Whats the shelf life . Cory two days. Lemonis if i cant get this young c. E. O. Up to speed and get his mother to trust me. No matter what you try to do to push me away, youre not going to be able to do it. This Cookie Company could crumble. My name is marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to save struggling businesses. Were not gonna wake up every morning wondering if we have a job. Were gonna wake up every morning wondering how many jobs we have to do. Its not always pretty. Everything is gonna change. Everything. But i do it to save jobs, and i do it to make money. This. Lets go to work. Is the profit. Cory nieves started mr. Corys cookies when he wanted to buy his mother a car. I put this in here when i was 6, and i said i wanted to get this for you. Lemonis only 6 at the time, cory worked with his mother, lisa. Cory they will go in the oven once this is ready. Lemonis . To develop a recipe for an allnatural cookie. Cory perfect. Lemonis then he packed up his red wagon and started selling to local businesses in his new jersey neighborhood. Woman thank you. Cory thank you. Lemonis soon the world took notice. Lisa you know, tomorrow were gonna go to this increasing your chance of getting more clients. Cory of course. Lemonis and mr. Cory was finally able to get his mother that car, but without the infrastructure in place, the company was unable to meet the overwhelming interest. Lisa make it work. Cory yep, like we always do. Lemonis leaving cory and his mom unable to rise to their own potential. Lisa [ speaks indistinctly ] crap. I forgot that. Lemonis Everybody Loves cookies, and theres a ton of money to be made if you have the right product, and so i thought id stop by one of the places cory sells his cookies, the local car dealership, to check it out. Well, hello. Cory hello lemonis im marcus. Cory how are you . Lemonis what is your name . Cory mr. Cory. The founder of mr. Corys cookies. Lemonis okay. Are you also cory or is it only mr. Cory . Cory cory, yeah. Yep. Lemonis okay. Well, nice to meet you. Cory thank you. Nice to meet you, too. Lemonis you look sharp. Cory you look sharp, too. This is my mom. Lisa cookie mom, lisa. Lemonis im marcus. Lisa how are you doing . Lemonis nice to meet you. Tell me whats going on here. Cory okay, so today we actually have a popup shop and customers come, they get a cookie. They sit down and wait for their car. Lemonis are we generating revenue . Or are you giving them away . Cory the company buys them and then we give them. Lemonis very smart. Whose idea was that . Cory both of our ideas. Lemonis okay. Now more importantly, i love cookies. Cory so you got to try them. Lemonis so im a really tough judge, though. Cory okay. Okay. I got you. Lemonis okay. Cory okay, this is the chocolate chip. Theyre all natural, and they have no preservatives added. Lemonis the chocolate chip was amazing. Cory thank you. Second, this is a double dark. This is like the brownie. Nice and soft in the middle. Lemonis its delicious. Cory and sugar cookies. Lemonis is there orange in this cookie . Orange peel . Cory its a secret recipe. Lemonis okay. Let me just tell you right now. Lisa oh, no. Lemonis if we do a deal, im gonna need to know the recipe, right . Cory yeah. Yep. But youre gonna sign a contract. Lemonis oh, im gonna sign a contract . Cory mmhmm. Lemonis okay. So three original flavors . Cory no. We actually have way more. Lemonis and where do you make them . Cory so we bake out of a commercial kitchen. Lemonis and what do you sell a dozen for . How much . Lisa 15. Cory three for 5. Lemonis so how much does it cost to make a dozen . Cory well, a dozen is around. Im thinking, thinking. Okay. Okay. Lemonis you dont know. Cory i havent studied yet. Lemonis how do you do in math at school . Cory i dont really like math. I just like counting money. Lemonis i like the fact that cory dresses the part, but he has to know his numbers. I always wanted to pull a red cart through the dealership. Whether hes a 13yearold boy or a 48yearold man, the requirement with me to know your numbers doesnt change. Man ill try a chocolate chip. Cory perfect. Man thank you. Cory thank you. Enjoy. Thank you. Lemonis so this is your first business. Cory yes. Lemonis and 20 years from now, what do you want to be doing . Cory 20 years from now, i want to be nationwide, possibly a worldwide c. E. O. Of the brand. Lemonis and what title does your mom have . Cory shes a coo. Lemonis okay. She reports to you . Cory yes. Lemonis are you sure your mom is not the boss . Cory she signs the checks. Lemonis you know what they say, whoever signs the checks calls the shots. Cory yeah, so i guess shes the boss. Lemonis you dont believe that, do you . Cory no. Were both the boss. When im 18, then ill be officially called the boss. Lemonis