Lemonis what just happened . And put an end to the drama. Dede i just thought it was gonna be a great opportunity. Lemonis . This whole company will melt down. Sam i have tried to be honest and i have tried to be forthright lemonis you havent been honest at all. My name is Marcus Lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not gonna wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everythings gonna change everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This is the profit. Lets go to work. [ applause ] in 2008, awardwinning chef alexa lemley and her wife, samantha aulick, started 240sweet a handcrafted marshmallow business just outside of indianapolis, indiana. Alexa good morning. Have you had our marshmallows before . Lemonis their gourmet marshmallows with artisanal flavors soon earned them a loyal following along with mentions in big publications likemagazine, and as the buzz grew, so did their sales, but a questionable rental agreement has affected all aspects of their business, including profitability. Sam jesus christ. What are we gonna do . We have bills to pay. Lemonis and inconsistencies in the warehouse. Woman 2 do you think it smells like sauerkraut in here today . Lemonis . Have put 240sweet in a sour situation. Woman 3 this is getting a little ridiculous. Lemonis artisan marshmallows are only growing more popular. Woman 4 awesome. Lemonis and while there are plenty of Small Companies already in the space, nobody has managed to win over the masses yet. As long as 240sweets product lives up to its reputation, im confident i can get the company back on track and roast the competition. When the girls at 240 reached out, i was intrigued because i already have a bunch of other sweet options. This would be a great addition. So im excited to try their product. Alexa hey, look lemonis how are you . Alexa hi, alexa lemley. Lemonis alexa, nice to meet you. Sam oh, hi. Im sam. Marcus, oh, it is wonderful to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Sam [ sighs ] so, great, yeah, this is dede. Dede hi, im dede. Lemonis hey, how are you . Nice to meet you. What is this up front here . Is this a retail store . It is our retail area, shipping and order packing. Lemonis a retail store . Really . I feel like im walking into a high school bake sale. So what are the roles . You guys are partners . Alexa with us . Yes. Lemonis yes. Sam were married. Alexa yes. Lemonis oh, you are married. Sam yeah. Lemonis oh, very cool. Sam thank you. Alexa i do production and sam does marketing and officy stuff with dede and sales. Sam alexa was voted best chef in indiana two years in a row. Lemonis wow. So this is sriracha lime . How many different flavors do you have . Alexa over 200. Lemonis i cant think of any company that has a core product and decides to have 200 different types of them. I think when youre over a certain amount of flavors, it becomes unmanageable. I mean, even baskinrobbins thinks 31 flavors is enough. Alexa have you had our marshmallows before . I hope you like them. Lemonis they taste good. I like the texture, but they had a funny smell to them. Sam oh. Weve gotten emails. Sam weve gotten a couple emails about it. Lemonis these marshmallows are good. They have a nice texture to them and theyre fluffy and they have a sweet start to them, but as i eat more, it has sort of a funny taste to it. Like mustard . It smells like spices in here. How come it doesnt smell sweet . Alexa max. Lemonis whos max . Alexa my father. Lemonis your father. Alexa m d marketing. Yes. Lemonis how many different businesses are functioning in this building . Sam the marshmallows, and then theres m d marketing, which is maxs spice company. Lemonis who was here first . Alexa we were here first. Lemonis the fact that theyre sharing space with a spice distributor seems like a really poor business decision. I mean, think about it a marshmallow. It sort of absorb everything just like a sponge would. Well, lets take a tour. Sam okay. Lemonis . cause i have a lot more questions, but i want to see what youre talking about. Sam okay. Lemonis so where is your area . Alexa this is our production area. Lemonis what is this right here . Alexa max. From here over is all max. Lemonis youre basically taking up 10 of the building . Lemonis yes. Sam yeah. Lemonis and so he pays more than half the rent. Alexa no. Lemonis what is this . Alexa mustard. Lemonis mustard seed . Alexa yes. Lemonis i mean, honestly, the smell is really strong in here of spices, but theyre making marshmallows with onions and garlic in the air . Alexa yes. Max is this marcus . Lemonis how you doing, sir . Max i feel like i know you. Lemonis how are you . Max how are you . Lemonis are you max . Max im max. Lemonis what do you make here besides mustard . Max barbecue sauces. Lemonis okay. Max . Hot sauces. Lemonis when i walked in the building, i smelled the spices. Max yeah. Lemonis how much business will you do a year . Max 30,000 cases a month. Lemonis so youre bigger than your daughters business. Max yeah, yeah. Lemonis do you worry that youre running out of space . Max its a little crowded. Lemonis this is all you, too . These are all your bottles . Max yeah. Lemonis and so its how much a month . Sam 2,000 a month. We pay the entire bill and all the utilities, and then max reimburses