Tyla-Simone Crayton, then 16, made an entrepreneurial pitch for her Sienna Sauce brand to a group of investors on the show ‘Shark Tank,’ to exhibit her business endeavor for possible funding.
Kendra Scott, a Shark Tank investor who was impressed by her pitch, quickly made an offer following her presentation, offering Crayton $100,000 for a 20% ownership in her company.
She accepted the offer, and her appearance on the show helped her sell $300,000 worth of merchandise in 24 hours, according to InsideEdition. Crayton, now 19, claims she has yet to receive the $100,000 from Scott.
“We didn’t receive the $100,000 because we’re still in due diligence. We’d love to have her. We’d still be interested but it just hasn’t come into fruition,” she told Inside Edition. However, representatives of Scott say they are doing due diligence on the deal made on Shark Tank, and added that they are yet to come to an agreement as it relates to the financial investment.
Crayton opted to raise the funds on her own as a result of the delay. She apparently raised $100,000 on Wefunder to keep her business running, and she runs it while attending school. She is now a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, and hopes to go to the business school.
Crayton fell in love with the sauce from her favorite New York City chicken wing joint. When she moved to Houston, she recreated the flavor in her kitchen and began bottling it with the help of her mother, giving birth to Sienna Sauce.
Today, Sienna Sauce is sold in more than 500 retail stores including Target, Hy-Vee, Wegmans, World Market, Walmart.com, and Amazon. The entrepreneur says her focus now is to get her sauce into school cafeterias and restaurants.
“She’s also partnered with a national distributor, which is going to open up so many doors for us for 2023,” her mom said.
Starting Sienna Sauce and hitting success did not come easy for Crayton and her mother. She recalled that she and her mother were homeless for some time, but that did not deter her from achieving her dreams.
“I remember when my mom used to wake up early in the morning, and heat up the car for me, and then make sure it was warm, and tuck me in, so we would be warm,” Crayton says.
“We were never mentally homeless, and I want people to understand that,” her mom said, getting emotional. “That’s the biggest piece for me. And I never sugarcoated anything for Tyla-Simone.”