okay. Now, i went on to your website because i wanted to order the product. Cory oh, yeah. Lemonis i couldnt buy it. Cory so thats the thing right now. You cant buy it now because theyre all fresh. Lisa meaning theres no preservatives added in. Lemonis whats the shelf life . Cory two days. Two days. Lisa thats one of the problems because he has, like, United Airlines who wants his cookies, target, qvc, walmart, whole foods, but we cant fulfill what they want. Lemonis the fact that the cookie is fresh and it has no preservatives in it makes it different for me because its a challenge. The challenge is how to get it to the most amount of people without altering the integrity of the product. What do you hope for this business . Lisa well, for mr. Corys cookies, i see so much. I see an opportunity for a lot of mothers. Like, we want to hire 70 inexperienced single mothers because i had him young, so. I was, like, 16, and i was in foster care. Well, i ran away, and then i got pregnant with him. You know, when youre young, you dont know what youre doing, and then as i got older, i just had to survive. And then, you know, the cookies came into play, and i was just, like, i didnt think. Lemonis how did it come up . Cory we needed a car, and i wanted to give my mom a car. Lisa our friend allowed mr. Cory to set up shop and sell hot cocoa for a dollar. Cory when we first started the Cookie Company, like, when i was selling it outside, we had a lemonade recipe and hot chocolate, and then we just focused on the cookies. Lisa i told him to do it for college. I felt like my son was too young to take on that burden. Lemonis take on what burden . Lisa to want to buy me a car. Cory and then Ellen Degeneres helped us and got us a car, which was really amazing, and we still have it. Lemonis and how do you have time to do this . You have a fulltime job in addition to this . Lisa no. I just run this. Lemonis you run this business . Cory yeah. Lemonis and then when hes in school, youre doing most of the work. Lisa yeah. Lemonis how old are you . Cory 13. Lemonis really . Cory yep. 13. Lemonis youre not 30 . Cory no. Im 13. Lemonis are you sure . Can i see your i. D. . Its very common in Small Businesses that the business doesnt necessarily have an office yet. They work out of their home, so lisa, corys mom, invited me to go back to their house where they run their business. Cory all right. Thank you. Bye. Hello. Lemonis how you doing, buddy . Cory good. Good. Good. Lisa hi. Lemonis thanks for having me over. Lisa yeah. This is my el caso. Lemonis your el caso. There you go. Lisa this is where it all started. You want to show him your room . Show him your room. Cory yeah. This is my room. This is my crazy room. Lemonis is that you . Cory yep. Lemonis how old were you there . Cory 2 or 3. Lemonis 3 . Lisa yeah. Lemonis then whats all this . Cory this is goals. Lemonis talk to me about these goals. Do you mind . Cory mmhmm. Lemonis walk me through them. Cory some of them we didnt get, and then some of them we actually got. So, like, a car we got. So we want to get a store and a kitchen. We want a big wholesale account. Meeting the c. E. O. Of jpmorgan. Lemonis so you want to meet jamie dimon at jpmorgan . Cory yeah. Mmhmm. Lemonis okay. Most kids that are 13 would be like, i want to go to the world series or win a trophy at my soccer tournament. Corys list is i want to meet the chairman of the Worlds Largest bank. Hes got a better plan than i do. Ill see you at the commercial kitchen. Ill see you at the commercial kitchen. Cory perfect. Nick welcome. Nick prastos. Lemonis nick, how are you . Im marcus. Nick nice to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. Is this an event space . Nick its an event space, and then next door we have our commercial kitchen where mr. Cory does his cooking. Cory hello. Lemonis is this where the magic happens . Cory yes, and i actually have a gift for you. Its a shirt. Lemonis okay. Cory oh now, that looks nice. Lemonis so you know that im people, process, product guy, right . Cory mmhmm. Lemonis so the people, were square. Cory yeah. Yep. Lemonis we got good people. I need to understand the process and how the product works. Cory okay. Lisa so dont mix it too much. After that, just mix it. You dont want it too creamy. Lemonis where did you learn how to bake, lisa . Lisa school of hard knocks. Lemonis you want me to still leave it a little chunky, right . Lisa yeah. Just like that. Yep, and then youre gonna take four eggs and crack them. What kind of cracking was that . Lemonis what do you mean . Lisa you got to crack it one time, and youre putting eggshells in here. Like that, one egg. Go ahead. There you got it. Thats it. No more cracking eggs. Lemonis have you ever looked for a copacker . Lisa we have a copacker we just got with. Lemonis