It actually costs barb money to be in this business. Kurt well, thats. Yeah. Lemonis but i see spectacular potential here. Barb were nationwide at whole foods, and that is new, a sku. Lemonis youre nationwide . Barb we are, 168 stores. Lemonis pretty awesome. But if i cant get barb to toughen up. You should almost shut this business down. This business will be killed by kindness. Barb [ sobbing ] lemonis im marcus lemonis. And i risk my own money to help businesses. I love investing in american businesses. Woman 1 these people are here because they care. Lemonis its not always easy, but i do it to create jobs, and i do it to make money. We have a deal . Lets rock and roll. Man 1 yeah lemonis this is the profit. When i travel back and forth to los angeles, theres times where i visit different places, and it just so happens that b sweet is somewhere that i had been before, and i actually really loved it, and they contacted me because theyve been expanding into new areas and theyve hit some hiccups. When i walk in the store, i was surprised at how busy the place was. In fact, there was a line almost out the door, and you can see that people are enthusiastic about what theyre doing, and theres tons of sweets and desserts. Man 2 awesome, thank you. Lemonis im definitely, definitely excited. Barb hi, marcus. Lemonis hi. How are you . Nice to meet you. I was just ordering. I was just getting in line to order stuff. Barb okay. How are you . Lemonis do you know that ive been here before . I used to come here all the time to get different things, and every time i came, the menu got bigger and bigger. Barb ive got so much going on, marcus. Lemonis so these are all the items . Barb so these are all the desserts that we have, so i like to showcase them, so people know what they look like. So id started 10 years ago, and so i opened the restaurant because its something that ive always wanted to do. I was doing sweets. I have an amazing vegan carrot cake. Lemonis wow. Barb and then we also have ube. Its a filipino purple yam. Lemonis can i try it . Barb oh, please. Can i grab you one . Lemonis yeah, please. I love every kind of cake, but ive never had purple cake. Ive heard of ube, but i didnt know what it was going to taste like. Dont knock it until you try it. Barb in the philippines, its a big flavor. Lemonis its really good. What was your motivation to start this . Barb my husband, greg, says, well, you know what . You should open your own business, because everybody tells me and writes to me about this banana bread. He used to give it out to his clients every year instead of a bottle of wine. Lemonis is that the famous banana bread . Barb thats the chocolate chip banana bread. Lemonis my First Impression of barb is that shes effervescent. Whats it taste like . Shes bright and bold. Now, Everybody Knows that i love sweets and desserts. The question is, im not sure what exactly they want help with. Whats the ontap stuff here . Barb so the ontap, we have a coffee, a green tea, the matcha, and that is our thai tea. This is what we did first, so the nitro coffee. Its just coffee, water, and then a little bit of nitrogen, which is the nitro in it. You give it a good shake to activate the nitrogen. Lemonis nitro coffee is a manufacturing process that actually adds nitrogen to the keg or to the can that gives it a sense of creaminess. So this is just black coffee with nitrogen . Barb yeah. Lemonis ooh, its strong. Barb yeah . Lemonis so this is matcha tea . Its like green tea, though. Barb yes, a matcha green tea. Its very light. Lemonis okay, its different. Let me try this one. Barb yeah, the thai tea. It has oat milk and a little bit of monk fruit sugar. Its a fruit that grows in china. Lemonis its really good. Barb yeah. So this is the hibiscus. Lemonis its very different than what i thought it was going to be. Theres no calories in here . Barb theres no calories. Its coffee, water and nitrogen. Lemonis okay, this one has no calories, as well . Barb yeah. Lemonis so none in this. The thai tea has 45 calories. Barb yeah. The whole line is vegan. Were nationwide in whole foods, and that is new, a sku. Lemonis youre nationwide . Barb we are. You know where we have it . 