Statistics: Allison Ellsworth Invested $425k on Shark Tank

One of Allison Ellsworth’s two Shark Tank deals is much easier to count than the other. Freestyle Snacks was $300,000 from Allison alone, while Rip Tie Hair was a $250,000 deal she made with Lori Greiner. Put half of that second deal on Allison’s side and another $125,000 appears, bringing her Shark Tank amount to $425,000.

The $425,000 gets a lot less certain once we leave the television deals behind. Lori and Allison never publicly said they were each putting $125,000 into Rip Tie Hair. And with Freestyle Snacks, Allison later said the deal did not make it through four or five months of due diligence. So, we can count $425,000 from the deals Allison agreed to on Shark Tank, but we cannot say that the full $425,000 was actually invested.

And all of this came from only two appearances during Shark Tank Season 17. Allison made a deal both times, after once being the entrepreneur herself with Stephen Ellsworth and Mother Beverage. They got Rohan Oza as a Shark, later turned the company into Poppi, and Allison eventually came back to the same show from the other side of the deal.

How Much Did Allison Ellsworth Invest on Shark Tank?

Freestyle Snacks takes up most of Allison Ellsworth’s $425,000 Shark Tank amount. Allison agreed to invest $300,000 in the company by herself. Rip Tie Hair was a $250,000 deal with Lori Greiner, so counting half for Allison gives her another $125,000. Those were her only two deals.

But Rip Tie Hair is not really as simple as cutting $250,000 in half. We can do that to count Allison’s side, but Lori and Allison never said that was how they actually planned to divide the money. Maybe it was $125,000 each. We just do not have the information to say that it was.

Freestyle Snacks is different because we know exactly what happened to Allison’s $300,000. She agreed to the complete amount by herself, but the deal did not make it through due diligence. Allison spent four or five months looking at the company before deciding not to invest. So, the $300,000 still belongs to the deal she made on Shark Tank, but the money never actually went into Freestyle Snacks.

Allison Ellsworth Invested $300,000 in Freestyle Snacks

Nikki Seaman had found a different way to sell olives and pickles. Instead of putting them in jars filled with liquid, Freestyle Snacks packed them into pouches. You could throw one in a bag and take it with you without carrying around the jar. Nikki came into Shark Tank asking for $300,000 for 5%.

Allison liked the business, but 5% was not enough for her. She started at $300,000 for 15%, while Nikki tried to bring her down to 8%. They kept going and eventually met at 11%. Nikki took the $300,000 deal.

And Allison did this one by herself. No other Shark joined her, so there was nobody else to split the $300,000 with. It was also Allison’s first deal after coming back to Shark Tank as a Shark instead of the entrepreneur asking for the money.

There was already a pretty big business behind Freestyle Snacks too. The company had gone from about $200,000 in sales in 2022 to $1 million in 2023, and Nikki was expecting sales of around $4 million to $5 million at the time of the pitch. But the $300,000 Allison agreed to did not make it through the next part of the process, because she spent four or five months doing due diligence before deciding not to close the investment.

Allison Ellsworth Invested $125,000 in Rip Tie Hair

Sarah Fox had already sold a lot of Rip Tie Hair before bringing it into the Tank. The product was made for long hair that gets tangled during things like scuba diving, surfing and exercise, wrapping around a ponytail to keep the hair together. By then, Rip Tie Hair had more than $2.7 million in lifetime revenue and had sold more than 500,000 units, while Sarah was asking for $250,000 for 10%.

Allison had Lori Greiner with her on this one. Together, they offered Sarah $250,000 for 20% of Rip Tie Hair, and Sarah accepted. There were two Sharks putting the deal together this time.

That makes Allison’s part a little harder. Split the $250,000 in half and she gets $125,000, bringing her complete Shark Tank amount to $425,000. But we do not know whether Allison and Lori really planned to put in $125,000 each. They never said how they were dividing the money.

What Allison Ellsworth Was Looking for as a Shark

Allison was not looking for a founder who only had a good product. She wanted somebody who knew the numbers and was really committed to building the company. And if Allison was going to get involved, the founder had to be willing to listen too. She wanted to work with the person after writing the cheque.