oh, you did . Lisa yeah, but its more of a license agreement, so its not really a copacker if that makes sense. Lemonis okay, so i would like to meet them. Lisa all right. Lemonis okay. Now, what do all the ingredients cost to go in here . Lisa for one batch of dough, 41 cookies, it cost us 5 to make with packaging included. Lemonis 41 cookies cost 5. How much in labor . Lisa theres no labor because its just me. Cory because we dont have payroll. Lemonis well, youre worth a lot. Lisa but i dont pay myself, to be honest. Lemonis lisa, are you a dreamer . Lisa daydream, yeah. Lemonis what do you daydream about . Lisa that im in an Office Building with a suit on. Bossed up, you know, walk to my office. See my store actually selling cookies, like, really selling cookies. Lemonis and how do you see yourself getting there . Lisa i keep open when opportunity comes. I just keep putting myself in places. Like, i go to networking events, but i have put my trust on some people and i got hurt. Ive let the guards down, and i said i dont ever want to do that again. Lemonis why not . Lisa because ive been burned a lot. When you grow up in the system, you cant trust nobody. You got to always fend for yourself, or maybe thats a baggage that i always hold. Lemonis you have to have a little bit of faith in yourself before you put any faith in anybody else. She has no problem admitting that she doesnt trust people, and shes gonna keep her guard up. And i always tell people to trust the process, and i think in this particular case, im gonna have to actually trust her process. Cory mmm. Lemonis i feel like the next time we get together, id like to go over the financials and really understand what exists. You prepared for that . Cory yes. Lisa no. Lemonis youre not prepared . How come . Lisa because it dont look good. Lemonis well, its my job to help you. Thanks for today, by the way. Cory thank you. Lemonis i had fun. Lisa you did . Lemonis i did. Lisa awesome. Cory thank you. Lemonis i dont think im gonna have another cookie tonight, but i had fun. Hi, guys. How are you . Cory hello. How are you . Lemonis good to see you. Lisa how you doing . Lemonis look how nice you look. Lisa yeah. I have a suit on. Lemonis new business suit . Cory i put on my suit. I saw a picture of you, so i put on, like, the same gray suit you wore. Lemonis the same gray suit, black tie. Cory yep. Lemonis well, i thought maybe we could go over some financials. Cory we have a few. This is our profit and loss statement for 2017. Lemonis okay. Cory and this is 2016. Lemonis okay. Cory 2015. 2014. And then i have the Balance Sheets for 2016. Lemonis okay. Ive probably met with over 100 businesses, and very rarely does somebody ever show up with four years of Financial Statements and a balance sheet. Who puts this all together . Cory me and my mom. Lemonis so in 2014, you did 12,000 in business. Shows that you made 7,000. Cory yes. Lemonis in 2015, you did 16,000 of business, and it shows that you made 8,000. Cory yes. Lemonis in 2016, you did 28,000 worth of business, and you made 10,000. Cory yeah. Lemonis so whats nice about it is every single year, you sold more. Cory yeah. Lemonis you went from 12,000 to 16,000 to 28,000. Is there any debt in the company . Lisa the company has no debt. Lemonis okay. So what i want to do focus on is things that are easy to execute that dont put all the burden on your mom and dont take you away from your studies or playing or being with your friends, and you can still be the face of the business with your mom. Cory okay. Lemonis does that make sense . Cory yes. Lemonis okay. Id like to take a chance on you guys. So what id like to do is put in 100,000, and ill have 40 , and youll have 60 because youve created the idea, the product, and the demand. I dont need to have control of you. I trust you. That money is gonna go into designing packaging, building brochures, rebuilding a website, coming up with Product Development and launching the product. Cory thats awesome. Thank you. Lemonis do we have a deal . Cory i guess we do. Lemonis whoa, put your hand back. Lisa that was fast. Never shake too fast. Lemonis yeah. Lisa dont get desperate. Im just nervous because ive been just by myself for this long. You have other people talk to us and say, the moon and the skies and the sun, and then boom. Lemonis what i need you to try to do, lisa, is to trust me, and i know thats hard for you because im sure youve heard people say that to you before, right . Lisa its like, agh. Im not really important in this situation. I feel like its about the business and its corys, so this is what im trying to do for him. I dont know. Its never really about me. Thats why im keeping it real. Im just talking. Lemonis so ill keep it real, okay . Lisa please do. Lemonis the biggest opportunity