Why Coffee Meets Bagel Rejected Mark Cuban After He Made The Biggest Offer In Shark Tank History

Summary

• Coffee Meets Bagel founders rejected Mark Cuban's $30 million offer on Shark Tank, believing their app could grow as big as Match.com.
• The app combined social media elements with dating, providing daily matches based on users' friends, and had a unique revenue model.
• Coffee Meets Bagel raised $23.2 million in investments and was valued at $150 million in 2023.

Throughout Shark Tank history, the show has made many people richer. For example, Kevin O'Leary is rich enough that people wonder what will happen to his fortune when he dies. On top of that, some of the people who got to pitch on the show have become wealthy.

Even though Mark Cuban has a history of calling out businesses he thought were scams, he has made many deals that have made him richer. However, Cuban once tried to make a big money deal for Coffee Meets Bagel and was quickly rejected.

This article will reveal why Mark Cuban's Coffee Meet Bagel offer was quickly rejected. Then, the article will look at what happened to Coffee Meets Bagel after Shark Tank.

Coffee Meets Bagel's Founders Rejected $30 Million From Mark Cuban During A Shark Tank Episode

When the founders of Coffee Meets Bagel appeared on Shark Tank, the Kang sisters started their pitch with something that would usually get them skewered. The company's three founders asked the sharks to invest $500,000 in exchange for 5% of the company.

Given how much money the founders were looking for, they were asking the sharks to value their company at $10 million. Even though that is a huge number, one of the sharks seemed open to going even further.

After the founders described their business in great detail, the sharks were pretty taken aback. Ultimately, Mark Cuban was interested enough that he suggested that he might pay $30 million for the deal, and he was rejected amazingly enough.

After the founders of Coffee Meets Bagel began explaining their business, the sharks went out one after another. As a YouTube video of the pitch reveals, it initially seemed like the dating app's founders weren't going to get an offer.

How rich are the most notable Shark Tank sharks as of June 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth?

However, since Mark Cuban is extremely rich, he can afford to invest a lot of money in businesses he believes in. With that in mind, it isn't shocking that Cuban floated the idea of making the biggest money deal in Shark Tank history.

"Let me ask you a question. If I offered you $30 million for the company, would you take it."

For most people in the world, the idea of rejecting $30 million would be hard to even fathom. For the founders of Coffee Meets Bagel, however, they didn't seem to even really consider what Cuban was suggesting.

Instead, one of the three founders rejected Cuban's offer while briefly explaining why they weren't interested.

"No. I would not be taking it because we see, we see this business going, growing as big as Match.com, and you know how much revenue they're generating? $800 million a year. They're becoming a billion-dollar revenue company and we think this model and the product has potential to be as big as match."

It is worth noting that the founders of Coffee Meets Bagel revealed that one of Match.com's co-founders invested in their business and believed in them.

Considering how confident the founding sisters were, that begs an obvious question. What made Coffee Meets Bagel different from the slew of other dating apps? The thing that made Coffee Meets Bagel stand out was that it combined social media elements with a dating app.

Users of the app could friend people they already know and like in real life. Then, the app provided users with one match daily based on who their friends were. For example, the app would match a user with a friend of one of their friends. In theory, that should have provided some assurance that users wouldn't be matched with complete creeps.

During Coffee Meets Bagel's Shark Tank pitch, the founders also revealed some worrisome potential details of their business. Most notably, the founders stated that the company would only begin to make money once the business exceeded $10 million in annual revenue.

Once the match was provided, the user could like or pass on them. The only way the users could then communicate is if both of them liked each other's profile. The app stood out because it promoted itself as being for people who were interested in serious dating.

The founders also explained their revenue model to the sharks. While the app was free to use, users had to pay money to get access to some features. For example, users had to pay to learn how many of their friends knew the person they matched with.

Coffee Meets Bagel's founders went on to state that part of the app's appeal was its title. Since Coffee Meets Bagel doesn't sound like it would be the name of a dating app, their users could discuss their experience while maintaining their privacy better.

Coffee Meets Bagel Went Through Ups And Downs After Shark Tank

After Coffee Meets Bagel's Shark Tank pitch first aired, the founders were met with many astonished viewers. However, the founding sisters stood by their decision to reject Mark Cuban's offer.

According to an article from The List about what happened to Coffee Meets Bagel after Shark Tank that The List published, things initially seemed great. In fact, that article cites a claim from SEOAves that stated that the founders raised $23.2 million during five rounds of investments.

Another reason the founders had to be happy is that, as of June 2024, Coffee Meets Bagel is still in business. Most notably, Coffee Meets Bagel remained available to download for iPhone and Android users.

Unfortunately for everyone involved with Coffee Meets Bagel, however, the company hasn't reached the level that match.com once did.

According to The List's article which cited SEOAves again, Coffee Meets Bagel had 10 million users. That meant that Coffee Meets Bagel was only in the top 20 dating apps at the time. It also is worth noting that many other dating apps are more famous than Coffee Meets Bagel in 2024.

Another problem for Coffee Meets Bagel was that the app went down in August 2023. At that time, the BBC reported on how upset some of the app's users were. After all, users lost the ability to contact their matches or see their old messages. That meant that some users showed up for planned dates only to be stood up.

Despite some hiccups, the founders are still likely happy they turned Mark Cuban down. After all, a January 2023 article from The Richest estimated that Coffee Meets Bagel was valued at $150 million as a business.