168 stores back east called fresh market. Lemonis you guys make them here . Barb we do in camarillo. We have a brewery that we do it there, and they do it for us. They can, and they can there. Lemonis is it a copacker for you . Barb correct, yes, yes, yes. Lemonis okay. I just want to remind everybody that the Beverage Business is now a billiondollar business. Its one of the most competitive spaces in all of packaged goods in a grocery store. The fact that they do more than coffee is whats getting my attention. All these other flavors that are really exotic and different, honestly, now im interested. Are there others in development . Barb yeah, there are, so were working on an ube latte. Whole foods has asked us to work on a matchagreentea latte. Lemonis who comes up with all the flavors youve come up with . Barb kurt does. So my very best friend, our family friend whos like a brother to me, and i call him my business partner, developed the coffee. Lemonis do you own 100 of the equity . Barb i own 100 , yes. Lemonis but you treat him like a partner . Barb of course, yeah. Lemonis but the paperwork barb does not say that. Lemonis like, if you got hit by a bus, nobody would know other than you and him. Barb thats right. Lemonis okay. Barb this is kurt. Lemonis how are you doing, my friend . Nice to meet you. Kurt nice to meet you. Lemonis how did you guys meet . Kurt got the entrepreneurial itch, and i opened my gym with her husband 16ish years ago. Barb 16 years ago. Kurt so she came in every day and helped me for nothing. Barb the gym eventually closed down, but. Lemonis the gym lose a lot . Kurt total, probably half a million. Lemonis all gone. Kurt yeah. Lemonis did you invest, too . Barb 60,000. Lemonis gone. Barb gone. Lemonis heartbreaking . Barb the money wasnt the heartbreaker. It was seeing my friend lose everything that he worked really hard for. That was the most difficult thing, so it was like, how do i help him . My husband, greg, hes like, you should have kurt help you with the business. Lemonis you guys are like brothers and sisters. Barb pretty much. Kurt 16 years, weve been best friends now, so she is one of a kind, for sure. Lemonis youre kind of awesome. Whos in charge between the two of you . Barb hes my ceo. Kurt has really huge dreams, and so hes like, you know, weve got to get our own trucks, and i said, how are we going to afford this, you know . With what, your good looks . And. Lemonis you are goodlooking, so maybe itll happen. Kurt im the work husband, basically. Lemonis look, its clear to me that barb and kurt have a longstanding relationship. He kind of has equity, but it is not documented, and she invested in his business, and it went bad. Its not really conventional. So should i think about the business as this location . Barb i have another store, you know, eight doors down. Lemonis oh, you do . Barb . Which is big boi. Lemonis what is that . Barb its a filipino restaurant. Lemonis what . Another store . Okay, hold on, cannedtea business, a dessert business, a food truck business. Now shes got another shop a couple doors down . What is that . Barb its named after my late father. These are my parents. So angel is my dads real name, but boi is his nickname. Lemonis is that a filipino thing . Barb yeah, all the recipes are my moms. Sorry, she just passed away in april. Lemonis aw, im sorry. Barb so thats a tough one to talk about, so i still cant do it without a lump in my throat. My dad has been gone for six years. Lemonis oh, my gosh. Barb yeah, its tough. Lemonis when i meet somebody that has such a strong love and commitment to family, theres a sense of honesty about that. Can we walk down to the other counter. Barb yeah, please. Lemonis . So i can see this . Were going this way . Barb this way, yeah. So welcome to big boi. The logo, which kurt created for me, are the two bees, but theyre the three hearts entwined, so its my mom, my dad, and me. Kurt everything is made inhouse. Lemonis holy moses, look at all this. Who does all of this, the pictures and the graphic . Who does all that . You do . Wow, you guys are busy. I think big boi looks like an amazing concept, but while i am super impressed, honestly, its too much. Barb i mean, kurts wanted to open two or three stores by now. Lemonis and you said, why dont we do this ourselves . Kurt yes, but thats the thing. Lemonis because we dont have enough going on. We need more distractions. Kurt thats always my thought. Barb im so glad you understand me. Lemonis kurt, what are you doing to me . One of the challenges that exists with solid entrepreneurs is that they have more ideas than they have hours in the day, and i dont want to dismiss any of the ideas, but it is important to understand that you can only pick so many at a time. What does this retail for . Kurt the coffee is 3. 99. Lemonis what does it cost you to make . Kurt 1. 40. Lemonis and what do you wholesale it for . Kurt 1. 77. Lemonis so not a spectacular margin. Barb its not. Kurt not yet. Lemonis even at his current cost and current retail, the margins arent great, and so if you had to bring the retail down to find your way into more markets, that means the margins are even going to get worse. Hi, sir. Greg how you doing . Barb and theres greg. Lemonis oh, its your husband barb yeah lemonis how you doing, sir . Nice to meet you. You have an awesome wife. Greg oh, i know. Yeah. [ laughter ] lemonis and whos in charge between the two of you . Greg shes definitely in charge. Lemonis do you have the financials for the separate businesses . Barb yeah, joe can print them. Lemonis so why dont you guys gather those up . And then we can sit down in here and go through it. Does that work . Barb yes. Lemonis okay, so b sweet has catering, big boi, and the b sweet shop. Last years financials, business did 2. 