Alicia Long and Dane Turk, the husband and wife duo behind Nutr — a machine designed to automate making plant-based milk at home — pitched their product together on episode 12, season 14 of the ABC hit series “Shark Tank.” The couple’s pitch included witty puns and solid selling points, noting the reasons why many people — including Long herself — choose to make their own plant-based milk at home. Despite the obvious time it takes to blend and strain homemade plant milk and its shorter shelf-life, Long explained to the sharks that store-bought alternative milks are often filled with more gums, fillers, and sugars than the alternative itself, something she became aware of while she was pregnant.
Lactose intolerant and living with gestational diabetes, Long was pricking her fingers multiple times a day when her mother — the person she credits for providing her with the marketing education that allowed her to move from China to the U.S. in 2009 — prepared her a serving of the homemade plant milk she grew up on. But it was Nespresso, the company responsible for pioneering the world of coffee pods, that inspired her and her engineer husband to invent a machine that automated high quality, plant-based milk at home and, according to her interview with Kara Golding, the rest was history. Nutr was their answer to providing the dream dairy-free milk scenario for everyone. But the sharks found their asking valuation to be a little nutty — pun intended.
What happened to Nutr on Shark Tank?
After presenting the panel of sharks with their asking investment of $500,000 for a 5% stake in Nutr, Long and Turk received some strong reactions. But before saying anything, the judges were invited to sip on some of the milks themselves. Long and Turk presented them with a few glasses of various types of plant milk, while Lubetzky went up to use the machine himself. Upon their first taste, both Daymond John and Lori Greiner expressed their approval, with Greiner noting how “pure and clean” the flavor was and Daniel Lubetzky noting its creaminess. But that’s when Cuban quickly came in with the hard hitting questions.
After explaining Nutr’s margins, the numbers behind its blend subscription model, its sales, influencer marketing strategies and costs, debts, and outside investors, everyone could feel the tension. Greiner chimed in, explaining that while she did love the product, she didn’t see herself actually using it and bowed out. Mark Cuban followed, noting his bias due to a prior deal he made with NuMilk in season 12.
Kevin O’Leary pointed out the issue of the numbers and was out too. John followed suit, also making note of the numbers, leaving just Lubetsky to respond, and he too couldn’t reconcile with the numbers. Despite bringing their asking investment down from $500,000 for 5% to 7.5%, plus a 2% advisory share, Lubetzky still couldn’t commit. In the end, the couple left without a deal with any of the sharks.
Nutr after Shark Tank
While they may have walked off the show without a deal, Long and Turk didn’t leave empty handed. In fact, just going on the show provided them with a lot of positives. After the episode aired in January of 2023, Nutr was instantly exposed to a wider audience than ever before — garnering them an additional $200,000 in sales within the first month the episode aired alone. The couple’s pitch also gave them some credibility in the plant-based milk industry, allowing them to make more connections and generate more funding for their company.
Despite the critiques they might’ve received from the sharks about their “boot strap” funding, Long and Turk were able to build on the Indiegogo campaign they started in 2022 to surpass its initial goal and raise over $60,000; that’s in addition to the $180,000 raised through the equity crowdfunding campaign they launched on WeFunder that same year, as well as the many retail partnerships with stores like Home Depot, Best Buy, Target, Sur La Table, Williams Sonoma, and Nordstrom that came in the months that followed the episode airing.
Through the expansion of its retail sales and the introduction of its line of Nutr Blends — which were also presented to the sharks — Long and Turk were able to use the feedback they received on the show to catapult their company, achieving a $25 million increase in revenue within the first year of it airing.
Is Nutr still in business?
As of April 2025, Nutr appears to still be going strong. You can shop Nutr machines and all of the other various products that the company has launched since appearing on “Shark Tank” directly from its website — with the Nutr itself priced at $189.00, although it’s not currently available via Amazon. Apart from the Nutr itself, you’ll also find various plant milk making accessories, such as a reusable milk jug, measuring spoons, reusable straws, handheld milk frothers, and travel cups.
What you won’t find, on the other hand, are the brand’s Nutr Blends, which the founders told the sharks were available through a subscription service for $75 per month. While it’s not clear why the blends have been taken off the website, the sharks may have been right to question the blends. Nutr also appears to post regularly on its Instagram. However, it’s not clear whether or not the team continued their $1.2 million investment in influencer marketing. The page is devoid of influencer collaborations or posts, with the most recent being from @funfitfash in July of 2023 — months after Nutr’s “Shark Tank” debut.
All in all, it seems that even though they walked off of the show without a deal, Long and Turk did take the shark’s feedback to heart. From the marketing to the fund raising, and from the Nutr Blends to the retail expansion, for all intents and purposes, Nutr made the most out of the experience.
What’s next for Nutr?
While still primarily a machine used to make plant-based milks, Nutr seems to have broadened its horizons — marketing the machine as one that can make not only milk but soup, sauces, smoothies, and dips too. This is shown through both its website and social media, where the brand shares recipes for things like tomato bisque soup and creamy hummus along with its many, many creative alternative milk recipes, all utilizing the hands free technology of the Nutr machine.
In 2025, Nutr also launched a new version of its machine called the Nutr Ultra, which does essentially the same thing as the original Nutr, only it does so in bigger batches. So as for what’s next for Nutr, it seems that Long and Turk are only continuing to follow through on the company’s mission to provide healthy, fresh, plant-based milk — along with, now, dairy-free soups, sauces, and smoothies — to people and families all around the world. In doing so, they only continue to prove the sharks wrong.