us what he feels is equitable. Max it cut their cost. Sam it raised our cost. Lemonis it raised your cost. Sam yes. Lemonis how did it raise it . Sam max hasnt been paying his share of the rents and utilities, and hes up to 10,000. Max no. Lemonis max is strangling this business from several different angles. Hes taken over most of their space, which ultimately slows down production. Also, hes using more lights, more water, and hes also affected their sales with his spices and his sauces seeping into the porous marshmallow. When you have quality problems, you get more returns and you get less repeat sales, which is a recipe for disaster. Max told alexa right up front split the rent. The girls got a little aggressive, especially sam, about that i was trying to hustle them and i thought, theyre trying to hustle me lemonis i have a feeling. Max yeah. Lemonis . And im just guessing. Max okay. Lemonis . That nobodys hustling you. Your business is growing. You got your stuff everywhere. Max its a nice problem to have. Sam i think its a frustrating problem to have. Lemonis the problem in this situation is that they didnt set up the framework of how the relationship was gonna work and they didnt set the boundaries, and human nature is give them an inch and theyll take a mile. And they gave him an inch and he took the warehouse. Sam hes in control. Max of what . Sam you decide how much room you have. You decide how much rent you pay. Its not an even relationship. Max i am very amenable to conversation, but when one party gets into a hysteric of speech, it turns me off. You know that. Lemonis this tension between this whole family is a bit of a surprise for me. I thought they wouldve worked that out before i came. How much does this frustrate you . Sam alexa and i we dont even want to come to work a lot. Lemonis has it created stress between you two . Alexa oh, yeah. It creates friction, of course. Lemonis the reality of it is is that someones got to go. Sam i think that if i were the enforcer in the issue, it would ruin my marriage. Lemonis so you called me so that i can come be the bad guy. Sam no, but to have someone whos an expert. Lemonis im not a consultant. Sam i didnt say you were a consultant. I said you were an expert. Lemonis in what . Sam in business. Lemonis telling her father that hes wrong . While i want to be helpful, sam and alexa are really the ones that have to deal with this situation with max. They should see me as a potential partner, not some freelance family mediator. Walk me through how a marshmallow is made. Im gonna actually want to make a batch with you. Alexa sure. Lemonis theres sugar, corn syrup, water. Alexa bring it to 240 degrees. Lemonis thats where you got the name 240sweet from . Alexa yes. So get a nice good glob. Look at that. All right. Lemonis this is cool. Alexa we try to get as much as we can out. Lemonis just spread it around . Alexa we are gonna coat the top. Were gonna use grahamcracker dust. Lemonis can we cut this . Alexa yeah, lets get in. Steven so i always line up the edges and i pretty much, like, benchpress motion down on there and go very slowly. Make sure youre cutting through the nuts on the other side of the marshmallows. Lemonis but this is kind of a ridiculously slow process. As production cranked up, you would have a bottleneck right here. Alexa yes. Lemonis now theres a machine that you can buy that will do it . Alexa 60 seconds. Lemonis how much does the machine cost . Alexa it would be right around 40,000 lemonis currently, it takes them 20 minutes to do a whole sheet of marshmallows, so in a given typical workday, they couldnt produce more than 24 sheets. With this new machinery, they could do one sheet a minute. In a matter of an hour, they could almost triple the whole days production. Lemonis and what does it cost to make a sheet like that . Alexa 80. Lemonis well, how many does that sheet break down into . Alexa roughly 70 bags. Sam it comes to, on average, 1. 43 a bag, including packaging, with labor. Lemonis what will you sell that bag for . Sam it comes to 6 a bag. Lemonis so the margins are good. Sam yes. We cant keep up with demands from the market. Lemonis and so wheres the bulk of the all these marshmallows are getting made. Where are they being sold . Alexa the internet. Lemonis the internet. How are you . Im marcus. Vicki how are you, sir . Lemonis nice to meet you. And so all the online orders come in to you . Vicki yes. Lemonis and you ship them . Vicki yes. Lemonis whats your favorite part of working here . Vicki um. Lemonis whats your leastfavorite part . Vicki the communication. Lemonis tell me about that. Vicki alexa tells it one way and then sam comes in and interjects. Sam vicki came to alexa one day and asked her if she had to continue to wear the uniform or if she could wear jeans. Alexa because she was doing something else. Vicki i was working with bleach and i didnt want to ruin my dress pants. Alexa because of that, i said you can wear other pants. Sam we have a uniform. Its black pants. All right . Vicki i got written up. Sam i didnt write you up. Vicki i dont have anything in my file . Sam you have things in your file. You most certainly do. [ chuckles ] lemonis sam comes off very perky and agreeable, but its starting to feel like a performance to me, and its