‘He had no idea what he was talking about’: Peak Chocolate hits back after Shark Tank snub

THE Bondi gym junkies whose pre-workout chocolate was brutally shot down on last night’s Shark Tank have come out swinging.

THE Bondi gym junkies whose pre-workout chocolate was brutally shot down on Tuesday night’s Shark Tank have come out swinging.

Raph Freedman, 25, and Rory Boyden, 26, were seeking a $50,000 investment in return for a 10 per cent stake in their company, Peak Chocolate.

“Our product, Peak Chocolate, is something the health and fitness market has never seen before,” Mr Boyden explained to the panel. “It is 80 per cent cacao dark chocolate, infused with a special formulation of supplements and caffeine.”

In addition to caffeine, Peak Chocolate contains popular workout supplements including creatine and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs).

The pair quickly clashed with Boost Juice founder Janine Allis, who accused them of making misleading health claims on the pack such as “engineered to accelerate muscle growth and increase energy levels”.

“To say ‘engineered to accelerate muscle growth’, have you got clinical trials to prove that?” Ms Allis said. “Have you got proof that this does what it says it’s going to do?”

She warned Mr Freedman, who, when asked whether the company had received any legal advice, joked that he was “two subjects away from finishing” his law degree, that he should finish his studies because “you are screwing up big time here”.

“That is misleading,” Ms Allis said. “At the moment you’re making health claims that aren’t proven which means it’s against the law. I would seriously think about repackaging because there’s a number of things on here that are just simply against the food standards codes.”

Mr Boyden hit back that while they did not have proof for the “synergistic” benefits, caffeine, creatine and BCAAs were “three of the most heavily researched supplements” on the market.

In a blog post on Wednesday, Peak Chocolate said the Sharks “missed a mountain Peak of a deal”.

“Was missing out on a Shark Tank deal the best thing that ever happened to Peak Chocolate?” the company wrote. “Well I guess we’ll never know, but business couldn’t be better at Peak HQ, even if we did suffer a few bites from the Sharks.”

Speaking to news.com.au, Mr Freedman said the Sharks’ criticism of the product was “very misleading”. “These are the most well researched supplements in the world, it’s not as if it’s some crazy product,” he said.

He hit out at internet entrepreneur Steve Baxter, accusing him of knowing nothing about nutrition. “When Steve Baxter was talking about chemicals, to be honest he had no idea what he was talking about,” he said.

Mr Freedman said Mr Baxter was reading ingredients like “BCAA, leucine” off the packaging as if they were “crazy” chemicals, when “anyone who knows” about nutrition would be familiar with those supplements.

“I think there was a bit of a personal battle going on,” he said. “They didn’t really like us. Once Steve made fun of us, Sydney Grammar boys, now fitness trainers, I think more than anything it was a personality clash.”

He said he maybe could have presented himself “more humbly”, but in retrospect didn’t think any of the Sharks, with the exception of Ms Allis, were the right fit because they “don’t know anything about the product”.

“We would have taken her advice, we can overcome these things like packaging very easily, that’s an easy fix,” he said. “Primarily she missed out on a really good opportunity, it was perfect for her. It’s proved by how well the product is going.”

Peak Chocolate brought in around $70,000 last financial year and Mr Freedman said this year their forecast was to at least double that. Sales have grown to more than $10,000 a month and the product has more than 100 stockists, mainly gyms, health stores and websites including True Protein.

He said despite not walking away with a deal, it was a good experience overall. “Yeah for sure,” he said. “At the time, I got depressed after the show [was filmed]. It just seemed so badly misrepresented and it meant so much to me. But last night we got a crazy good reception, we had nearly 200 people order after watching the show.”

Despite the Sharks’ scepticism, he said health and fitness people liked the idea and saw the value of the product. And he has taken on some of the criticism from Ms Allis about his law degree. “I’m halfway through my last subject,” he said.

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Shark Tank returns next on Tuesday at 7.30pm on Network Ten