Stay-at-home mom turned entrepreneur Miranda Vaughn enters the tank hoping that her fresh take on the stale gingerbread house will start a new holiday tradition. After launching in 2022 with little more than a Facebook ad, Vaughn managed to sell out all 5,000 units of her Tomte Cake sets. She wants to expand on that success, and the sharks are interested in helping her do just that.
Kevin O’Leary starts things off quickly by offering Vaughn $200,000 for a 25% stake in addition to 25% on any distributions she takes from the company. Lori Greiner swoops in next with an offer of $200,000 for 33.3%. Making matters more complicated is Vaughn’s desire to expand into retail. O’Leary seems skeptical, but Greiner sees the vision.
Barbara Cocoran joins the feeding frenzy with her own offer of $200,000 for 20%. However, it’s clear that Vaughn has her sights set on Greiner, and tries to get her to lower her stake to 20%. Greiner says she’ll come down to 25% but won’t go lower. Meanwhile, Mark Cuban stays out of the fray and Daymond John is shut out entirely — he makes unsuccessful pitches to team up with Cocoran or Greiner, and his own personal offer is all but ignored.
In the biggest surprise of the episode, O’Leary shakes the table by changing his offer to $200,000 for a 15% stake. Although Vaughn still has hope for a deal with Greiner, she can only get the Queen of QVC to come down to 24%. Ultimately, she puts the money over her personal preference and makes a deal with O’Leary to the shock of the other sharks.
As John puts it while Vaughn exits the tank, “It was the Grinch that stole Christmas.”
