Last week on ABC’s Shark Tank, a reality show in which entrepreneurs present their business concepts to investors, five judges bit into what looked like pieces of perfectly crispy fried chicken. “It’s frozen solid,” said Kevin O’Leary (aka Mr. Wonderful). “Little bit different than chicken I’ve had before,” chimed in Mark Cuban. The kicker: The food they were sampling wasn’t chicken at all. It was Not Fried Chicken, a frozen treat made of waffle-flavored ice cream, a chocolate cookie “bone,” and a coating of caramelized white chocolate and cornflakes—the signature product of Life Raft Treats, a Charleston-based ice cream company.
Cynthia Wong, a six-time James Beard Award semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef, founded the company in 2018 and built a reputation around town for her novelty ice cream treats—a dressed hot dog, a perfect peach, a tray of seafood. (Life Raft was a finalist in G&G’s 2022 Made in the South Awards.) Now, Wong and her husband ship the creations nationwide via Goldbelly, and they entered Shark Tank Season 16 seeking $250,000 for 5 percent equity in the company. Though they left without a deal, Wong is remaining joyful and looking ahead. Below, we caught up with her on what the experience was like, how she dreams up her products, and what’s next for the company.
How did your appearance on Shark Tank come about?
We got approached by some casting directors for them a couple of years back, and we didn’t really feel like we were there yet. I wanted the business to be at a point where we actually had some real numbers and where it made sense as a deal. And even more than the funding, we went in there hoping we would find connections and build brand awareness.
I imagine you were pretty nervous about going on the show and putting yourself out there.
I feel like as a small business owner, it’s always really good to get yourself somewhere really uncomfortable. And it was just so uncomfortable trying to sell myself. I’m not really that kind of person. I was so glad John was with me because he tends not to be nervous about things like that. But sometimes when you’re doing something that you’re so uncomfortable doing, you just are no longer uncomfortable. You can just kind of go for it. And that’s what happened. I knew that no matter what, I was going to look totally goofy. But you know, I am really goofy, and I can’t come across as, like, slick in practice, so I might as well just go with goofy. Obviously we didn’t get a deal, which was kind of disappointing, but I think there’s nothing but good that will come of this.
I’m sure it took a lot of preparation.
It took about a year or so. You’re developing what you’re going to say and how you’re going to say it and thinking about all the things they might ask you, and then getting your numbers together and learning your business forwards and backwards. I was completely in the moment because it took so much focus to just not appear like a total whack job.
When they actually tried the ice cream, how did you feel about the reactions?
I wasn’t really sure what they were going to do because if you don’t know that it’s ice cream, you’re like, Why didn’t you cook the chicken? It looks like prepared fried chicken that you would maybe put in the air fryer or something. And then once they started eating it, they were like, Oh, this is really funny. So ultimately they had the reaction we wanted them to have. It’s always kind of fun when people are trying to figure the product out.
Was there any comment that stood out to you?
When Mr. Wonderful said, “This is only half fried,” I thought that was pretty funny. I had to laugh at that.
What were some takeaways from the whole thing?
I learned that we know what the business is because we’ve been inside of it for years. But other people still don’t really understand what it is. I think they were all kind of like, This is really cute, but didn’t grasp what the meat of the business was. And so for us, we’ve had to define what that is. The whole ethos behind the business is that you should be laughing when you’re eating this food. It should be the kind of joy you get if you’re watching a little kid eat something for the first time. I want that for everyone.
How do you come up with a novelty to begin with?
As far as the fried chicken goes, I always thought it was weird that there’s an ice cream novelty out there called Drumstick, but it doesn’t look like either a drumstick or like a chicken leg. It’s just a cone. I thought, Wouldn’t it be really funny if someone made an ice cream drumstick that was actually a drumstick? And that was how that was born. The first year or so when we had Not Fried Chicken out there, people were like, What? What is this? Why? This is totally weird. But the people who got it really got it. Someone else out there thinks this is funny.
Let’s talk a little more about the disappointment of coming up empty-handed on Shark Tank. I know it’s probably one of many setbacks you’ve faced as a small business owner.
You know, with the Amazonification of everything, we lose sight of what it means to actually make something. I feel really fortunate that I can make something and that I can actually pay my bills and help other people pay their bills with this. But it’s a roller coaster. The highs are really high and the lows are really low. But the thing you have to remember is that nothing ever stays the same. Things get worse or they get better, they turn around and they flip and they flop. That’s what growth is—it’s not linear.
I’m super motivated to achieve. That was just the way I was brought up. Sometimes you think achievement is a linear thing, or you look at someone else’s story and you think that it’s been very linear for them because they don’t talk about the lows enough. I think maybe if you get to the point where you’re not doing any downs, then you’re not paying attention to something. With a setback, we just pick up the shovel and keep shoveling.
What is next for y’all?
I would really like to get our own shipping together. We also want to be able to offer more products and make it a little more accessible. I love the peaches and they’re dairy-free, and I would love to have them on a shelf, but we need to figure out the packaging. It would be great if our Not Fried Chicken were everywhere. It’s in DashMart now, which is DoorDash’s grocery delivery thing, but we’d love for it to be a ubiquitous novelty.
In an interview, Jeni, the founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, said that she just thought American ice cream needed to be better. And so she really conquered pints and scoops and shops and has done an amazing job. For me, it’s the same thing with novelties. I love novelties, I love the little single serving where you unwrap the package and you really feel like you’re having a treat. To me, it’s always like the American novelty has to be better. We need to have better treats out there as a whole, as a country.
Watch Shark Tank on Fridays at 8/7c on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu.