There was another question for Allison though. Could she actually help? A product could have plenty of customers, but Allison still wanted something where her own experience could be useful. Just having the money to invest was not really enough for her.

Allison also found out that investing directly in startups could become a lot of work. She said it sometimes took more time than she expected, and sometimes more money too. She had already lived through years of building Mother Beverage into Poppi. This time, she would be doing some of that work beside another founder.

Why the Freestyle Snacks Deal Did Not Close

Allison had been through Shark Tank due diligence before, except the first time she was the founder waiting for the Shark’s money. Her Mother Beverage deal with Rohan Oza made it through that process. With Freestyle Snacks, Allison was now the person getting to look closer at somebody else’s company. And after four or five months, she did not invest.

Allison never said what she found during due diligence that made her leave the deal. We only know that she spent four or five months going through Freestyle Snacks and then decided not to invest. Maybe Allison found one problem during those four or five months. Maybe there were a few things she did not like. She never said what finally made her walk away, so we do not really know.

Nikki kept building Freestyle Snacks anyway. The products eventually made it into more than 5,000 stores, including Whole Foods and Target. Then Freestyle reached No. 149 on the 2026 Inc. 5000. Allison’s $300,000 was gone, but the company kept going without it.

Poppi Was Much Bigger Than Allison’s Shark Tank Portfolio

Allison’s first time on Shark Tank looked very different. She was there with Stephen and Mother Beverage in 2018, asking one of the Sharks to invest in them. Rohan Oza did. He agreed to $400,000 for 25% equity, and this deal actually went through.

Then Mother Beverage became Poppi. The company kept growing, and by May 2025, PepsiCo had completed its acquisition in a transaction valued at approximately $1.95 billion. There could be more money involved too, depending on performance. That was all before Allison came back and started making deals from a Shark chair.

Allison’s two deals as a Shark only came to $425,000. Years earlier, she and Stephen had been the ones asking Rohan Oza for $400,000. Then Mother Beverage became Poppi, and the company they had brought into the Tank eventually ended up in a deal worth nearly $2 billion.

And those two companies were Allison’s first deals as a Shark. They were not where her Shark Tank story started. She had already been the founder standing there with Stephen and asking a Shark to put money into their company. Years earlier, she had been standing in front of the Sharks with Stephen, trying to get one of them to invest in her. She was coming back after Poppi had already become much bigger than either of the investments she made from the Shark chair.

How Successful Was Allison Ellsworth on Shark Tank?

There is one problem with trying to judge Allison’s success as a Shark. She only made two deals. Freestyle Snacks did not get Allison’s $300,000 in the end. She spent four or five months going through the company and then walked away from the deal. Nikki Seaman kept going without her.

Freestyle Snacks kept growing without Allison. The products eventually made it into more than 5,000 stores, including Whole Foods and Target. Then Freestyle reached No. 149 on the 2026 Inc. 5000. None of that growth included Allison as an investor.

Rip Tie Hair did continue with Sarah Fox after Shark Tank too. But with Allison, there is still a number missing. We do not know how much she has actually made from the business. We do not even know exactly how Lori and Allison divided their $250,000 deal. With only these two companies, there just is not much of an investment record to measure yet.

Conclusion

Allison Ellsworth’s Shark Tank record ended up being very short. She made two deals in Season 17, with $300,000 going to Freestyle Snacks on television and another $250,000 deal made with Lori Greiner for Rip Tie Hair. Counting half of the Rip Tie Hair money gives Allison the $425,000 total used for her two deals.

Freestyle Snacks never got Allison’s $300,000. She spent four or five months going through the company after filming and then walked away from the deal.

Rip Tie Hair is still a little harder to figure out. Sarah Fox kept the company going after Shark Tank, but Allison and Lori never said how they split the $250,000 between them. We can give Allison half when counting her deals. We just do not know whether $125,000 was what she actually put in.

And Allison knew what it was like when a Shark Tank deal really did go through. Rohan Oza had invested in Mother Beverage when Allison and Stephen were the entrepreneurs asking for the money. Mother Beverage later became Poppi. Years later, Allison came back as a Shark after the company she helped build had become part of a $1.95 billion PepsiCo transaction.