Here's What Happened To Coffee Joulies After Shark Tank
On any given day, the world consumes more than 2 billion cups of coffee. Nearly every one of those cups is initially too hot to drink and then, several hours later, too cold. And who even has time to properly reheat coffee? No one.
Enter Coffee Joulies, the metal coffee beans that can cool your coffee to drinking temperature within minutes and keep it at that temperature for hours. The beans use a special material that absorbs excess heat from coffee (or any hot beverage) and releases that heat back into the coffee once it reaches the ideal drinking temperature.
Entrepreneurs Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson launched Coffee Joulies in 2011, raising more than $300k on Kickstarter. The duo brought their coffee creation to "Shark Tank" in 2013, hoping to score an investment of $150,000 in exchange for 5% equity. Little did they know, the Sharks would be jumping all over their product.
All five Sharks wanted a piece of Coffee Joulies
Drawing interest from all five Sharks, Coffee Joulies quickly established itself as one of the most memorable "Shark Tank" food companies. At the time of Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson's pitch, they had sold more than $575,000 in Coffee Joulies beans.
Although the sharks were less than thrilled with the prospect of needing one Coffee Joulies bean for every 4 ounces of coffee, they were very much intrigued by the company's estimation of $1 million in sales for 2013. Petrillo and Jackson had already gotten Coffee Joulies into thousands of Bed, Bath & Beyond and OfficeMax locations and wanted help in further expanding Coffee Joulies.
Sharks Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and Daymond John went in on a deal of $150,000 in exchange for a $6 royalty. Once their money was paid back, the royalty would drop to $1 per Coffee Joulies pod. Mark Cuban, on the other hand, disagreed with the retail strategy and instead offered $250k in exchange for 12% equity. Ultimately, Petrillo and Jackson turned down Cuban's offer in favor of the royalty deal.
Coffee Joulies became a hot commodity after Shark Tank
While some "Shark Tank" food inventions flop after the show, Coffee Joulies was initially successful. Immediately after reaching a deal with sharks Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and Daymond John, entrepreneurs Dave Petrillo and Dave Jackson couldn't have been more pleased. That being said, it seems the deal was never actually finalized.
In an interview with the Observer-Dispatch, Petrillo said that the exposure from "Shark Tank" had given them "larger increases than we expected in every category." Despite emphasizing the retail and wholesale path during their pitch, the duo seemed to back off from the idea. Instead, they focused on selling directly to consumers through the Coffee Joulies website, with retail and wholesale pushed to the back burner.
Even without a team of Sharks behind the company, Coffee Joulies managed to sell out, necessitating multiple hiatuses to restock. Needless to say, the inconsistency in Coffee Joulies' availability could prove to be a big problem, so where is the company today?
Are Coffee Joulies finally cooling off for good?
In August 2023, Coffee Joulies was valued at approximately $5 million. The company had even expanded its product line to include glass mugs and Beer Joulies to keep drinks cold. However, it seems the company may have hit some hard times. As of September 2024, their Facebook is no longer existent, and their website seems to have been shut down.
No longer listed for sale on Amazon, Coffee Joulies are now only available on Thread & Leather. The site offers just the original Coffee Joulies, and they can't be purchased separately. For $119, you can buy five Coffee Joulies with a sealed travel mug. For $139, you can buy six Coffee Joulies and two insulated travel mugs.
In other words, it seems Coffee Joulies is nearing the end of its story. Dave Petrillo is still listed as company president on his LinkedIn, but he's also spent the past seven years working at Peloton as an engineer and hardware lead. On the other hand, over on Dave Jackson's Facebook, he simply lists himself as the CEO and founder of SpeedBoard, a company that makes a two-wheel electric skateboard. However, SpeedBoard doesn't appear to be doing much better than Coffee Joulies, with only $44k raised on KickStarter and no Facebook updates since 2020.
SpeedBoard aside, we're hoping Coffee Joulies could make some sort of a comeback. Until then, we're back to reheating coffee in the microwave or finding some other method of keeping our coffee hot but not too hot.