obvious she has some very sharp edges to her. Well. This is a fun place. Dede isnt it, though . [ laughs ] lemonis how much time do you spend here . Dede 70, 80 hours a week. Lemonis whoa. And do you do a lot of things outside of here as well . Dede i raise money for the american cancer society. Lemonis oh, wow. Dede i was diagnosed with cancer when i turned 30 and i lost my eye. I think thats why i wear my hair like this, yeah. Lemonis are you cleared of cancer . Are you a survivor . Dede i am a survivor. Its been 16 years. I know. How about that . Lemonis and you would call yourself a survivor. Dede i do call myself a survivor. Lemonis cause youre here kicking ass. Dede right, right. Lemonis do you have financials for this business that i can look at . Dede i do. This is our business plan. Lemonis you wrote it . Dede mmhmm. Its probably a lot more remedial than what youre used to, but. Lemonis no, actually, its better than most things i see. I mean, you listed out all your competitors. You listed out your history. This company did 439,000, and it made 80 grand. And this loan, 60,000 to saps . What is that . Dede saps buffeteria is owned by max. We pay for a line of credit that he took out. Lemonis and so why do you pay its bills . Dede i dont know. Lemonis and max owes you money for rent. Dede right. Lemonis so almost 70,000 has left this business, and the company owes 18,000 for taxes. That 80,000 profit is deceiving, because it doesnt take into account the fact that theyre paying maxs bills, theyre servicing maxs debt. That 80,000 is really more like zero. That seems crazy. I can see the pros and cons of getting involved in this business. On the one hand, alexas a fantastic chef and shes got great ideas and fantastic recipes. But on the other hand, her father hes screwing it all up. You have a nice business. Its small, but its nice. The challenge is is that youre being taken advantage of by a family member, and so i know thats not an easy solution. Alexa right. Lemonis and so i think the challenge that im having is why are you spending your money to pay for debt that belongs to somebody else, who happens to be in this building, not paying his fair share of rent. Sam its frustrating. Alexa it is frust lemonis its ridiculous. How do i deal with the situation with max . I do believe that you guys kind of called me hoping that i would do your dirty work. I dont know if doing this deal isnt just too sticky. Just like the marshmallows were, because theres land mines everywhere. I just dont know. Moneys leaving their business to take care of a business that is yours. Sam youre coming off like youre saying [bleep] you, alexa, to your daughter, and im gonna lay it out. Max im not saying that. You say whatever you want to. Sam thats the way its sounding. Max go to hell. Apparently, i kept her up all night. She said the future freaks her out. How come no one likes me, jim . Intel does just think of everything intels doing right now with artificial intelligence. And pretty soon ai is going to help executives like her see trends to stay ahead of her competition. No more sleepless nights. Were going to be friends im sorry about this. Dont be embarrassed of me, jim. Im getting excited about this we know the future. Were going to be friends because were building it. The shlike a bald penguin. How do i look . [ laughing ] show me the Billboard Music awards. Show me top artist. Show me the top hot 100 artist. They give awards for being hot and 100 years old . Well take 2 [ laughing ] xfinity x1 gives you exclusive access to the best of the Billboard Music awards just by using your voice. The Billboard Music awards. Sunday, may 21st eight seven central only on abc. Lemonis i dont know if doing this deal isnt just too sticky, because theres land mines everywhere. I just dont know. Sam what if we do sit down with max and tell him to move out . Lemonis it does have to be resolved. And you guys need to take care of it, because i do not want to be in between you and your father. Alexa its understandable. Lemonis i came here because i think that the marshmallow idea is a great one. And so my offer is 100,000 for 51 of the business. And that 100,000 would go towards the right equipment and improve this building. Sam yes. Lemonis do we have a deal . Sam perhaps we could consider giving 1 to dede. She works like shes an owner. She is an asset to us. Lemonis i totally agree. Im willing to throw 5 in if youre willing to throw 5 in for her. Sam i can live with that. Lemonis we have a deal . Sam we have a deal. Thank you. Lemonis the other night, sam and alexa and i made a deal for me to invest 100,000 into the business. Woman 5 oh, my god. Woman 4 wonderful. Sam [ laughs ] woman 4 awesome. Lemonis and the purpose of that money is to innovate the product, and then we need to overhaul the process. I will tell you that, going forward, the set up that exists today it doesnt work. Two products cannot coexist in the same space. Somebodys got to leave. The offer that i made to them was for 51 of the business. They didnt agree with my number. They said, we really feel like dede has to be a part of our organization. Dede [ laughs ] lemonis and so, dede, you will be a 10 partner with all of us. Dede oh, my god. [ applause ] [ sniffles ] i cant believe you guys. Thats awesome. Lemonis this