i see is with you because this Business Needs a leader, and i feel like with the right training, that you are the real superstar here because in my mind, youre important. Lisa i just got to go. Im sorry. Can i get up . I just got to go to the bathroom. Im sorry. Lemonis so you guys already have a deal in place . Lisa yeah. David its a straight licensing deal with a royalty through our company, clever cookie. Lemonis so you have an exclusive with them . David yes. Lemonis i feel like with the right training the big events are back. Xfinity is your home for the return of live sports. That you are the real superstar here because in my mind, youre important. Lisa i just got to go. Im sorry. Can i get up . I just got to go to the bathroom. Im sorry. Lemonis will you do me a favor . Will you go order us two more milkshakes at the counter . Cory okay, sure. Lisa i cant do this. I just cant. This is so hard. Im trying to do it for cory. Lemonis lisa, you okay . Lisa im sorry, im just. I dont know why i deserve it. I feel like i dont. Cory hey. Lemonis thank you, buddy. Lisa thank you. Its emotional for me because, you know, when you dont have somebody seeing you and they look past you, its hard for you to grasp when somebody says, oh, youre beautiful, when all your life youve been called ugly, right . Just imagine it. All your life youve been called ugly, and then. Lemonis i was always called fat and ugly, but it worked out okay for me, so i get to laugh at them. All the people that gave you a hard time, lets laugh back at them. Weve all been in a place in our lives where we wanted people to take a chance on us, and every time that had ever happened to me came rushing back, and i felt like this was the moment where i was gonna take my resources. Thank you. And bet on somebody that nobody else ever bet on. So my offer is 100,000 for 40 of the business. I think you need to make a salary from the company. You cannot work for free anymore. Do you agree with that . Lisa yeah. So i want to keep the product natural in the way it is, as the integrity as possible. Lemonis you dont want to change the philosophy of the company, which is a natural product. We have a deal . Lisa its a real check. Lemonis yes. Lisa we want to do the deal under one condition. Cory we need mentorship. Lisa mentorship. Lemonis were gonna get a team of people together that are gonna help you. You are not gonna be alone. Lisa good people, right . Lemonis no. Theyre all bad people. Lisa oh, i aint messing with you. We have a deal because my handshake is the contract . Cory okay. Lemonis okay, buddy. Guess whats coming next . Math. You ready . Lisa yeah. Born ready. Lemonis lisa told me that she found a copacker to help her massproduce the cookie, and she did a licensing deal with them, and i quite frankly want to meet them so i can understand the terms of the deal. How are you . David hi, how are you . Lisa hi. David dave wild. Lemonis dave, nice to meet you. If that company was able to make the product without compromising the quality, then im open to it. How did you guys meet . David lisa originally called us to see if we would manufacture product for them, and. Lemonis so are you a Cookie Company . David we are. We manufacture them. Lemonis okay. Can you give me a little background . Im sorry. Im kind of walking. David ive been in the cookie business for 25 years. Lemonis oh, wow. So you guys already have a deal in place . Lisa yeah. Lemonis okay. What is the deal . David its a straight licensing deal with a royalty. Lisa where, you know, they sell the product, i get a percentage of. David there is minimum guarantees. Lemonis minimum guarantees to them . David yes. Lemonis okay. David and then theres a royalty rate of 8 . Lemonis what areas do you have . What exclusivities do you have, and how does all that work . David so the retail product would go through our company, clever cookie. Lemonis so you have an exclusive with them . David yes. Lemonis okay. David they are permitted to sell product online and through their own stores. Lemonis they dont have any stores. David right. Lemonis i dont want to get into a debate whether 8 is the right licensing fee or not. In the world of licensing, yeah, i guess its not a bad fee, but i dont think lisa understood that she was essentially giving away all of her rights, all of her intellectual property, her recipe, her marks, her brand, in all of these different retail categories for 8 . If they do a Million Dollars in business, shes gonna get 80 grand . And whats the minimum . David the guarantees . Lemonis yeah. David first year. Lemonis 500,000 . David i think its 500,000, and then it grows to a million, and then. Lemonis so theyre guaranteed to receive 500,000 . David no. 8 of. Thats the gross sales number. Lemonis so theyre guaranteed to