Vegan Pork Rinds Company to Appear on Shark Tank

On October 20, Washington, DC-based vegan snack company Snacklins will appear on investment reality show Shark Tank. Snacklins co-founder Samy Kobrosly will pitch the company’s one-of-a-kind, low calorie mushroom-and-yuca-based chip during episode four of Shark Tank’s Season 11. Founded in 2015, Snacklins began as a joke between friends to create a vegan pork rind. As a son of Tunisian immigrants brought up in a Muslim household in Iowa, Kobrosly did not eat pork but he always loved a satisfying snack. After a move to the Washington DC area, the joke to create a plant-based version of the meat snack became an obsession. Kobrosly tested countless versions with chef friends, who quickly began requesting his new snack for their bars and restaurants. He has since incubated Snacklins within Union Kitchen, the Washington DC-based food accelerator and shared kitchen, and expanded distribution to Whole Foods in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, select Walmart stores across the country, Direct Fresh, Thrive Market, and select 7-Eleven stores in Los Angeles. While details of the Shark Tank episode have yet to be released, Kobrosly is excited to be introduced to some of America’s most prominent investors and share his vegan product with a national audience. “Since the Inception of Snacklins, our goal has been to become friends with Beyoncé,” Kobrosly told VegNews. “We are strongly encouraged by the fact that this will bring us that much closer to our goal of meeting Queen Bey. Jokes aside, we can’t believe we’re about to be on national television. It’s such a huge opportunity for us.” Earlier this month, vegan chicken company Atlas Monroe appeared on Shark Tank but ended up turning down a $1-million offer (an amount rarely offered on the show) for 100 percent of the company because the founders did not want to give up their brand.