business is well positioned for success really, really well positioned. [ cheers and applause ] lets go to work, okay . See you in a little bit. Alexa all right. Dede i cant believe you. [ both laugh ] lemonis okay, so what id like to do is get our recipe book, and i want to look through all 200, and i want to figure out how were gonna narrow some of them down. And then i want to try some new ideas. Alexa sure. Lemonis clear this area so that we have production here. We lost our table . We were here yesterday. Does this table not belong . How does this work . Sam it changes a little bit every day, but generally we only have this amount. Lemonis max. Is there a way to reconfigure a shortterm . That that machine can somehow get out of this area . Max i could possibly move this whole thing and take that little back section. Yeah. Lemonis but its already packed. Max well, it could be rearranged. Lemonis we need to get this. You guys need to get this cleaned up. This needs to be our table. Ive been an owner of this business for less than 24 hours and i didnt think max was gonna move out tomorrow, but i expected the girls to have a conversation with him, and it was kind of like business as usual. Nobody was talking about it, and now i feel like here we are again. It was ridiculous. I want to go through all of your library and i want to get down to a library of flavors we excel at. Tomorrow, were gonna go to a Farmers Market. Youre having consumers give you feedback, right . Alexa right. Sam yes. Lemonis when they give you feedback, then thats what gives it a chance to get it into the library. Were only gonna have the top 20. Were not gonna end up with 300 different flavors. Let me show you what else i want to do. These marshmallows, we know, are great, but theyre boring. And so i want to have different options for people to consume the exact same marshmallow different ways. One of the ways that ill be able to monetize this investment is to really have them expand the categories not the flavors. And whether thats smore kits or whether thats dipped marshmallows, they have to really expand their variety that they have. Ive always been a fan of cake pops. I want to have a marshmallow pop. I want to see three to four variations, but i want to see them today. Alexa okay. Lemonis okay . Alexa good, good. Lemonis walk me through what this is. Woman 2 thats the marshmallow covered in colored white chocolate. Lemonis its really good. Alexa good. Lemonis but i dont like that its pink. Woman 3 what do you think of the hot chocolate on a stick . Lemonis now this, i think, is a kickass idea. Woman 3 this is the cinnamon. So this is our salty caramel, which is our best seller. Woman 2 you dont like that one . Lemonis im waiting for the salted caramel. Alexa we bumped up the salt and also cooked the caramel a little darker. The marshmallows are so sweet that it does balance out more. Lemonis it tastes like a plain marshmallow. I thought the salted caramel marshmallow, while it may be your best seller, was unimpressive. Alexa its pretty tasty. Lemonis today, were at the Farmers Market in downtown indianapolis and were gonna get feedback from real consumers. Good morning. Alexa good morning. Sam hi, good morning. Lemonis how are you . Now, the purpose of me bringing you here is part of the exercise to pare our flavors down, but rather than us just kind of making it up in our own mind, well let the customers tell us. Now, people will vote with colors. Well go with girls are good and boys are bad. Alexa these are handmade marshmallows. Weve got snickerlicious, turtle. [ indistinct conversations ] sam blue if you dont like it, pink if you do. Young woman i think i like that one. Lemonis which one is that . Young woman the cookies and cream. Sam turtle. What did you think . Woman 6 ooh, i love it. Lemonis cookies and cream. Woman 7 that was my favorite. Woman 8 i like it. Lemonis you do like it . Woman 8 yeah. Man 3 that is awesome. Woman 9 this really brings out lemonis this is sriracha lime. Woman 10 [ clears throat ] whoa. Lemonis dont like it . Girl not necessarily. Lemonis id like you to try the salted caramel. Can you taste the salt and the caramel . Man 4 not so much the salt. Woman 11 i would blue ball it. Lemonis youd blue ball it. Okay. Man 5 dont quite get the caramel flavor. Lemonis okay. Woman 12 this just taste like marshmallow. Lemonis we had some feedback on the salted caramel. It either wasnt salty enough or it didnt have enough caramel. Sam i wonder if the salty caramel trend is dead. Lemonis no. Its not. Thats like saying chocolate is dead. Sam okay. Lemonis its not. Yours just isnt good. If its our numberone seller, we have to get it right. Sam i think sometimes people think im angry, but im not an angry person. Im determined and im aggressive. Lemonis the salted caramel is a huge disappointment. If its our numberone seller, we have to get it right. All right, so lets clean this stuff up and then well bring out these new ideas. Sam come on up and have a sample. Alexa smore, toasted coconut, and just, like, the dry coconut. Man 6 yeah, its really good. Woman 12 oh, its really good. Yeah. Lemonis whats your favorite part about it . Man 6 it just seems easier to. Woman 13 eat. Young woman 2 i would perceive them as higher value just because of the