receive only 40,000 . David thats correct. Lemonis and you took the entire retail line . So theyre not permitted to do anything at retail because you have it, and all they get paid is a percentage . David yes. Lemonis right, and they do all the work, or they use my resources, they only get 8 of that . David well, thats a typical licensing deal. Yeah. Lisa i feel like because youre used to being, like, this boss, and if there is something you do, i dont like, im gonna tell you about yourself. Lemonis lisa, my biggest fear is that youre going to try to sabotage our relationship. Lisa probably i would. Lemonis they do all the work, they only get 8 of th david well, thats a typical licensing deal. Yeah. Lemonis but for every Million Dollars that you do, they only get 80 grand . David yes. This is a significantly different product, but it also is natural and. Lemonis this is not their recipe . David this is not the recipe. We need to hit a sixmonth minimum shelf life. Lemonis that is not mr. Corys cookie. Lisa no. Lemonis so it was my understanding that you wanted to preserve the integrity of what you started with. Lisa yeah. Thats what i told them, yeah. Lemonis but im hearing that this isnt even your cookie. Lisa well, ive been waiting for so long, and the product is not in no stores. So i came to them and said, look, like, i want mr. Corys cookies out there, but im still trying to work on a way to not compromise what i believe in. Lemonis and do you guys have the ability to terminate with some notice . David we do have a stipulation, yeah. Lemonis and how much. So how much time is that . Do you know . David after one year. Lemonis im a little frustrated that dave didnt bring the actual contract with him. He says that mr. Corys can sell directly to consumers either through a store or online, but i dont know if what hes telling me is accurate or there is something missing here. I want to see the specifics, so the next time i see dave, i need him to have the agreement. I know how adamant she is about getting them out in the market, but its got to be done right. Regardless of what happens with the licensing agreement, we have the right to bring the product to Market Direct to consumer online. And so in order to do that, i need to take lisa to rastelli global, a business ive worked with in the past to find a solution to bring this product without compromising the ingredients to market. Lisa how big is this place . Ray this building is about 125,000 square feet. Lemonis product would get made in a copacker. Ray yes. Lemonis then it would get frozen . Ray frozen at a copacker or here. We have a blast freezer here. Lemonis and then as the orders came in, they would get packaged in the respective container . Ray thats correct. Lemonis and ship frozen . Once we ship it frozen, it will thaw by the time it arrives to the consumer, and its perfectly fresh like the day that it was made. Lisa does it arrive cold . Ray no. Whatever parameters we set to it, so, you might say, i want it to arrive to the customer at 75 degrees, we will work backwards as a company here to making sure that happens. We want to allow you to just go sell, and then well do the rest. Lemonis now that were able to deliver a fresh cookie, this packaging isnt gonna work. Were gonna need Something Better than a paper bag, so im bringing mr. Cory and lisa to century packaging. Frank welcome to our plant. Cory now this is huge. Lisa cory, look. Look. Cory cool. Frank first part of the process is the printing. Cory yeah. Frank and then after the printing, we dye cut. Lemonis how many could you make in an hour . Frank 40,000, 50,000 boxes in an hour. Cory wow. Thats a lot. Lemonis so, whos gonna make all those cookies . Cory not me. Lisa not me. Lemonis finally, ive arranged for a copacking facility that can massproduce the entire line. Now our whole infrastructure is in place. All of our cookies are gonna be made by the copacker flash frozen, then shipped to rastelli. Once they arrive at rastelli, theyll get organized and stored. Once theyre tempered, theyll get shipped directly to the customer. So, when we first met, you said you havent had great experiences with other people. So what i want to do is to introduce you to people to help you guys run the business. Lisa for real . Lemonis are you nervous . Lisa yeah. People in those corporate fields play on the fact i dont have an education because i dont know whats going on. Lemonis lisa really lacks selfconfidence, and part of me delivering help is delivering people and resources that she can lean on and she can talk to. Women Business Owners just like her, thats the best support ever. Okay. Hi. Hey. Lemonis this is my business partner, lisa. Shes the c. E. O. Of corys cookies. Juli works in lots of different projects down in the l. A. Office. Zoe owns