1 million in revenue, all the businesses combined, and lost 17,000. This is yeartodate for this year, nine months. So, so far, b sweets done 1 million, then big boi is. Its only done 352,000. So lets say another three, four months of business, its going to get to 550,000, 600,000, so for the year, itll probably get to 2 million for everything, and its lost 100 grand year to date. Greg you spent a lot of money on the coffee this year, havent you . Barb thats correct. Lemonis so thats why i asked about separating the financials, because the original core business is being tasked with research and development all for the nitro can business. Greg exactly. Lemonis and thats putting capital pressure on the b sweet, big boi business. When you keep opening things, it just keeps leapfrogging, taking the capital out to put it in the next one, taking the capital out, and putting it. And unfortunately, the challenge is, if you dont have a plan for the one thats sucking up the most cash, it could kill all of them. Now, the catering business is inside of b sweet, and so there are three distinct entities that operate here. Theres the b sweet sweet shop, theres the big boi filipino fastcasual restaurant, and theres the canned business. The b sweet business makes money and does quite well. The thing thats making the most is actually funding the other things that are not. Barb its just been a struggle. Im so tired of this coffee thing. Im so exhausted, but i know its good, but im dying. Im tired. Im exhausted, and i dont know what to do. [ sobs ] lemonis what barb and kurt have to realize is that in order to come up with new ideas, you have to put in fresh working capital. Theres just not enough working capital and not enough Human Capital to go around. The brewer that makes everything, do you owe them some money today . Barb uhhuh, i do. I owe them 50,000. Lemonis and do you have other payables that are backed up a little bit . Barb i think maybe the coffee but not so much. I think its about 10,000. Lemonis so you owe 60,000 to your vendors in the nitro can business. Barb correct. Lemonis and how much is your receivable that youre owed . Barb im thinking about 30,000. Kurt probably. Lemonis so right now, youre upside down 30 grand. Kurt for this month, yeah. Lemonis so why dont we do this . I feel like i understand the financials. Im going to take a minute and just sort of look around myself, and then we can sit down, and well figure out if theres something here. Its a bit of a danger for me to invest in something where i feel like the person is all over the place. She is spread way too thin. If it costs you 1. 83 to make it, and youre selling it for 1. 77, it actually costs barb money to be in this business. Kurt thats. Yeah. Theres room for more than just the business you came for. Whether thats keeping up with what you always do. Or training for something youve never done before. Thats room for possibility. Its velveeta shells cheese versus the other guys. Clearly, velveeta melts creamier. woman no matter what business you are in, Digital Transformation never stops. Verizon keeps business ready for whats next. man we weave security into their business. second man virtualize their operations. third man and could even build ai into their customer experiences. We also keep them ready for the next big opportunity. Like 5g. woman where machines could talk to each other and expertise could go anywhere. woman when it comes to Digital Transformation, verizon keeps business ready. So i started looking for a job on linkedin. And i found this one at specialized bikes. When they offered me the position, i said, of course, yes. Its not just a job, its a purpose. [ singing ] i saallil sweet , yes. Oh for accenting the heck out of that wall, you deserve the [ singing ] sweet reward of a diet dr pepper. Hmm, that is sweet. [ singing ] so sweet oh, youre leaving already . [ singing ] oh yeah diet dr pepper. [ singing ] its the sweet one. To digest lemonall of the information,week and its clear to me that barb is spread way too thin, and what i want to clarify is her real motivation for being in the Beverage Business and that its not just to appease kurt. How are you . Barb im good. Lemonis i feel like big boi is a labor of love thats you and your family, and i feel like b sweet is like your baby, and honestly, i dont think either of those