sticks. Lemonis i feel like we understand that we have to pare down our flavors, which were gonna do. The ones on the stick youre gonna get more money for it. The stick cost two cents. You can get at least 50 cents more. If the stick costs two cents and youve raised the price of the product by 50 cents, the incremental gross profit is 48 cents. Over the course of the year, if you sold 25,000 of them, youd make close to 12,000 in additional profit all from doing one thing putting marshmallows on a stick. Its all about the presentation. Alexa i agree. Sam were ready. Lemonis based on the feedback that we got at the Farmers Market about the salted caramel, i want to sort of take it to the next step. Unfortunately, sam and alexa havent dealt with their max situation yet, so i have to rent a commercial kitchen, and i have a surprise for them. I wanted to bring someone here that i thought can kind of help us, someone that i thought would be able to help us think about creative ways to make food and who has a lot of chef experience as well. Sam [ gasps ] pete hi, everybody. Sam look its pete lemonis Pete Behringer is a gentleman that i partnered with a couple of years ago. He owns sweet petes candy, and its one of the Largest Candy stores now in america. Hes also the king of the salted caramel, and so i wanted to bring him in so he could lend a helping hand. Their saltedcaramel marshmallow is their top seller. Her marshmallow recipe, i actually think, is better than yours. Pete okay. Lemonis but i didnt love their caramel base. Pete well, i know a thing or two about caramel. I dont love it. It doesnt have a contrast between salty and sweet. Its just sort of muddled. Alexa i make it fairly salty. Lemonis does it taste salty to you at all . Pete no, it doesnt. It tastes bitter. How much sugar versus corn syrup . Alexa 4 cups, 1 4 cup. Pete 1 4 cup of sugar . Alexa no, 4 cups of sugar. Pete to how much. Alexa 1 4 cup of corn syrup. Pete really. What kind of dairy are you using . Alexa heavy cream. Pete okay. Lets. Id like to take you through our recipe. Were gonna use sweetened, condensed milk. Alexa i dont know, you know. You just get kind of used to doing it a certain way. Pete do you want to try it and see what it does . Lemonis alexa, can we talk . Pete yeah, heres what you do. Lemonis i feel like your energys a little off. Alexa i usually just have to assess new situations. Lemonis cause your energy level changed when he came in. Pete i like a figure8 pattern when im making candy. Sam okay. Lemonis heres the thing that i think is good about having a friend like pete is that its an extra resource. The goal in our relationship is for me to not only help you guys financially, but its also to provide you resources. Alexa right. Lemonis . That you can pull from. Alexa okay, yeah. Lemonis i think whats most disappointing is all along the way im sort of getting, were not that interested. I have to remind them. I dont just give money. And bringing pete to the table, i thought, would be a big deal. They seem ungrateful about it. Pete now, i noticed that you used beet sugar. Alexa we do. Pete is there a reason why . Alexa well, that was the sugar that we started with. Lemonis what do you use . Pete i use cane sugar. Ive heard a lot of bakers complain, of having used beet sugar, that it doesnt have the same level of performance. Lemonis do you prefer it . Alexa i really dont have much of an opinion either way, so its kind of like were talking about something that lemonis i feel like youre being dismissive about it and im not trying to frustrate you. Alexa no, no, im totally down, but i have no preference either way. Thats my point. Pete and so were gonna cook all this together. Do you do that currently . Alexa no. Pete i think you might get better results. Lemonis im watching alexa continue to scowl at pete, and now i notice that im getting the evil eye from sam. Sam no, not at all. Lemonis you sure . Sam i know that i am awesome and i know that alexa is awesome. I think sometimes people think im angry, but im not an angry person. Im determined and im aggressive. Lemonis im starting to get a little confused, because while were all trying to figure out how to improve the caramel, shes sort of giving me these Warning Signals as if im doing something wrong. And im seeing a side of her that i kind of dont like. Sam we handswirl the caramel. Pete what would happen if we streamed it . I mean, if its a disaster, all were out is a little bit of sugar. Marshmallow, unfortunately, takes about six hours to set up, but youre gonna get an idea of how that would taste. Dede i really like it. Pete yes lemonis i love your marshmallow, but i love his caramel. And i think those two things coming together is a good combination. All right, my man. Thank you for coming, pete. Pete thank you. Lemonis the fact that we ended with a good product should be proof to them that taking your time and collaborating with other people and having multiple ideas usually ends up with a good result. Weve done that today. The question i have is is that gonna continue . I came in today to finalize the 20 flavors were going to offer. And what i walked into was a [bleep]storm. Alexa there was a little bit of a water explosion. Lemonis what happened . Sam max. Alexa the faucet outside i thought i had it capped