Simply Good Jars was founded by Jared Cannon in 2015. At the time, Jared was studying to get his Master’s Degree in business innovation and entrepreneurship from Temple’s Fox School of Business, while working as a chef on the side. Between school and work, Jared found that he struggled to find the time needed to make himself a decent meal. Considering he wanted to eat healthy, it was also difficult to find pre-packaged meals that had the necessary nutrients and healthy food groups. And, when he was able to find a decent meal alternative, he realized just how much waste was being left behind from the wrappers. Thus leading him to want to create a better alternative to clean eating on the go.
So, he got to brainstorming and eventually came up with the idea of Simply Good Jars, with the goal of making healthy, quick, and clean meals easier to get as an alternative to fast food. Simply Good Jars are reusable jars that store fresh, flavorful salads in a vending fridge. Each Simply Good Jar contains ingredients such as greens, grains, nuts, etc., all adding up to less than 600 calories per serving and only costs $10. Just give the jar a shake and enjoy. In addition to that, each jar is made from recycled plastic in order to reduce the amount of trash thrown around. In fact, to further decrease this occurrence, Jared decided to start a donation; for each jar that’s returned, Simply Good Jars will donate a meal to someone in need.
Jared officially launched Simply Good Jars in November 2017 with nothing but $1,000, and a goal. They started out by only setting up vending fridges in businesses such as the Curtis Center and Flywheel Sports Rittenhouse. Shortly after that, Simply Good Jars became B-Corp certified and partnered with Philadelphia’s Zero Waste Gold, with the intent to reduce any waste by 2022.
In 2019, Simply Good Jars was chosen to participate in the Food-X accelerator in New York, where they managed to get an investment of $65,000. In addition to that, the company was able to participate in a pitch event at the Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies, where they raised $325,000. At this point, Simply Good Jars was already successful; however, Jared did mention that they ended up having to move the vending fridges to smaller businesses once the pandemic hit.
Before 2021, Simply Good Jars had already raised about $2.5 million. And while the company can be seen as a success thus far, Jared wanted to take it a step further. His next goal is to expand his business outside of Philadelphia as well as partnering with GrubHub and GoPuff deliveries; however, he needs some guidance, which he believes a shark could assist him with that. But will the sharks of Shark Tank love his creation enough to invest?
Simply Good Jars on Shark Tank
Jared Cannon takes the stage of Shark Tank seeking $500,000 for a 7% equity in Simply Good Jars. Jared begins his pitch and gives each shark a sample product, mentioning that each Simply Good Jar only costs about $3.50 to make and sells for $10 each. Within the past year before appearing on Shark Tank, the company had made $300,000 in sales, which Jared believed would turn into around $750,000 within a year.
Kevin and Lori immediately speak up, announcing that they love the idea and that they’d like to pair up and offer $500,000 with a 9.5% interest rate and the 7% equity in Simply Good Jars. Jared holds off on their offer while the all discuss his goal of raising money from investors outside of the company. During this conversation, Mark chimes in by saying that he doesn’t believe Simply Good Jars needs anymore money from outside investors. He did, however, offer Jared the $500,000 for a 3% equity stake.
As the negotiations continue on, Mark decides to change his equity for 10%; he is now offering Jared the $500,000 for a 10% equity in Simply Good Jars. This change led Lori to drop her partnership with Kevin and join in on Mark’s deal after Mark gave her an opportunity to do so. After some thought, Jared accepted Mark and Lori’s offer of $500,000 for a 10% equity in Simply Good Jars.
Simply Good Jars Now in 2024 – The After Shark Tank Update
Jared Cannon introduced his Simply Good Jars on Shark Tank in 2021 and ended up receiving a deal of $500,000 for a 10% equity in his company from Lori Greiner and Mark Cuban. Since the airing of the episode, Jared appears to remain in a partnership with Lori and Mark, in which they are working on expanding the online marketing presence of Simply Good Jars. In addition to that, the businesses sales have increased a good 1500% since its appearance on the show. Furthermore, one of Jared’s goals prior to his visit on Shark Tank was to have his product delivered by drivers; at this time, Simply Good Jars is now partnered with GoPuff.
As for the location of Simply Good Jars, the business does still reside in Philadelphia; however, they have opened three total facilities within the area and are on the path of opening more in 28 states this year. At the beginning of 2022, they added a new facility in Florida and have begun working on new patents for the soon-to-be-coming zero waste packaging. With that, Simply Good Jars has partnered with Wawa and will begin being sold in select Wawa stores, along with in some 7-Eleven stores around New York, Brooklyn, and Long Island.Now, Jared himself, on the other hand, has sure reached some high successes as well, such as being featured on Philadelphia’s Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 list in 2021. Along with many other successes as well.
As of 2024, Simply Good Jars can be purchased online, on the company’s website, or by finding the closest vending fridge near you using the store locator on the website. Jared appears to be keeping up with almost daily posts on the Simply Good Jars Instagram page, with the most recent post being an announcement that the jars can be found at Costco. Select Costco stores can be found by following the store locator or the link in their Instagram bio.
Graduated from Washington Virtual Academies and have been a freelance writer for about 2 years now. In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my pets, gaming, etc.
