Grill Charms Shark Tank Update

Grill Charms Shark Tank Pitch

Leslie Haywood is a stay-at-home mom who found a solution to accidentally mixing up meats on the grill. Grill Charms are stainless-steel labels to put into the meat before it goes on the grill.

Grill Charms is in 103 stores and has made $60k in revenue in its young life. With his tv infomercial success, Kevin Harrington sees this to be in his wheelhouse, and Leslie makes no secret of her awareness of this.

That gets more than Kevin Harrington's juices flowing as Robert and Daymond compete to join Kevin Harrington's deal. Daymond offers better value with his As Seen on TV products. Robert underbids them by offering to accept Leslie's original ask by himself.

Leslie steps out to call her husband, which may have evoked some jealousy as Barbara suggests the four guys are swooning over Leslie like the pretty girl in high school. They may not even remember what her product is.

The difference in equity is significant enough that Leslie goes for the less established Robert, who took less equity and connected well with Leslie.

Grill Charms After Shark Tank

In season 2, episode 3, Leslie Haywood gave an update that since Shark Tank, her sales were up almost 5000%. Leslie met up with Robert at his house in Canada before meeting with the retail store Ontario Gas & Grill to get Grill Charms on the shelf.

According to Shark Tank Blog

In 2013 Leslie was still working from home, running Grill Charms as a one-woman business with a distributor in Ohio, a factory in Taiwan, and a web guy in Texas. The work of running a growing business was more than Leslie desired, as she wanted to spend more time with her preteen kids.

Furthermore, knock-off brands were popping up, and at that time, Fox Run Brands came to Leslie seeking to license Grill Charms. It was an obvious option for Leslie that was finalized in 2013 leaving Leslie with more family time and a quarterly income stream from royalties on future sales.

Leslie continues to have ideas that may someday come to fruition. She also happily talks to those who want to be on Shark Tank to help them however she can.

In 2021 Leslie spoke on the Powerfully Wired Podcast, here

Leslie's mother got early onset Alzheimers at 55, so Leslie became her caretaker. Eight years later, her son Tanner got diagnosed with a form of cancer called sarcoma. Leslie was also a nurse, so caretaking was her life.

Tanner and her mother have since passed. Leslie values Jesus, working out, and nutrition. She focuses on a largely animal protein diet and doesn't think of food as a reward but rather as a source of energy. She continues to be a nurse.