off, cause the line had broken. Lemonis holy christopher mary. Well, its good to get the floor mopped up. He didnt know. Max i thought it was coming out from the groundwater. Lemonis what is this, max . Max oh, that was my dust catcher from the machine there. Lemonis oh, that was your okay, well, lets get that out of our area. So this mixer belongs to who . Sam thats maxs mustard grinder. Lemonis okay, but it cant be over here next to our sugar, blowing in the air, so this has to go somewhere. Man 2 its eight [bleep] pounds its not a gallon lemonis what just happened . If your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on to. Its not a gallon lemonis what just happened . Alexa so, thats one of maxs main customers, and it sounds like something did not go well. Lemonis you have another squeegee . Alexa just one squeegee. Lemonis let me start from over there. Woman 3 you want to take a turn . Lemonis yeah. Lemonis im beyond frustrated right now. Max is still there. His stuff is all over the place. And now theres a flood in the building. This needs to be resolved, and the girls need to deal with this right now. We got to get to the point where somebodys sitting down with max and saying, this is how its gonna be. Thats a big issue for me. Whos gonna talk to him . Sam i can. Lemonis go talk to him. Sam okay. I will. We need to go talk. So we have to talk to max. Alexa hes trying to actually do some work. Sam we need for you to stand up. Alexa i dont know, sam. Sam were all going to go down unless we separate from maxs spice company. Alexa its a hard position to be in. Sam yeah. I know its hard. Its your dad and you love him, but i need you to be on my side. Alexa okay. Sam theres not room in this building for both of us. We need to ask max to move out. Hey, max. We need to talk to you. Lemonis ive said all along that i dont want to be involved in this family drama, but what i do want to be involved in is improving the business that ive invested in. These girls told me from the beginning that they were gonna resolve the situation with max, but nothings happened, and so im gonna make sure that they deal with it. Moneys leaving their business to take care of a business that is yours. Theyre paying more than half the rent and they have 10 of the space. Alexa thats sort of where were at and, uh. Lemonis no, thats not sort of where youre at. Guys, stop sugar coating it. Hes a big man. Hes a smart man. He knows. Tell him. Sam max, we need to ask you to move out. Max yeah, ive been through this two or three times and have apprehensions about the problems and the cost. Sam max, you got to help me here. Youre not coming off well. Youre coming off like youre saying [bleep] you, alexa to your daughter, and im gonna lay it out. Max im not saying that. You say whatever you want to. Sam thats the way its sounding. Max go to hell. Sam were not calling a spade a spade. Alexa he understands. Sam and you are exhibiting some more magical thinking and thinking that max is gonna come out somehow and say, oh, the right thing, but hes not gonna say it unless hes made to. Its gonna be max. Alexa all right. Lemonis that frustration that she just had. Is either gonna come out now or its gonna come out on you. Alexa right. Sam oh, yeah. Its going to. Alexa its a difficult thing, dad. It is. Lemonis do you know that their relationship is fractured because of you . Max no. Lemonis is that a fair statement . Sam yes. Alexa its affecting my marriage. Sam you know how alexa and i fight all the time, right . All of the stress is really hard for us, and i know you would never want to hurt either of us because you love us, too. Max no, i dont. And i do understand the stress. Sam so but what we need to hear from you, max, will you move out . Alexa i mean, thats kind of the fair thing. Max i dont want to particularly move, but i would. Lemonis okay. All right. Good news. Sam all right. Lemonis i had to leave town for a while to deal with some other stuff, and while a was gone, a lot happened. Max moved out and he found a new warehouse. Sam and alexa reorganized the entire space. Also, equipment was delivered, including a marshmallow cutter which helps them ramp up production. Now that im back in town, the first thing i want to do is visit max and check on his new space. Hey, buddy. Max Marcus Lemonis how you doing, my friend . Max how are you . Lemonis is this your new place . Max this is it. Lemonis feels bigger than what you used to have in terms of, like, how much space you have. Max i feel better here. Lemonis i go into maxs place. It looks like a totally different business. Its organized, things are on the shelf, and he seems happy. Lemonis whats the rent here . Max i got a better deal, here. Lemonis are you happier here . Max yeah. Shes a little loud. Lemonis shes what . Max loud. Lemonis have you seen her yell at other people, too . Max yeah. Yeah. She likes authority. Lemonis sam does. Max mmhmm. She struggles with managing other people. Alexa does most of all that, i think. Some people its just a matter of showing their authority to make them feel important. Lemonis max is telling me that sam can be aggressive and she has trouble working with others. Now, normally, i would sort of dismiss it and chalk it up to him just being bitter that he had to move out, but ive seen traces