Fried Green Tomatoes Before Shark Tank
Fried Green Tomatoes is a food truck that makes and sells specialty southern comfort foods. The most popular items on the menu include their special sauce, fried pickle batter, catfish, Po Boys, their bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches, and their fried green tomatoes. With the fried green tomatoes being one of the main items, as the company’s name suggests, the batter can be purchased for $9.99. Additionally, their special sauce can be purchased for $3.99. Fried Green Tomatoes sells straight from a food truck at venues, fairs, festivals, and more in many locations around the southeastern region of the United States.
In August 2012, Holly Cooper launched Fried Green Tomatoes. Though, before starting her food truck, Holly was working at a restaurant position for a corporate company. During her time at this restaurant, she began thinking about creating her own business venture. More specifically, she was interested in opening her own personal food truck. Holly started selling her menu items at the Wilson County Fair. Although this was just the first destination for the truck, customers raved over the menu items and the truck became a hit. She would travel all over the southeastern regions in hopes of finding venues with customers hungry for some southern comfort food. To her surprise, she found more than that. After tasting her food, customers were so impressed that they wanted to be able to take the batter home and create the foods themselves. After receiving many requests, the founder took a chance to think over the decision. 
Considering Holly was no stranger to the food industry, and food service, she knew that selling her batter and secret sauce in packs was an obvious road to success. Nonetheless, this entrepreneur was not going to just give her secret recipes out to her customers, so she instead packaged the mixtures in packs. She added in some instructions for the secret sauce so that customers would, at the very least, know the mixture needs to be combined with a cup of sour cream and a cup of mayonnaise. While her business does consist of her traveling the roads and selling her products directly from the food truck, her products can be purchased online as well.
Fried Green Tomatoes has expanded into gift shops and more than 100 grocery stores across the United States and Canada. From just one of her small locations, the company makes about an estimated $268,000 each year. With the help and support of her family, Holly is sure to turn her food truck business into a success; however, she wants to take it a step further now. She would like to not only expand the business further, but also increase the platforms of her products. To accomplish this, Holly feels as though she will need the help of a shark. With that, she will start her journey on Shark Tank and hopefully reach the shelves of bigger grocery stores.
Fried Green Tomatoes on Shark Tank
Holly Cooper enters the Shark Tank hoping that a shark with grant her a $200,000 deal in exchange for 15% of her food truck business, Fried Green Tomatoes. The founder gets right into pitching her business to the sharks. The sharks each received a sample of her products to try. Fortunately, the sharks love the taste of the food. More unfortunately, however, they weren’t too impressed with the business side of it. It becomes more obvious what concerns the sharks about this business once Holly begins telling them about her sales. She shares that she has done $268,000 worth of sales in just a few months. That converts to between $600 and $800 per hour; she is parked at venues. Trying to save her chances of getting a deal, the entrepreneur reveals that she has recently purchased another food truck and she is working towards making a franchise out of Fried Green Tomatoes. 
By this time, most of the sharks were dropping out of the deal. Kevin O’Leary goes out first after telling Holly that he isn’t impressed with her business’s valuation. Lori Greiner accompanies Kevin by going out. She states that she isn’t a fan of fried foods, though she does like that these fried foods are somewhat healthier. Lastly, Mark Cuban goes out on the deal. He does give Holly some advice, though. He tells her that she will need between 5 to 10 employees for the business to get off the ground. This would certainly require a great expansion, but Mark isn’t interested in helping with that. Daymond John and Barbara Corcoran were the only sharks remaining. They’re both interested in this food truck. After sharing some information about her success with another food truck business, Cousin’s Maine Lobster, Barbara offers Holly $200,000 in exchange for a 30% equity stake. Daymond offers the founder $200,000 in exchange for a 25% equity stake. Ultimately, Holly Cooper decided to accept Barbara’s offer due to her being experienced in this field.
Fried Green Tomatoes Now in 2024 – The After Shark Tank Update
After a successful visit to the Shark Tank, and getting a deal with Barbara Corcoran, the deal the shark made with Holly Cooper hasn’t closed. The Fried Green Tomatoes food truck does remain in business; however, it did experience some downfall after the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Fortunately, the food truck business has been able to get back on its feet as of 2024. In addition to that, Holly’s plans to create a franchise out of this business does not appear to have been a success. She also had plans to open a physical store, though that never happened either. While it has not been clearly stated why these goals have not been met, it is assumed that the Covid-19 pandemic may have been the reason for it. At this time, it is unclear if that stationary location will open soon or even in the future. After reviewing Holly’s company website, it appears that her truck is only visiting locations within Tennessee, rather than around the United States. Nonetheless, Fried Green Tomatoes has an annual revenue of almost $1 million. 
