Update on March 24: This story has been updated since Press Waffle Co. secured financing on Shark Tank.
On Sunday, March 24, Dallas-area brothers Bryan and Caleb Lewis appeared on the ABC reality show Shark Tank, hoping to entice deep-pocketed "sharks" Mark Cuban, Barbara Corcoran and others to hand over cash for their budding restaurant business in Plano and Fort Worth.
Their plan worked: Corcoran offered a deal for $300,000 for 15 percent of Press Waffle Co., a sweet and savory waffle company inside Texas food halls. Corcoran's investment, one of four offered to the Lewis brothers, will allow them to turn their family-owned business into a franchise, with hopes to open in food halls, malls and airports.
Cuban, Kevin O'Leary and Robert Herjavec were the other sharks who offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to Press Waffle Co. Ultimately, the brothers thought Corcoran offered the best option.
"That makes it a $2 million valuation," the brothers told Corcoran. And then came those magic Shark Tank words:
"We have a deal."
The Lewises have watched every episode of Shark Tank, "two or three times each," Caleb says, and their strategy was capture the attention of billionaire Cuban (because of their shared roots in Dallas) and Corcoran because she "had the majority of the successful food investments from the show," Bryan says.
"We definitely did go in targeting those two, but to be clear," Bryan says, "the goal was just to make a deal."
The Lewises join a small fraternity of entrepreneurs with roots in North Texas who've gotten a business boost from Shark Tank. Two recent examples are Highland Park High School grad Julia Cheek, who was given $1 million for her company EverlyWell, and Southlake's Mitch Allen, the recipient of $200,000 for Hire Santa.
The Lewises' pitch on Shark Tank was one that they had rehearsed and revised for two years.
Even though each Shark Tank segment is 5 to 15 minutes long on TV, the Lewis brothers say they spent well over an hour working out deals with the sharks. And it was a long time coming, since the Lewises auditioned in January 2017 at an open casting call in Dallas, then re-auditioned in January 2018.
"What people don't know is you audition. And then you audition and you audition and you audition and you audition and you audition," Bryan says. "It's a long process."
They felt their company "was in a much stronger place" in early 2018, during their second audition. Press Waffle Co. had transitioned from a food truck company to a food stall. The brothers say they felt good about their menu, which features a Liège waffle topped with sweet ingredients like Nutella, cookie butter, strawberries, candied pecans and whipped cream (that's Caleb's favorite); or savory ingredients like bacon, a fried egg, cheese and maple syrup (Bryan's go-to).
Caleb says filming was "very, very hectic" and that both of them were nervous.
"An hour before our pitch, I was making waffles continuously, trying to make them perfect for the sharks," he says. "Once we stood in front of the double doors, I'm drenched in sweat. ... I'm like, I'm going to be the sweaty guy on national TV."
Months passed before the Lewis brothers knew whether their appearance on Shark Tank would make it to TV.
"It's definitely been, if not a stressful year, a year of anticipation," Bryan says.
What's more, his wife was not present at the watch party at Legacy Hall in Plano on Sunday night. Their family expected a baby just before the airing.
The brothers say their spotlight on national TV gives Press Waffle Co. gives them the opportunity to ease into a franchise — 10 to 15 new stands opening per year over the next three years, they say. Their first franchise will be located inside a food hall in Waco.
"The way we've started phrasing it to people is we want to have calculated yet impressive growth," Bryan says. "That means we are growing at a rate where people get excited about it, but we never step out of our shoes."
