Genius Juice Shark Tank Update – Shark Tank Season 11
Genius Juice gained traction after its Shark Tank appearance in Season 11. Despite retail success, it paused smoothie production in 2023 due to high costs and now focuses on wellness shots.
Alex Bayer hopes the Sharks drink up Genius Juice, the world’s first all-organic coconut smoothie, in Shark Tank Season 11 Episode 12.
Bayer started Genius Juice in 2014 and launched its first product run with a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $15,375 in May 2015. There are plenty of coconut water brands, but Genius is the only coconut drink that uses coconut water and meat in a ready-to-eat smoothie.
Check out other Shark Tank Season 11 Episodes.
About Genius Juice
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Business Name | Genius Juice |
| Founder | Alex Bayer |
| Industry | Beverage |
| Product | Whole coconut smoothies |
| Deal Status | Deal secured with Mark and Barbara |
| Investment Asked | $250,000 for 7% equity |
| Deal Outcome | $500,000 for 25% equity |
Bayer uses whole coconuts when making Genius Juice. Once the water and meat are harvested, he “upcycles” the husk to make coconut charcoal for detoxification products and alternative fuel. He discontinued selling the smoothies in 2016 when his manufacturing capabilities couldn’t meet distribution demand. An attempt at rebranding was unsuccessful, and retailers started dropping his products.
Now, Bayer has a new manufacturer and is making smoothies again. Retailers that once stocked Genius—Natural Grocers and Whole Foods, to name two, are putting the once popular product back on shelves. Once he is re-established, Bayer thinks he will have a $100 million company.
In a Shark-like move, he has a WeFunder campaign set to go the night his episode airs. With over $1 million in sales, 1300 retail locations, and a unique product, will a Shark take a chance on Genius?
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Posts about Genius Juice on Shark Tank Blog
Ready-to-Drink Coconut Smoothies
Genius Juice Shark Tank Pitch
Alex enters the Tank seeking $250,000 for 7% of the business. He hands out samples and explains that his smoothies use whole coconuts, water, and meat. The Sharks rave over the taste and like that they’re low-calorie and nutritious. Sales are good: $376,000 in 2018, and Alex expects 2019 to be over $1 million.
There’s a problem, though: the company isn’t profitable yet. Alex and his family also invested $1.3 million to start the business, and he believes he can go to $100 million in sales.
The Sharks are concerned that beverages are competitive and that finding shelf space for frozen items is tough. That doesn’t stop the offers from coming through.
Did Genius Juice Get a Deal on Shark Tank?
Barbara offers $250,000 for 14%. Kevin offers $250,000 as a loan at 9% interest in exchange for 7% of the company.
Mark asks if Barbara would partner with him, and they offer $500,000 for 25% together. Alex accepts.
Genius Juice Shark Tank Update
The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. The deal with Mark and Barbara never closed. The WeFunder Alex set up to open on the original air date raised a whopping $2,255,106!
The company also reports $700,000 in sales for the first quarter of 2020 and over $900,000 for the second quarter of 2020. They also raised $1.1 million in August 2020. With those kinds of numbers, Alex didn’t need Mark and Barbara.
2020 also saw the company enter 2,500 retail stores, including Whole Foods, Publix, Albertson’s, Walmart, Target, Smart & Final, and many mom-and-pop and small regional chains. The company released a new flavor, Vanilla Cinnamon, and a line of smoothies.
In 2021, the products were in around 2800 stores nationwide, including the stores mentioned earlier and Costco. As of July 2022, they had $12 million in lifetime sales.
In January 2022, they began soliciting investors on Republic’s equity crowdfunding site. By March 2023, they raised $31,700. By August 2023, the company introduced the Genius Boost Wellness Shot. They also announced on their website that they’re “in the lab concocting something exciting.”
They’re posting $12 million in annual revenue and eyeing an exit of $80 million—$90 million by 2025.
Unfortunately, that never came to fruition. In November 2023, Alex posted a picture of himself in front of his products on a store shelf. The following message accompanied the photo:
Pictured is me in front of a set with the last of our Genius Coconut Smoothies in August 2023. We shut down the production, and sold the last of it to our distributors and outlet stores at a discount. $8m in sales over 6-7 years (a few years we struggled with manufacturing) was an accomplishment for a high priced product with less capital than all our competitors.
We launched our line in nearly 4k stores including Target, Whole Foods and Sprouts nationally, 3 regions of Albertsons, 4 regions of Costco, and many more.
After 10 years, we put the line of our smoothies on hold indefinitely due to several core issues with the business model and supply chain. It became literally impossible to operate the smoothies with crushing amounts of cash needed to make it and the money wasn’t coming in fast enough.
It didn’t make sense to continue losing money out of “pride” “passion” or “ego” and other things that founders have when it comes to their product.
We pivoted to a shot line which has been easier and more sustainable but still difficult.
The CPG winter is here. More companies are running out of capital than ever before. Rising costs, not able to raise money, margin crushing distributor fees and retailer promotions, and no exit in sight, this business is not what it used to be.
My message to all the founders, cut everything possible unless it is VITAL to your business.
I know you want to be decent, nice, reasonable people that don’t let others down. But if you need to let someone go to save capital and ensure the survival of your business, do it.
If you pay a team $10k a month to check store shelves for you and you aren’t seeing that level of increase of sales to pay their bill, probably best to put them on hold.
If you have a VP of sales for west and another for east and you can have one person handle the entire country, best to make this change and consolidate.
This post isn’t to tell you to fire people, it’s to conserve capital as much as possible to ride out the storm and SURVIVE.
This is from the founder’s lens, one owner to another.
Quick Summary
- Alex Bayer pitched Genius Juice on Shark Tank Season 11 and accepted a $500K offer from Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran, but the deal never closed.
- It had raised over $3 million through WeFunder and other investors, reached 3,800+ stores including Whole Foods, Target, and Costco, and hit $12 million in lifetime sales.
- Due to high production costs and supply chain issues, the Genius Juice was paused indefinitely.
Curious to know about the other businesses that appeared on the same episode? Check out their business updates!