businesses need me. I only have interest in investing in the Beverage Business. Barb okay. Lemonis i think we have to work on flavor development, drink development, and i dont like the name b sweet on it. It doesnt describe what it is. It creates an illusion of something that isnt really there, like calories, and its not actually sweet. Barb i am concerned about changing it. People recognize the name because they recognize b sweet the brand. It has made a name for itself. I feel strongly about that. Lemonis well, you dont do much business today. I mean, its not out there. Barb it is out there. I mean, its nationwide. Its a nationwide product. Lemonis i think the Business Needs to clean up its debt. I think it has to clean up its copacking potential selfmanufacturing process, a real business plan. Barb i need that help. Lemonis . A legitimate process. Barb i dont know how to do all those things. Lemonis for that business, we need people that have specialty in all those areas. I want to invest in the Beverage Business, in a standalone entity that doesnt have the restaurant or the sweet shop inside of it. I think if you could relieve yourself of the burden and know that thats not putting pressure on those two businesses and you could sleep at night, i think you would feel different. Barb i believe thats true. Lemonis okay, so i want to make an offer. My offer is 250,000 for 50 of the business. Only in the cannedBeverage Business. 50,000 would clean up the pastdue stuff thats keeping you up at night, and then the other 200,000 would be dedicated to Product Development and inventory. Barb ive never had to make a decision like this before. Im nervous, you know . Lemonis you should be, and its a big decision. Think about it for a minute. If you want to call greg. Barb i need to feel good about what i say yes to, and i dont think anybody can tell me that, not even my husband. Lemonis i love the fact that barb said that to me. If im good with it, it dont matter how everybody else feels. She understands the importance of the decision and the fact that ultimately, its her call. What i love about what youve come up with with the beverages is that i think theres a lot of crossover with other businesses that i have, and i think the ability to scale it could be pretty exciting. Barb okay. Lemonis we have a deal . Barb you have a deal. Lemonis okay. Barb thank you, marcus. Lemonis whats up . Barb hi, marcus. How are you . Lemonis is this your commercial setup . Kurt it is. Lemonis any time i go and invest in a business, im looking for the people, the process, and the product. I clearly love the people, and the product is amazing, but its still unclear to me what the process is, so i wanted to visit their commercial kitchen to understand how they develop ideas and how they bring them to market. Kurt so because the oat milk market is really growing. Lemonis yeah. Kurt . You know, theres some that weve worked with before. These guys are local, so theyre willing to kind of work with us on, like, size. Lemonis califia is in california. Kurt theyre here in l. A. Lemonis you got a hibiscus, a green, a coffee, and a thai. Whats the next flavor . Kurt i have an ube latte kegged and ready to go. Lemonis that [bleep] is purple. Kurt yeah, so you see how that comes out. Lemonis feel like im drinking barney. [ laughter ] is there oat milk in here . Kurt that one is almond and coconut. Thats what weve been doing on tap so far. Lemonis well, what is your proposed for cans . Kurt probably oat milk. Lemonis so then why dont you test it the right way the first time . Kurt i havent gotten to the ube part yet. Lemonis well, yeah, you are. Its right here. Kurt were testing for sure. Like you said, im the impatient one. I would love to keep launching. Lemonis if oat milk is going to be the premise behind it, then fine. If its not, then thats okay. I just want to know what the process is. So if i said to you, i want to make ube with oat milk the same way you make everything else, could you do it . Kurt yeah, so oat milk and a little bit of sweetener. That was completely eyeballed so far. Barb its good. Lemonis i kind of like it better now. I dont like the fact that kurt is starting to show that theres a little bit of inconsistency with his process. So whats still not clear to me is how you actually develop a flavor, and what the written process is to do that. Barb we dont have one. Lemonis so we cant have a business where we dont have one. Kurt mmhmm. Lemonis hey, barb. Barb oh, hey lemonis how are you . I asked barb and kurt to meet me at the copacker in california. I wanted to understand, whos making their product, whats the process like, how sophisticated is it, and is is scalable . If we want to sell a million cans a month, can this place do it . Jay so this is our c