The first time John Sorial’s kids saw him cry was while watching their dad pitch his company TaDah Foods on the season 11 premiere of ABC’s Shark Tank.
As he was presenting to the panel of Sharks—including mainstays Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Grenier, Robert Herjavec, and special guest Daniel Lubetzky, founder and CEO of Kind Snacks—Sorial’s adrenaline was pumping. The tense moment crystallized why he started his company in the first place: “I started thinking about the success [my] company is potentially going to provide to the children we’re supporting,” he explains. “And all that my family has given for me to be here. My wife has sacrificed so much to support me. I walked away from a corporate job to pursue this idea and this passion. It all came together, and it was just this raw emotion. And all of a sudden, I was trying to continue pitching my company and our products through the tears.”
Sorial founded TaDah Foods in 2011. The company, a member at WeWork 1775 Tysons Blvd in Tysons, Virginia, prides itself on providing delicious, natural, plant-based frozen foods, with recipes inspired by the Lebanese and Egyptian cuisine his immigrant parents would prepare for him as a kid. “The whole idea behind TaDah is to take people on this culinary journey, where they will begin to trust us and experience new foods and new flavors. And to offer them the most convenient format possible.”
But here’s the twist: More than 25 percent of TaDah Foods’ profits are donated to charitable causes—a fact by which most of the Sharks on the episode appeared to be taken aback. The company works with several charitable foundations, but the one Sorial says he was thinking about during his high-pressure pitch was the Meant 2 Live Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of impoverished youths around the world and empowering them through education, mentorship, food programs, musical inspiration, and spiritual nourishment.
“On the surface, they don’t have anything to hope for other than survival,” Sorial says of a group of orphan children he met in Zambia through Meant 2 Live. “And when you meet them, they’re just full of joy. They lift your spirits up. You go there to work with them and to help out, whether it be to teach a class or to work in the health clinic or just to play with them, a little bit of soccer. And you end up being rejuvenated. You’re the one who ends up getting lifted up by them.”
Sorial found himself crying on Shark Tank because he felt like he was fighting for these children who inspire him so much. “The more I tried, the more emotional I got, until I finally had to take a break and take off my glasses and wipe my eyes, wipe the tears from my eyes,” he says. “I put my glasses on, and I started to talk through the tears some more and regain my composure. And to my surprise, when I looked up, the entire panel was emotional as well.”
The often stony-seeming panel of Sharks really did appear to be taken by Sorial’s heartfelt fight, though not all agreed that giving away a quarter of a company’s profits is the best business decision. Ultimately, Sorial was able to strike a deal with Kind’s Lubetzky, whom he believes is the exact right fit. Lubetzky invested $500,000 for a 25 percent stake in the company.
“It’s a huge blessing for us to have someone like Daniel, who is as committed to social giving as we are,” Sorial says. “He understands our struggle, not just as a food brand competing with mega companies that are much larger in scale, but he understands the purpose behind it. And it’s always been about the food, but the deeper meaning is that food is this part of the social fabric that really connects us. People can always connect through food.” Sorial adds that both he and Lubetzky see food as the perfect agent for social change.
Sorial says that he’s proof that companies can be both profitable and giving. The charitable aspect of his work is what propelled him to keep going when the entrepreneurial life got hard. “To be honest, there were times in my company where I should have probably thrown in the towel,” he says, explaining that he’s pretty sure he would have given up if he hadn’t devoted the company to something beyond financial gain. “Being an entrepreneur can be extremely rewarding, but it can be almost soul-crushing at times, a very lonely type of thing. So having something that is bigger than you, bigger than your company, helps you push through. And I think it’s a good business.”
“John is incredibly passionate about his company and his product,” says Gina Westfall, a WeWork community manager in the building from which Sorial works. “It’s been great to see the success he’s experienced over the last several months and we’re excited to be a part of the growth of Tadah Foods.”
To aspiring entrepreneurs, Sorial says he urges them to challenge their own thinking. “Why are you limiting yourself? Rather than thinking of profitability and generosity as an either-or scenario, look at this as an ‘and’ proposition. Why can’t we be successful, profitable, and give back to the community? It makes sense.”
WeWork members can receive $10 off their first TaDah Foods order with promo code TadahxWework10.
Kate Bratskeir is a writer for WeWork’s Ideas by We, focusing on sustainability and workplace psychology. Previously, she was a senior editor at Mic and HuffPost. Her work has appeared in New York magazine, Health, Travel & Leisure, Women’s Health, and more.
