TaDah: Here's What Happened After Appearing On Shark Tank

John Sorial is a first-generation American, the child of Egyptian immigrants. A chemical engineering grad from Johns Hopkins, he has two distinct passions: the traditional foods he grew up eating and helping others to thrive. Sorial married those two pursuits in TaDah Foods, a company dedicated to the popular Mediterranean food falafel and which was also dedicated to supporting causes such as poverty relief and homelessness initiatives. Building on the recipes his grandmother cooked for her family, Sorial crafted two delicious products: a falafel street wrap in a variety of flavors and a gluten-free falafel bite stuffed with creamy hummus. And, while almost everyone makes mistakes with homemade hummus, Sorial's recipes were crowd-pleasers. 

But great food isn't the whole story. Behind Sorial's mild-mannered demeanor is a heart for a better world: he pledged to donate a full quarter of TaDah's profits to global charities working for social change, such as the international Meant 2 Live Foundation. When Sorial brought TaDah to "Shark Tank" on Episode 1 of Season 11, it had already raked in over $8 million in sales. Unfortunately, the financial woes of a packaging partner had left the company high and dry, causing Sorial to get hands-on in keeping his fledgling business afloat. Desperate for help, he took a dive into the "Shark Tank," hoping for a lifeline.

On "Shark Tank," Sorial spilled his guts to the panel, detailing the company's highs and lows: a delicious product with strong early sales, but also monetary struggles that had seen Sorial portion out 75% of the company's shares to other investors. His ask? Three hundred thousand dollars in exchange for 10% equity in TaDah. Lori Greiner, Robert Herjavec, and Kevin O'Leary were each overwhelmed by the uphill struggles that TaDah was facing, despite agreeing that the falafel was, in fact, tasty. They therefore dropped out of negotiations. That left Mark Cuban and special guest Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND Snacks. Unlike the other sharks, he definitely was feeling Sorial's passion for falafel.

Lubetzky bit first, offering Sorial a choice: his asked-for $300,000 in exchange for 20% equity; or the $500,000 that Lubetzky thought the company really needed, including money to buy out other investors. Mark Cuban fired back with an offer for $300,000 in exchange for 20% equity, plus a half-million in a line of credit. After a bit of negotiating, Sorial took Lubetzky's larger offer. Lubetzky said on Facebook that he was "thrilled to make a deal with TaDah Foods," boasting about not just the delicious falafel, but also Sorial's mission for social causes.

While many companies like Nui, a cookie company that also appeared on Shark Tank, see investor agreements fail to close for various reasons, Sorial and TaDah actually sealed the deal with Lubetzky. In an interview with FoodNavigator, Sorial divulged that, even more than the money, the mentorship he was receiving from Lubetzky was proving invaluable. The night that TaDah's episode of "Shark Tank" aired, over 50,000 interested viewers checked out TaDah's website. Right off the bat, Sorial stated, the plan was to ramp up manufacturing of TaDah products to meet the new wave of demand. He also wanted to boost marketing efforts that had, so far, been confined to word-of-mouth. TaDah quickly gained momentum.

The falafel wraps and bites found retail homes in such nationwide giants as Whole Foods and Walmart, with flavors like Spicy Harissa and Luscious Lemon Garlic earning rave reviews on social media. In 2022, TaDah earned the distinction of Best Healthy Frozen Wrap in the Eat This Not That! Food Awards. According to its Facebook comments, TaDah launched a product locator on its now-defunct website, and even rolled out packaging with less of an environmental footprint than previous iterations, doubling down on Sorial's commitment to doing good. Unfortunately, something went wrong in the midst of all that success, because TaDah seems to have fallen off the map.

A frustratingly common phenomenon for Shark Tank businesses is when they simply vanish off the face of the Earth with no explanation, which is just what seemed to happen to TaDah Foods. In June 2023, the company's Instagram thanked customers for letting it know that its store locator was down, and said that the issue was being investigated. Radio silence followed until February 2024, when the account posted a picture of a cocoon and stated that "we know it has been awhile but we're working on coming back stronger and better than ever" (via Instagram). However, as of this writing, the company's last post on Facebook was in March 2023, and the TaDah Foods website is inactive. 

A flurry of comments on all the TaDah socials demanded to know where the scrumptious falafel wraps disappeared to, with many posters complaining that they could no longer find their favorite lunch at the grocery store. One after another, retail partners' websites showed the products as unavailable, despite many still being listed as for sale. Customer frustration mounted, with seemingly no answers in sight. Currently, Sorial's LinkedIn account lists his tenure with TaDah Foods as having ended in January 2024, giving the closest thing we have to irrefutable proof that TaDah is no more, even if we don't know why.

As per John Sorial's LinkedIn, his current venture is a pivot to business consulting through his new company, JSX Ventures. According to the LinkedIn page, Sorial's consulting "leverages [...] extensive experience to offer strategic guidance, operational insights, and market expansion strategies." He speaks lovingly about his experience at TaDah, calling the company "a natural frozen food leader" and touting its success in major retailers, its tens of millions in sales, and its successful development of a niche as a premium frozen food product.

A few cryptic clues about the fate of TaDah Foods can be spotted by the keen-eyed who scan Sorial's LinkedIn activity. In a recent post about Beyond Meat, a vegan meat alternative, Sorial states that "the dichotomy of our market system is that it encourages and rewards companies with bold, optimistic visions of the future — only to then discount any growth that falls short of the lofty goals it incentivizes." He also says that not every "promising food brand" will ever attain success at Beyond Meat's scale. Did Sorial simply grow disenchanted by the frustrations of running a company that was successful, yet not a blockbuster? It's hard to say. Hopefully, he can share some hard-earned wisdom through his consultancy with others who are trying to accomplish their own dreams of entrepreneurship.