a Big Chocolate company. Lisa hi, zoe. Zoe nice to meet you. Lemonis . Out of pennsylvania. Lisa i love chocolate. Lemonis ramona owns a Haircare Company called ashtae. Ramona how you doing . Lemonis this is lisa. Lisa s. nice to meet you. Lemonis shes the owner of a giant petstore chain. Juli so hows the process been . Lisa its crazy. Its a lot of work and stuff to understand, that i dont understand a lot. Zoe i think it always takes time, and as you go, you figure it out. Juli and whats wonderful is that, like, you can literally call up to any one of us and say, i dont know what the [bleep] im doing. Ramona were just human and the uncertainty makes us all very nervous. Lisa yeah. I do that all the time. Ill be like, i cant do this no more. The hell with this. I mean, i done walked out on stuff, but i dont stop because of my son, honestly. I really do this more for cory. Ramona but i think theres more to it than just your son. Juli cory is gonna be who he is. Ramona absolutely. Juli hes gonna succeed, but that doesnt mean that you cant, too. Lisa i also had a lot of people that were mean to me and hard to me, so it was like, you dont got time to be a [bleep] you know what im saying . Excuse my language. Lemonis no matter how tough you are with me, it will not change my behavior. Lisa sometimes things can come off hard because i had a hard life, like, i feel like maybe because youre used to being, like, this boss, and you have this personality where i know this, i know that, and if there is something you do that i dont like, ill tell you about yourself. Lemonis lisa, my biggest fear is that youre going to try to sabotage our relationship because you will want to push me away. Lisa probably i would. Lemonis why . Lisa thats the type of person i am, so im gonna say the way i feel, and if you dont like it, whether you gave me a Million Dollars, whether you took my company and sold it to freaking mcdonalds or whatever, i dont give a damn. Lemonis thats just not me. Lisa im just telling you the way im looking at it. Lemonis i know, but youve already predetermined who i am without even getting to know me. Lisa okay, but im telling you, you may not like it, but im not gonna compromise who i am. Lemonis you told me at the last time we met that she could sell it online. David i dont know that i said that, but. Lemonis so are you saying that she does not have the right to sell it online . David well, obviously she doesnt. Lemonis that is just not me. Lisa im just telling you the way im looking at it. Lemonis i know, but youve already predetermined who i am without even getting to know me. Lisa okay, but im telling you, im not gonna compromise who i am. Lemonis but no matter what you try to do to push me away, youre not going to be able to do it. Lisa i just feel like, am i just, like, a failure right now . I dont have an education. I was 16 when i had cory. Ramona i dont have education, and for a long time, i beat myself up just because i didnt have the pedigree that society said i had to have. There is a job for you to do, and its going to require you to put your big girl drawers on like my mama used to say. What are you going to do with it . Lisa thats the Million Dollar question. Ramona yes. Lisa what you gonna do with it . Lemonis we are hard at work, getting the final details ready to bring mr. Corys to market. Lisa is setting up her new website on the shopify platform. This is where youd have, like, the picture of the cookies or you and cory. Lemonis id like to even build a recurring model where you can get a delivery every month. Buy a subscription. Lisa oh, yeah. I had that some of my first customers did that. Lemonis so i have. Lisa i have great ideas. Thank you for taking that from me. Lemonis in addition, in order to sell the product to consumers, we have to know all of the nutritional information and disclose it, so i brought lisa and cory to a food scientist. Rick what we notice when we looked at your recipes was you have 50 calories per 12 grams. Lemonis in those 12 grams, it has 50 calories and 2. 5 grams of fat. Your cookie weighs 2. 