Charcuterie boards and their beautiful mix of flavors are a sight for sore eyes. Boarderie sells premade cheese and charcuterie boards, and delivers them fresh to your doorstep. Founders Rachel Solomon and Aaron Menitoff pitched their company on Shark Tank and grabbed a deal with Lori Greiner. As of 2023, Boarderie is worth an estimated $12 million.
About the Founders
Aaron Menitoff is from West Palm Beach, Florida. The entrepreneur has an associate’s degree in food and beverage management and a bachelor’s degree in communications and psychology from the University of Michigan.
Although she is originally from New York City, Rachel Solomon is also based in West Palm Beach. Rachel studied economics and psychology at Barnard College. Before college, she was the president of a microfinance club called KIVA.
As a student, she worked at various companies, including Hearst Magazine, Columbia Daily Spectator, Gooroo, CBRE, and even JP Morgan. After getting her degree, Citi hired her as a financial analyst.
Founding Boarderie
While studying food and beverage management, Aaron built a small catering business. He continued running the business until he was one of leading caterers in South Florida, working with celebrities and royalties.
When the pandemic hit, operations stopped. Everything changed, so the entrepreneur switched from traditional catering to e-commerce, hustling for almost a year. Rachel met Aaron as a customer of his company, CheeseBoarder. The pair had a shared vision of shipping boards around the US.
Within months the two created Boarderie in the middle of 2020. Their hard work paid off as they secured partnership with the likes of Williams Sonoma and DoorDash. In one year, they reached $1.8 million in sales.
Shark Tank Appearance
By 2022, Boarderie was on track to hit $4 million. The business was already booming but Rachel and Aaron had plans to expand operations. They appeared on season 14 on Shark Tank, seeking $300,000 for a 5% stake.
The profit margins aren’t huge, but the Sharks were still impressed with their sales. Some of them dropped out, but a number of Sharks were willing to take a bet on the business.
Kevin O’Leary kicked things off, offering $300,000 for 17.5%. Barbara and Lori made offers to undercut Kevin’s proposal. After discussing it for a while, the founders chose Lori and closed the deal at $300,000 for 9%.
Success After Shark Tank
After airing on television, Boarderie quickly sold out of stock and maxed out production. Boarderie had a very strong year in 2022 and hit $1 million in sales per week after Shark Tank as reported by tastingtable.com. The rapid increase in orders resulted in them having to pause orders over the Christmas period.
Some of their products are currently unavailable, but there are still some you can buy at DoorDash, Goldbelly, Costco, Amazon, Igourmet, Di Bruno Brothers, Neiman Marcus, and Boarderie.com. As of November 2023, lifetime sales are $15 million.
One of their bestsellers is the Cicchetti Cheese and Charcuterie Board, which has a 3.3-star rating from 19 customer reviews on Amazon. Currently, Boarderie is worth an estimated $12 million! Once again, Lori Greiner has found herself another big winner.
