Today's guest is a perfect reminder that the American Dream is still going strong. In Season 4 of Shark Tank, Tracey Noonan and her daughter Danielle (from Wicked Good Cupcakes) wowed the sharks with their cupcakes in a jar. After some negotiating the ladies finally did a deal with Mr. Wonderful who offered them $75,000 for no equity but instead $1 for every jar sold until he recouped his initial investment then $.45 for every jar in perpetuity. Their appearance on Shark Tank kicked off a wild 4-year growth story that has led to more than $13 million of sales and a 10x return for Mr. O'Leary. The story gets even cooler for us business TV reality fans because Marcus Lemonis invested into the company in 2014 to help support their rapid expansion plans.

In this interview I spoke with Tracey about this amazing story of success, how and when the company got started, when did they decide to apply for Shark Tank, when was the show produced and when did it air, what happened with sales post-Shark Tank, how have Kevin and Marcus been as partners, how have they expanded their product line, how are they acquiring new customers, why are they focusing on the gifting market, why have they decided to begin franchising with Wicked Good Cupcake trucks, how much does would it take a franchisee to get started and how much money can they make, what have been the biggest lessons learned over the past few years, how satisfying has all this success been, what advice can she share for the rest of us and much more. 

If you're interested in opening a Wicked Good Cupcakes franchise (Cupcake Truck) you can email Tracey at [email protected]

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Thanks for listening to the Startup Sense Podcast.

All of our interviews and episodes are also available at StartupSense.net

You can find me at JonahLupton.com or email me at [email protected]  

Startup Sense Podcast is sponsored by Jool Media, SoundGuard, 10x3 Group, Parabolic Ventures and Inspired Futures Foundation.