Verity Noble and Rachel Irons sure looked like chum.
The founders of Nude Foods Market went on ABC’s “Shark Tank” in an episode that aired Wednesday asking for $250,000 in exchange for 5% of their local grocery outfit, which has locations in Boulder and Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood and describes itself as “zero waste.”
Soon after they entered the tank, they got the patented “Mr. Wonderful” treatment from celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary.
“The amount of executional excellence you need to pull this off is unbelievable. You can’t even think to make it more complicated than it is,” he said of the pair’s ambitions to expand their grocery operation nationwide.
Nude Foods sells its produce, snacks and premade meals in glass jars, which customers return empty to the store when they shop for their next round of groceries. The store cleans the jars and repacks them.
Irons vets all of the store’s vendors to make sure the food and supply chains are up to the marketap standards, she said. Forty percent of the store’s items are sourced from Colorado.
“You got real cajones, both of you. I wish you great karma. You guys are nuts. I’m out,” O’Leary continued.
But after fellow shark Robert Herjavec offered Noble and Irons the $250,000 for a 20% stake, O’Leary changed his tune.
He offered to go 50/50 with the Croatian entrepreneur, and Nude Foods accepted.
“Giving up a little more equity than we expected, it hurts a little bit,” Irons said on the episode. “But we really want to make a big business, and we’re OK having a smaller piece of a bigger pie.”
The “Shark Tank” deal – which is not finalized and still in due diligence – will allow them to ramp up marketing and expand locally.
In a call with BusinessDen on Thursday, Irons mentioned City Park, Highlands and Cherry Creek as neighborhoods she’s studying. Outside of Denver proper, she said Highlands Ranch, Littleton and Fort Collins are ripe, too.
Noble said Nude Foods will also move its original Boulder store at 3233 Walnut St. within the year. The partners hope to find a more visible spot than the 2,500-square-foot space tucked away alongside an engineering firm and a brewery.
The founders expect to create up to five Colorado stores in the coming years to continue proving the concept before going out of state. Irons said thatap the scale that will allow Nude Foods to get margins up in the 9% range.
In 2023, Nude Foods lost $420,000 on $1.5 million in sales, investor materials show. In 2024, the business lost $350,000 on $1.8 million after adding the Denver store. Last year, it did $2.4 million and was “not quite” profitable, according to Noble.
Irons and Noble started the business with $8,000 and have raised $1 million in crowdfunding since.
Irons dreamed up Nude Foods years ago while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Soon after, she started building out a space in a former restaurant dining room at the Broker Inn in Boulder alongside Noble and co-founder Matt Arnold.
The operation pivoted to delivery-only during COVID. Then, in September 2021, Irons and Noble opened the Boulder store. They added the Denver location at 3538 W. 44th Ave. in April 2024. They’ve grown to have 500 members who pay $15 a month for discounts and savings on the jar fees that customers pay when they bring the glass back to the store.
Having O’Leary and Herjavic willing to invest is a sign there’s more to come as Nude Foods hopes to go mainstream.
“Neither of these people are huge environmentalists or pushing the (“zero waste”) area, but they like the idea,” Noble said. “They’re taking it to their followers and making it normal, like this could be your day-to-day shopping.”
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