3 times more than that, so your cookie isnt 12 grams, its 28 grams. So if 12 is 50, then 28 has to be, what . Cory 117. Lemonis and by the way, hes really Getting Better at the math. Lisa thats about good for a cookie for that size. Rick its very good. Lisa jpmorgan remember this place, cory . We took a picture here. Lemonis all right. Well, why dont we head in . Lisa are we going in . Lemonis mmhmm. Cory mom. Lemonis today im taking lisa and cory on a field trip. Its a bit of a surprise. So on your list of people you wanted to meet, whos on your list . Cory c. E. O. Of chase. Lemonis were gonna go meet him. Cory oh lemonis you told me in your room that you wanted to meet the chairman of jpmorgan. Didnt you tell me that . Cory yeah. Lisa hes lying. Lemonis no. Cory no. Lisa i dont think im prepared. Why didnt you tell me . Look, i look busted. I dont have a suit on. Lemonis you look nice. Dont worry, were going to go talk to him. Cory okay. Lemonis okay . Lisa this is crazy. Dimon marcus. How are you, sir . Lemonis im doing great. How are you . Dimon hey, how are you . Cory hi. Nice to meet you. Dimon ive heard some awful nice things about you. Cory oh, thank you. Nice to meet you. Dimon how are you doing . Good to meet you. Cory mr. Cory. Lemonis how are you, sir . Lisa hi, im cookie mom, lisa. Dimon cookie mom, its you. How are you . Lisa how you doing . Cory heres my business card. Dimon whoa. Lisa sorry, im just, like, a groupie with this. Im just so excited because one of my sons goals was to meet you. Its just so amazing, thats all. Dimon how did you even know about me . Cory i read, like, forbes and forbes magazine. Dimon youre kidding me. Cory its really inspiring. Its pretty cool. Dimon thank you. Cory what was one of the hardest things you. Happened to your company, and, like, how did you solve it . Dimon well, you know, first of all, many companies, yours, there are always hardships. Cory yeah. Dimon always ups and downs, so you always got to be prepared for them and just persevere through the downs. You know, get help when you need it. Thats another thing you learn in life, you cant do all the things well, so who you partner with is really important. So, i mean, i think hooking up with marcus is gonna be the best thing that happened to you. Cory nice to meet, again. Dimon you too. Lisa can i take a picture real quick . Dimon of course you can. Lemonis i felt that cory and lisa needed to have some small wins along the way. Being in business isnt about making a Million Dollars in the first year. Its about enjoying and celebrating the little wins, and then letting them mount up over time. Cory oh, wow. That was amazing. Lemonis he loved it. Cory yeah. Lisa like, im not built for this type of work. Lemonis yes, you are. Lisa its not me. Lisa i dont think i can take the company where it needs to be. I think he can. Lemonis you can. Im positive. I wouldnt be standing here. I know theres more inside of you, and im gonna keep digging because i know what youre capable of. Lisa it takes time. Lemonis it does take time, and thats trust. As we build trust with each other, that will help. Lisa thats hard for me to do. Lemonis i know, but i think you trust me more today than you did when you first met me. Lisa yes, i do. Lemonis and hopefully a month from now, youll trust me more then than you do now. Ive been uncomfortable since the day that i met dave, not really understanding the inner workings of the agreement, so i called him up and told him that i wanted to see him again because i want to dig into this contract and get some answers. David hey, lisa. Lisa hi. David how are you . Lemonis good seeing you. So the two of you are partners. Im sorry that we didnt get a chance to meet. Michael i was traveling last time. Lemonis so the current deal thats on the table, did you guys bring a copy of it . Can we talk through it . Lisa at the time the deal was great because when you dont have money, you got to settle for what you got. Lemonis how long is the deal . David three years. Lemonis and so have payments been made up to now . David there has been one payment made. Lemonis there has. Okay. Is it made monthly or quarterly . Lisa quarterly, i think. David quarterly, yeah. Lemonis okay. So where are we on the product . David these are shelf stable for three weeks. We made it out of frozen dough. Lisa thats not my cookie. Its not mr. Corys cookie. David but the original cookie only has 24 to 48hour shelf life. Lisa i cant sit there and say, okay. Im gonna compromise and put garbage all in my cookies because i want to make the retailer happy. Lemonis so you guys have the retail rights, and she can sell online until the cows come home . David okay. Lemonis do you disagree with that . David i dont know. Lemonis what do you mean you dont know . You did the deal. Lemonis Everything Else was supposed to be through clever cookie. Lemonis the last time i met with dave, i mentioned, okay. You have retail. Were gonna do online. He never once said, no. No. No. You cant do that. So that would include. David amazon. Lemonis jet. David qvc. Lemonis so where does it say that . David i wasnt prepared to. Lemonis but its not prepared, dave. Its in the agreement or its not. Im now learning that dave believes that he has the rights to any sort of distribution. What i was understanding is that we were just restricted on the grocery side because im meeting with amazon tomorrow. Are you guys okay with that . David i dont have my lawyer here. Lemonis wow. You told me at the last time