the West Coast venture. He said that he was going to work to build the company. Lori said that he had two sharks who were going to work just as hard. Matt declined Guy’s offer and stuck to his initial offer. Guy then accepted the offer.

Guy said that in the end, it was worth it giving a bit more equity to get two sharks. With their combined knowledge, they would move much faster.

Beyond Sushi Shark Tank Update – Now in 2025

Beyond sushi 5 Since the time that it was on Shark Tank, Beyond Sushi has experienced an increase in growth and opened its 7th branch. However, none of this has been because of the deal with Lori and Matt. The deal was never completed and for Beyond Sushi after shark tank it never opened its West Coast operations.

However, Beyond Sushi’s East Coast operations have been experiencing great reviews. On Trip Advisor it has a 4.5 out of 5 stars rating. Beyond Sushi has also launched a website which people can make orders or book reservations on.

Beyond Sushi has also been nominated in the Veg Out awards for best restaurant and best sushi. It is affiliated with The Willow New York and the City Roots Hospitality Service.  Beyond Sushi also tries to ensure that the less fortunate are fed and you can partner with it to ensure that these people receive free meals.

Its social media is very active and it has over 65,000 followers on Instagram and more than 12,000 followers on Facebook.  The company is making an annual revenue of $ 400,000 and has approximately 28 employees. The difficulties it has experienced have only gone to strengthen Guy’s resolve to have quality Japanese dining in the United States.

Victor Kamwengu
Victor Kamwengu
Victor is a movie buff, dog lover and author of a wide variety of subjects. When he's not tapping away at the keyboard, you can probably find him cozied up on the couch watching a cult classic or catching up on new releases.
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