Heath Hall and Brett Thompson of Washington, DC came up with their own BBQ sauce recipe, packaged it and pitched it on Shark Tank. They got an investment from Barbara Corcoran. For $50,000 she got 40% equity in Pork Barrel BBQ, and a promise from Heath Hall that he would serve as the company mascot. She couldn’t get over the Heath’s resemblance to the illustrated pig on the packaging!
Pork Barrel BBQ Sauce and Rubs are now available in thousands of national grocery stores. It has become one of Corcoran’s most successful investments. In 2010, Corcoran invited Hall and Thompson to New York to ring the closing bell at NASDAQ with the other Sharks including Robert Herjavec who said he regretted not getting in on the deal. Five years later and the business is still growing. Their latest product is Que Cologne — “an intoxicating bouquet of spices, smoke, meat & sweet summer sweat.”
