19-Year-Old Is Still Waiting for ‘Shark Tank’ Payout, Has Raised Over $100K On Her Own

Tyla-Simone Crayton was living in a car with her mother when she, then 16-years-old, walked onto Shark Tank and made a deal worth $100,000 for her product, “Sienna Sauce”.

Coming up on the three-year anniversary of her appearance, which helped her bring in over $300,000 in revenue within 24 hours, she is still waiting to close her deal with “shark” Kendra Scott. “I’m going to give you your $100,000 but I want 20% of the company,” Scott said on the show. “We didn’t receive the $100,000 because we’re still in due diligence. We’d love to have her. We’d still be interested but it just hasn’t come into fruition,” Tyla-Simone, 19, said. Not to be deterred by a wait, Crayton has been raising her own funds via WeFunder to the tune of $100,000…and counting.

For now, Tyla-Simone runs her business alongside her mother, while also attending college at the University of California Berkeley. While her daughter is away at school, Monique proudly takes over the day-to-day operations. “I am grateful and beyond humbled and I’m inspired by my daughter every day,” Monique said. “It’s just fulfilling to watch her grow this brand and do it now while being a full-time student as well. That’s even more impressive for me as her mom.”

Since her appearance on Shark Tank, “Sienna Sauce” has made $1 million in revenue and is now sold in more than 500 retailers, including Target, Hy-Vee, Wegmans, World Market, Walmart.com, and on Amazon. Tyla-Simone said in an interview with Inside Edition Digital that her sights are now on partnering with Disney.

“If you’ve ever seen the movie, ‘Princess and the Frog’ about Princess Tiana, the only Black princess,” she said. “She has a dream of creating a restaurant. That’s me, too. I still have my dream of wanting to have Sienna Wings. Just some partnership with the product or with the sauce in their launch of her [at Disney World] because they’re creating a whole section of the park around Tiana. We’d love to partner with Disney on that for the first Black princess.”

Keep soaring, baby girl!