Chicken and turkey are favorites on special occasions. However, preparing them with cooking twine doesn’t always provide the best results. With the Turbo Trusser, you can cook the perfect bird every time. Founders Kirk Hyust and Brian Halasinski pitched the product on season 14 and got a deal with Kevin O’Leary. In the current market, Turbo Trusser is worth $1 million.
Kirk Hyust and Brian Halasinski
Kirk Hyust and Brian Halasinski are inventors from Stark County, Ohio. Kirk underwent chef training at The Culinary Institute of America, and Brian has a BBA from Kent State University and an MBA from Malone University.
After college, Halasinski became an analyst at Akro-Mils for two years. Then, he became a lean engineer at Newell Rubbermaid. His last job before founding Turbo Trusser was as a therapeutic specialist at Gilead Sciences.
Although he studied culinary arts, Hyust was more interested in inventing new products. He was the president of Kirk Wrench LLC from 2016 to 2019 and is still Vice President of Hall Of Fame Innovations.
Founding Turbo Trusser
In 2015, they became friends after Kirk renovated Brian’s home. Since then, they have invented six products, four in the barbecue industry and two in the pet industry. None of their creations has achieved any success but the Turbo Trusser had potential.
The product was made to make cooking chicken and turkey easier. It features two wire hooks on a stainless steel trusser to hold wings and legs. The Turbo Trusser helps perfectly cook poultry in ovens, deep fryers, grills, and more.
It was introduced to the market in 2021 after the founders partnered with local companies to manufacture the product. A few months later, they made $50,000 in sales. After a year, the figure rose to more than $100,000!
Shark Tank Appearance
The founders hilariously strutted into the Tank in turkey and chicken suits. Despite a shaky start, they recovered and did a brilliant job explaining their product. At the time of the pitch, Turbo Trusser had $90,000 in sales within 8 and half months. 60% of sales came from their website and 27% through three distributors.
Four Sharks dropped as the product was niche and didn’t believe they could scale. Mr. Wonderful was the only one interested but it needed a lot of work. They accepted Kevin’s offer of $100,000 for 33% and a royalty of $1 per unit in perpetuity.
After Shark Tank
Unlike many Shark Tank deals that quietly fall apart in due diligence, the Turbo Trusser deal with Kevin O’Leary closed the same day the episode aired. After airing, sales jumped roughly sevenfold and the company moved from shipping out of a garage to fulfilling Amazon orders nationwide.
The team had only three weeks of lead time before broadcast, but because their manufacturing was based locally, they were able to restock fast enough to keep up with demand. By the end of 2022 they’d reached $290,000 in sales, and in 2023 they announced they had passed 31,000 units sold.
Working with Kevin O’Leary’s O’Leary Ventures opened doors quickly. Kevin demonstrated the product on Good Morning America’s third hour in June 2023, took it onto QVC, and has since referred to Turbo Trusser as one of his favourite Shark Tank deals.
The brand has also picked up coverage in Forbes, CBS and Inventors Digest. Perhaps the biggest retail breakthrough came when Turbo Trusser won a platinum purchase order at Lowe’s “Into the Blue” pitch event, securing placement in Lowe’s stores nationwide.
The success attracted counterfeiters fast. Knockoffs flooded Amazon, and the founders estimate it cost them around $300,000 in lost revenue before they worked with the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition to remove fake listings.
Turbo Trusser has also expanded beyond the original trusser. The lineup now includes Turbo Staxx (a multi-pan cooking rack for ovens, grills and smokers), cream cheese and cheese smoking platters, a Cluckin’ Hot poultry rub, a poultry brine and injection kit, a grill basket and a jalapeño popper rack. The original Turbo Trusser now has more than 1,100 reviews on Amazon, with customers consistently praising how juicy and tender the meat comes out.
By 2024, the company announced it had passed $1 million in gross sales, an 11x increase from the $90,000 they walked into the Tank with two years earlier. The founders are now eyeing larger retail chains using Kevin’s connections, supermarket placements next to seasonal turkey displays, and international expansion. With $1 royalty per unit flowing into Kevin’s pocket on every sale, “Mr. Wonderful” has every reason to keep pushing the brand.
