The pitch
What walked into the Den
Zack Silverman, Aaron Harowitz and Josh Linde built Walter Craft Caesar Mix, a craft take on the Canadian Caesar, and pitched it in season 10, episode 20.
They asked for $275,000 in exchange for 10 percent, a $2.75 million valuation for the drinks brand.
After the show
What happened next
They shook hands with Manjit Minhas on stage, but the agreement came apart in due diligence and no investment ever closed, per a magazine feature on the company. The televised handshake, in other words, was not the ending.
The core product is on hold today. The brand's own homepage says it is paused while the team works on what is next, with no Caesar mix for sale and only a cookbook offered through outside retailers.
Our read
The Hub verdict
Another handshake that did not hold. The three founders shook with Manjit Minhas on a $275,000 ask at 10 percent, and the agreement did not survive the weeks after filming, so no investment ever reached the company.
The present tense is nuanced rather than flat: the business has not vanished, but its own homepage says the Caesar mix is paused while the founders work out what comes next, with only a cookbook sold through outside retailers. A craft mixer competes against a category leader that owns the name of the drink itself, and doing that without the cheque you shook hands on is a steep climb.
A stage handshake that never closed, and a product now paused
Worth knowing: This is a nuanced case: the company still exists in some form, but the Caesar mix this pitch was about is paused, and the on-air deal never closed.
