Dinesh Tadepalli immigrated to the United States from India and is now chasing the American dream of being an entrepreneur.

Armed with a mission to reduce the amount of single-use plastics in our landfills, Dinesh has created edible alternatives to disposable, plastic utensils. Incredible Eats provides opportunities to replace plastic spoons, sporks, straws, and chopsticks with edible alternatives.

The Sharks love the idea and feel that the flavor profiles help to compliment food pairings very well.

Key Takeaways

  • Founding and Mission: Dinesh Tadepalli created Incredible Eats to combat single-use plastics with edible utensils.
  • Product Impact: Replaced 1.2 million plastic utensils; offers edible spoons, sporks, straws, and chopsticks.
  • Shark Tank Outcome: Secured $500,000 from Lori Greiner for 15% equity despite initial concerns over market education and cost.

Incredible Eats on Shark Tank: Update

Through their current sales, Incredible Eats has been able to successfully replace 1.2 million plastic utensils in landfills.

Although Incredible Eats has brought in over $170,ooo in sales over 2.5 years, some of the Sharks are concerned that it will take significant education of the market to change buying behaviors and make companies want to increase their cost of goods from 1-2 cents to 10 cents per utensil.

Other Sharks feel that companies could use these edible utensils as an upsell product or could increase the cost of their products to offset the price differential.

They also can imprint on the product with brand names and messaging that could help to drive their value proposition.

Incredible Eats is not only seeking $500,000 in exchange for 7% equity in the company, but Dinesh is also looking to partner with an investor who believes in the mission of the company.

He truly feels as though his children’s future is at stake with the amount of single-use plastics that end up in our landfills. Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, and Daniel Lubetzky are all interested in investing in Incredible Eats.

Each of the Sharks offers their own individual investment offers to Dinesh.

Concerned with the amount of equity he is willing to give up, Dinesh accepts Lori Greiner’s offer of $500,000 in exchange for 15% equity.

Would you invest in Incredible Eats if you were a Shark? As a consumer, would you be willing to pay more for an edible utensil to help reduce single-use plastic waste? Start the dialog in the comments below!