How Do You Roll 2024Update – What Happened After Shark Tank

How Do You Roll Before Shark Tank

How do You Roll founders, Yuen and Peter Yung, from Austin, Texas, had plenty of early experience in the running of a business. They both grew up, and worked in, their parents restaurant business from an early age. Yuen had graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in finance while Peter followed his ambition to become a top chef, and it was while Yuen was beginning a corporate nine to five career that he realised there were no lunchtime options for sushi that were both quick and good quality.

The entrepreneurial brothers decided to take the traditional sushi experience and make it an entirely new experience for customers. They had a tag-line of ‘The Customer is the Chef’, and offered a totally customized menu, based on a similar principle to the successful Subway franchise model. Customers could choose their own roll and select from a wide range of fillings to create their own personally designed sushi snack. They launched the How Do You Roll business in 2008 with one location in Austin, Texas.

Yuen and Peter’s original take on Sushi, with their focus on a fast-food style experience for hungry lunchtime customers was an early success, and in 2011, just three years after opening their first location, the Yung brothers had two corporate locations, more than a $1 million annually in revenue, and 15 franchise locations in five different states. But the brothers knew the pace of the businesses growth would be greatly accelerated if they could gain not only additional investment from a shark, but also the benefits of a Sharks business expertise.

How Do You Roll On Shark Tank

Yuen and Peter came into the tank hoping to gain a $1 million investment in exchange for 12% equity in the How Do You Roll business. Yuen began the pitch by explaining to the sharks the traditional problems that faced customers hoping to pick up a quick sushi meal. Option one was a sit-down meal in a restaurant, but it wasn’t a quick experience for those who had limited time to eat, the alternative was a sushi roll picked up at a local grocery store, but that option usually involved food that was not of the highest quality and freshness.

Yuen revealed that the How Do You Roll model was fully customizable, and provided the sushi fan with a third option, unpretentious good quality food, that was provided quickly and without all the usual fuss of a restaurant. Yuen’s business experience shone through during the professional presentation, but it was time for younger brother Peter to show the sharks exactly what skills he was bringing to the table. Barbara Corcoran was invited up to try the How Do You Roll experience for herself, which she enthusiastically agreed to.

Barbara selected a wrap, some fillings, and sauces, and Peter provided her with her own customized snack in a matter of seconds. The other sharks were impressed with the speed of the process, and they looked a little hungrier by now too, but Yuen was quick to reassure them that there were samples of the companies featured rolls for them to try too. The Sharks got to grips with their tasty samples right away, and it was clear immediately that the quality of food provided was top-notch.

After the samples were happily devoured, and the compliments had ended, Robert Herjavec asked the brothers about their background and experience. Yuen revealed he and Peter’s upbringing in their parents restaurant, and the early experience they had gained in the trade. He explained that he concentrated on the business side of things, while Peter dealt with the food preparation and menu selection.

Mark Cuban wanted to talk about the growth of the business so far. Yuen explained that the business had been launched just two and a half years previously, yet already operated two corporate locations, and a further fifteen franchise operations, with another 25 franchises due to be opened in the next twelve months.

Kevin O’Leary inquired if the corporate locations and the franchises were all profitable. Yuen was quick to inform him that the franchises were bringing in $250,000 a year in total royalties. Robert asked what sales had been achieved from the two corporate businesses in the previous year. Yuan revealed that they had achieved $1 million in revenue between them.

Barbara Corcoran was interested in the set-up costs for new locations, and asked what costs a new franchisee would incur. Yuen explained that the initial franchise fee was a modest $20,000, but the additional costs involved, setting up the restaurant, fitting out the premises and other costs would take the total investment required up to approximately $300,000.

Mark Cuban inquired what the royalty rate for the satellite businesses was. Yuen told him it was 7%, which was a reasonable amount compared to many other franchise opportunities. Kevin O’Leary asked how the business ensured they received the full amount owed from the franchises. Yuen explained that franchise operators were obliged to open a corporate bank account to ensure that all royalties could be correctly calculated.

‘Wise Move’ commented Kevin, pleased that the business minded Yuen appeared to have thought of everything.

Mark Cuban liked the entrepreneurial brothers, he liked the concept of the How Do You Roll business, and he had loved the food, but he had other objections. Mark asserted that the food sector was ‘brutally’ competitive, and due to his own complete lack of experience in the area, he had no ambition to be in the sushi business. With that Mark dropped out of the negotiations.

Kevin O’Leary told Yuen his pitch had been excellent, he liked the concept of the business and thought the combination of Yuen’s business acumen, with Peter’s culinary experience, was a superb partnership of skills, but Kevin still believed the valuation was ‘rich’.