of that behavior with my own eyes. Well, im happy for you. Im happy that youre in a better place. Max yep. Lemonis all right, my man. Thank you, sir. Be good. Max be good. Lemonis see you soon. Max thank you. Lemonis bye bye. Hey, dede, its marcus. I was just returning your call. Today i got a missed call from dede. Im sorry i missed your call. Dede something happened. Sam yelled at me. She sent me ugly messages on my phone, so i told sam i wasnt coming back. Lemonis youre not working there anymore . I wanted to sort of hear from you. Dede sam said it would be a great angle, you know, with my cancer and everything, and it would make you sympathetic to it. Dede sam yelled at me. And so i told sam i wasnt coming back. Lemonis youre not working there anymore . Dede lifes too short, so i just decided to move on. Lemonis i got a phone call from dede that she left the company. And, to be honest with you, im concerned. So i want to talk to her in person. Im really sorry to hear about this. Would you be open to meeting with me just to sort of help me understand what happened so i can at least deal with it and talk to the girls about it . Dede told me that she wanted to meet somewhere private, so i have arranged to meet her right outside of indianapolis. So i wanted to sort of hear from you whats kind of been happening. Dede sam didnt like it if you called and i talked to you. Lemonis about anything. Dede about anything. Lemonis like, is our payroll gonna be made or is the sales tax paid . She didnt like any of it. Dede no. She didnt like the fact that i was letting a man take charge of the situation, and she told me shes an entrepreneur, so she didnt need somebody else telling her how to run her business. I was kind of confused, because thats not how we went into this process. Lemonis right. Dede but then the straw that broke the camels back was i had already put in like 80 hours and so i told sam that i needed to go home, and she told me to get back now or she was firing me for job abandonment, and i said its not job abandonment when ive already put in my time. Ive completed my work. I need to go home. Im just done well, then they came in and said that they talked and since i couldnt make a financial commitment that they didnt want me to be an owner. Lemonis so after we made the commitment. Dede mmhmm. Lemonis . And you were happy about it, and they seemed happy about it and all that sort of huggy and lovey i love everybody they basically said to you, if you dont put money in, youre not getting anything. Dede right. Right. Lemonis what do you think they ultimately wanted from me . Dede money and publicity . Lemonis and thats about it. Dede and to get max out without having to actually do it themselves. Lemonis have me do it. Dede yeah, because if it was coming from you, he would go. They also said it would be a great angle, you know, with my cancer and everything and it would make you sympathetic to it, so that would even make it more of a good angle. [ sniffles ] i just thought it was gonna be a great opportunity for all of us. Lemonis after sitting down with dede, this has all become very clear to me. Sam and alexa never wanted me to be their partner. What they wanted was for me to do their dirty work and kick max out. And as it relates to dede, they ultimately always planned on taking her 10 back. They were using her as a pawn in the whole process, taking advantage of her as a cancer survivor to get my sympathy. I am totally disgusted. Its not a healthy environment there. Without you there, i dont know anybody there to trust. Although i believe dede, it would only be fair of me to get sam and alexas side of the story, so im heading there today to see what they have to say for themselves. How are ya . Sam im fabulous, marcus, how are you . Lemonis whats new . Sam oh, lots of good stuff. Lemonis you doing all right . Sam wonderful. Lemonis i thought it was strange that sam was acting pretty perky, as if nothing had changed or nothing at all had happened. Wow. Sam lets go see. Lemonis smells like a marshmallow factory now. I dont smell all the spices. Whats happening . Your hairs different. And guess what you dont smell . Max. Alexa right. Sam good. Lemonis i wouldve thought that they wouldve said something like, hey, you remember your favorite employee . The one you decided to give equity to that we all loved . Well, shes gone. I saw dede. She quit . Sam she quit. Lemonis how come you didnt send me a note just to sort of keep me informed that this happened . Sam it never occurred to me. Lemonis okay, and why did she quit . Sam not everyone is set out to be an entrepreneur. Lemonis i thought she was a great employee. Alexa she was a good employee, and then we were discussing going to take a loan. Sam it was our understanding that she wasnt comfortable with that. Lemonis did you ask her to sign the paperwork and she wouldnt . Sam no, we did not. We actually still offered dede a percentage without signing. Alexa when were willing to go sign the paper at the bank, if youre not willing to go to the bank and sign the paper. Lemonis so you guys did ask her to do it. Sam well, yes. We offered her that opportunity. Lemonis if somebody has 10 of a business, like i have employees that have 10 of different business. Sam uhhuh. Lemonis i dont expect them to sort