For kids growing up in the northeast, summertime meant backyard barbecues with a picnic table filled with buttery corn, grilled food and ample hot lobster. Cofounders of Cousins Maine Lobster Sabin Lomac and Jim Tselikis wanted to share their Maine tradition of delicious cuisines to the masses for an affordable price. In 2012, the food truck craze was starting to bubble and they decided to launch their business with very little restaurant experience.
“Sometimes people can dissuade you from being creative [or] dissuade you from taking risks. For me, I wanted to take that risk and I think the idea of serving Maine lobster on a food truck…would make you scratch your head, but it worked,” Sabin said.
It wasn’t too long when they started to have lines 50 to 60 people deep and decided to add a few more trucks. Both cofounders knew they needed help to scale and decided to pitch their business on ABC’s reality show Shark Tank.
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As the story goes, one of the Shark’s, Barbara Corcoran took them on and has helped them scale and franchise their business. Sabin said he owes part of the success of his expanding food truck business to their preparation and pitch on the reality business show Shark Tank.
In this interview by Maine Startup & Create Week (MSCW), a week-long (June 19-23) celebration of the entrepreneurial spirit and highlighting local companies and startups in Portland, Sabin talks about how they prepared for their pitch for Shark Tank and running a successful business.
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This video series brought to you in partnership with Maine Startup and Create Week (MSCW) and was produced by The Knack Factory with footage courtesy of Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association. MSCW is a week long conference in Portland, Maine celebrating innovators, entrepreneurs & startups across Maine & the USA. This year MSCW is taking place June 19th-23rd 2017. Learn more at mainestartupandcreateweek.com.