@ Off The Cob

Cameron Sheldrake is from Ithaca, New York. He is a hard working, clean-cut American farmer growing sweet corn, and trying to figure out what to do with the surplus. As he enters the tank, we are already rooting for him to get a deal with the Sharks. Cameron works on his family farm which his family has owned and operated since the 1960’s, and is seeking a $100,000 investment for a 15% stake in his company.

Off The Cob uses the excess sweet corn and produces organically grown, gluten-free, low- sodium tortilla chips. All of the Sharks agree that the product tastes great, and Cameron gets accolades for having a great company name and great product packaging. Furthermore, Cameron is already in 45 stores including Whole Foods and Wegmans after only 13 months of doing business, and is planning on being in 400 stores in 2014. This man is an entrepreneur with passion, businessmanship, and one strong American dream.


There’s just one small problem. Although regular tortilla chips are made with grain corn which Cameron calls animal feed, it is much less expensive than sweet corn. How much more, you ask? Sweet corn is 20 times more expensive than grain corn (maybe that’s why everyone else is using grain corn). So a bag of Off The Cob tortilla chips will cost you $3.49 instead of $0.99 for the same amount of traditional tortilla chips. That’s a pretty serious difference!

Nonetheless, the forecast is still pretty incredible. Cameron plans on amassing a little over $1 million in revenue in the next fiscal year. If that works out, and his estimation of a 15% net profit is correct, he will walk away with $165,000 at the end of next year.

Unfortunately for Cameron, the Sharks do not see a way to scale the business in a way that would make it interesting to them. Fortunately for Cameron though, this gives him the opportunity to be a self-made man and wake up every morning knowing that he made it on his own. So while it is disappointing to see Cameron walking away without a deal, it is gratifying to know that he seems to have found a niche in the health food market and is on the road to success.

Good luck Cameron!