of sign with me. I just dont. Sam but she didnt feel comfortable that there was any chance that it would not be. Alexa a guaranteed paycheck. Sam a guaranteed paycheck alexa . Every week. Lemonis you said to her, if i give you equity, you have to understand that theres the possibility you wont get paid some weeks. Sam well, yes. Lemonis just because she was offered equity, she now has to sign up to not get paid . Sam its a risk as being an owner. An entrepreneur, in my opinion, likes risk. Lemonis she started out as an employee getting a paycheck. It wouldnt all of a sudden void out her sort of being an employee and getting paid. What pisses me off about this situation is that there were never any conditions to dede having equity. There was no discussion about her signing documents or giving up her paycheck. They knew that she would cave under that sort of pressure. You knew she was keeping me posted on the companys finances. Sam okay, well i was not aware of that. Lemonis really . Sam really. Lemonis i find that very hard to believe. cause you and i even talked about it. She was communicating with me on what my money was spent on. Sam uhhuh. Lemonis . And what the current needs still were. Sam okay, so. Lemonis were you aware of that . Sam at that point, yes. Lemonis okay, you just said no a minute ago. Sam really . Lemonis yeah. Sam well, i was confused about the question. Lemonis well, sam. Sam well, marcus. I know that we see things through our own lens, so youll have to excuse me. Lemonis i dont have a lens. I just see things through what actually happened. Sam now, no ones perfect, but i try really hard to make sure that when i get up in the morning, i am the type of person that makes the world a better place. And that is a decision i make. Now that doesnt make me perfect. Lemonis i totally get it. Sam i have tried to be honest and i have tried to be forthright lemonis you havent been honest at all. Sam do you know what . Were gonna be honest. Lemonis good. Its about time. Sam i didnt think we were a good fit for you. I wanted you to come here and help max. Thank you for helping with that. You applied to the show for max to solve maxs problem. Sam i did, didnt i. Lemonis and you took my money. Sam and i wanted it lemonis and you took my money. Sam that is moot in this instance. Lemonis yes or no. Always wins. Especially in my business. With slow internet from the phone company, you cant keep up. Youre stuck, watching spinning wheels and progress bars until someone else scoops your story. Switch to comcast business. With highspeed internet up to 10 gigabits per second. You wouldnt pick a slow race car. Then why settle for slow internet . Comcast business. Built for speed. Built for business. But weve got the get tdigital tools to help. Now with xfinitys my account, you can figure things out easily, so you wont even have to call us. Change your wifi password to something you can actually remember, instantly. Add that premium channel, and watch the show everyones talking about, tonight. And the bill you need to pay . Do it in seconds. Because we should fit into your life, not the other way around. Go to xfinity. Com myaccount e show for max to solve maxs problem. Sam i did, didnt i. Lemonis and you took my money. Sam and i wanted it to be good. Lemonis and you took my money. Sam that is moot in this instance lemonis yes or no. Sam that is not what i am explaining. Lemonis whats the answer . The answer is yes. Youre saying everybodys not perfect. Sam i dont want to dig down deep and find that person inside of me that could rage up and just eat you alive. Lemonis is there somebody like that . cause i think i already met that person. Sam i can act like an ass, yeah. Lemonis and so my question sam its manifesting itself right now. [ sighs ] so. Lemonis theres just got to be a less sort of toxic way to deal with it. Sam so now youre calling me toxic. Lemonis im saying that when you dont like things or dont agree with things, you sort of have the ability to deal with things in a toxic way. Sam i dont attempt to be toxic. Do you think im toxic when i deal with things, alexa . Alexa i dont believe youre toxic. Sam cindy, so you think im toxic when i try to deal with things . Cindy, do you need a job . Lemonis sam, this is a good example of aggressiveness. Just chill out. Today i feel like i got the real you. We should probably not be in business together. Sam i agree. Lemonis it was nice meeting you. I cant do business here. They were unwilling to make any changes. They were just using me to get rid of max. Ultimately, i think sam wanted the publicity. She wanted whatever cash i would bring to the table. She wanted whatever promotion i would bring to the table. She wanted whatever resources i would bring to the table, and she didnt want anything that went along with it. Thats the reality. Good morning, breaking overnight congressional leaders reach a deal to avoid a government shutdown. A live report from washington coming up. New this morning, 21st century fox reportedly in talks with blackstone to buy tribune. Details straight ahead. Plus, bullseye, well tell you why target is setting its sights for Lower East Side of manhattan. Its monday, may 1st, Worldwide Exchange. Good morning, and warm welcome to Worldwide Exchange here on cnbc. Im wilfred frost