No-one seemed particularly surprised at that declaration, and Yuen took it in his stride as he calmly disclosed that he and Peter had received an offer for 75% equity in the business for $6.6 million, which was in fact a slightly higher valuation, and that was how the valuation for Shark Tank had been calculated. Kevin inquired if the brothers were considering accepting the offer. Yuen admitted that they were not, as they had no intention of losing the controlling stake in the company.

Daymond John had been the most impressed with the quality of the food amongst all the sharks, but he was nowhere near as enthusiastic about joining the Yung family firm. He believed that the highest profit margins in catering came from beverages and desserts, but the profit margin on fish itself was very low. And for that reason Daymond was out.

Robert Herjavec was very impressed with Yuen’s knowledge of the business and well-prepared pitch. He thought the food had been excellent and believed the business could be a great success, but he admitted that he had no knowledge, or real interest, in catering businesses. He assured Yuen and Peter that he would happily sample the How Do You Roll experience as a customer, but he had no intention of investing in the company, and with that Robert was out too.

Barbara Corcoran thought the growth of the company in under three years had been ‘amazing’. She praised both brothers for their achievements so far, but admitted that she had previous experience with food franchise operations, and knew they could be very complicated to run. She implied that Yuen’s presentation may have glossed over some of the less attractive elements of the business and confirmed that she was not going to invest in the business.

Kevin had come to a decision, and it was good news for the brothers. He offered the requested $1 million, but in exchange for 22% equity in the business, and he had an additional caveat too. Kevin wanted to take a percentage of the royalties earned from the franchises every month, with the percentage to be determined at a later stage. He stressed his experience in setting up franchises, and in particular his knowledge of the real estate business.

Yuen looked interested, but not entirely happy with Kevin’s own valuation of less than $5 million, he made a counter offer to Mr Wonderful, $1 million for 15% equity. Kevin considered it briefly, and suggested they ‘meet in the middle’, at 20%.

At this stage the brothers took a quick time-out to discuss things outside the tank. When they returned Yuen asked Kevin how he would help them with future franchising opportunities.

Kevin admitted that there was no easy answer to that, he asserted that each franchise was an individual negotiation, and until the business had at least 50 franchise locations it was counter productive to appoint a franchise manager to ease the process, and that should be the first aim for the company.

After another brief consultation between the brothers Yuen told Kevin ‘We’ll accept the offer’, and the new partners shook on the deal.

As Yuen and Peter left the tank, Barbara Corcoran called after them ‘You’ve made a deal with the devil’. Kevin O’Leary smiled at the comment with a look of triumph.

How Do You Roll Now In 2024– The After Shark Tank Update

Unfortunately, the deal with Kevin never went through. Shortly after filming, he suggested that they create a board of directors for the company- one that would include three of his hand-picked members. Yuen ultimately rejected the idea, which led the shark to withdraw his offer.

That didn’t stop him from growing the business, however. If anything, the show had given them a significant amount of exposure, which helped boost their revenue. Before long, they had more than 100 locations across the United States. Not only that, but they also had franchise locations in Canada and the Middle East.

But that didn’t last. They eventually sold the business to a private restaurant group for an undisclosed amount in the summer of 2015. That was also the last year that they updated their Facebook page (their last post was about the store locator feature on their website). Their Twitter, on the other hand, was active until 2016 (they last tweeted about their North Hollywood location). Perhaps the new owners took over the account? Who knows. One thing’s for sure though—it hasn’t been updated since.

Their official website has also been down since 2015. While the domain still works as of 2024, all you can see is a line of copyright text and a link to a privacy policy page. Googling the business’ name doesn’t give any results either.

What Is Yuen up to now? We did some digging and it looks like he’s currently the Chief Executive Officer at two  different companies- Upside Avenue (since June 2018) and the Castro Group (since June 2019). Prior to that, he was a Premier Advisor for Investopedia. Interestingly enough, he also listed on the same page that he was the Founder of How Do You Roll from September 2009 to November 2014 so perhaps the business ended sooner than we had thought.

As for Peter, we weren’t able to find any recent information about him. Seeing as how they had sold the business, we’re guessing that he probably went back to a day job, like his brother. Perhaps he’s back in the kitchen somewhere- we wouldn’t be surprised seeing as how he used to work as a head sushi chef in Houston, Texas, prior to co-founding the sushi restaurant business.

In any case, we probably won’t be seeing the brothers back on Shark Tank any time soon. Not unless they decide to embark on another business endeavor together, at least.