we met that she could sell it online. David i dont know that i said that, but. Lemonis so are you saying that she does not have the right to sell it online . David well, obviously she doesnt. Right . Lisa well, guess what . Were not even selling a cookie, so mr. Corys cookies aint gonna make no money because if this dont become the mr. Corys cookies, im not approving any of it. It has to be mr. Corys cookies, and ive waited all this time and now i dont even have a product or nothing. I got to go. This is bull[bleep] lemonis if your business is in trouble and you need my help, log on to. Lisa if this dont become the mr. Corys cookies, im not approving any of it. I got to go. This is bull[bleep] lemonis ill go talk to her. Come here. Why did you leave . Lisa what do you mean why leave . Im aggravated, okay . Lemonis why . Why . Lisa at the end of the day, mr. Corys cookies is not making money. Everybody is making money. All i care about is my son and building a brand, but this is the problem when you dont have the right resources or the brain, you get [bleep] and this is what happens because the product is not where it is supposed to be. I waited a whole year, and i dont have nothing. Im back to square one. I dont know what to do. Im just very, very frustrated. Lemonis okay. Heres the deal. Do you want me to try to figure this out, or do you want me just to walk away . Because i dont want to walk away. Lisa i didnt say walk away. Lemonis okay. Lisa i didnt say that. Lemonis then let me do my thing. Lisa [ sighs ] lemonis lisa was like, wait a minute. I cant sell it retail. I cant sell wholesale. I cant operate my own website. I cant do anything. What did i do . Here is what i think would help this situation. We got to start making some decisions. We are going to launch an ecommerce business, and if it violates the agreement, i understand that you guys have rights and remedies under the agreement to pursue whatever it is and i respect that. We will accept whatever the consequences are. If he wants to come after us for getting in the online business, which is by the way very vague in the agreement, have at it. If the product is going to sell at market, it also needs to sell online because its complementary branding. Michael i think were trying to do the same thing. Lemonis yeah. David we realize that theres a definite benefit. Lemonis through all of us working together. David absolutely. Lemonis if dave is able to develop a product that is shelf stable and it meets lisas standards, then clever cookie will be able to sell to bigbox retailers like walmart. Meanwhile, lisa and i will focus on fresh, softbaked cookies and well sell them online. Lisa i know its going to be different, but it has to be as close as possible. Lemonis and were gonna get there. Well work through it. David okay. Lemonis well work through it. You feel better . David im fine. Lemonis you feel better . Great. All right. David yep. Lemonis thank you. David really appreciate it. Lemonis thank you. David thanks, lisa. Lisa thank you. Lemonis today is a big day for mr. Corys cookies because amazon is really working to help Small Businesses establish their own market place with a landing page that promotes their story and their products. If mr. Corys can convince amazon that theyre a good fit, this could be a multiMillion Dollar partnership. Lisa so, cory, when you go in there, have confidence in yourself and show yourself that you have this, not all this. Cory yeah. Okay. Lisa okay . All right. Sallie ann welcome. Lemonis hi, there. How are you . Sallie ann so good to see you. Welcome to amazon. Were gonna come this way. Cory yeah. Come on. Sallie ann yeah, please. Cory aw, cool. Lemonis the reason that we came here today is they have really decided to focus on small business. Sallie ann were a small team, and we actually help Small Businesses grow and succeed on amazon. Lemonis and become big businesses. Sallie ann and become big. Lemonis this is your show, buddy. Cory so our mission is helping the world one cookie at a time. To never add any wacky ingredients we cannot pronounce. Our Retail Market is 75 . The cookies are 120 calories, and thats not bad. Lemonis cory, that was a pretty good summary. Cory thank you. Sallie ann how many flavors do you have . Cory four basics. Lemonis and then this is the new packaging. Lisa were gonna have a cartoonage of mr. Cory. Cory mmhmm. And it gives, like, a little story in the back. Sallie ann very nice. Lemonis take a bite of one. Sallie ann ooh. Jennifer excellent. These are really good. Lisa our goal is to hire 70 single moms in the workforce field who are inexperienced because me, as a single mom, i never got to get a good job. If you want your child to be the best they can be, you put them first. Imagine hiring people like that who dont have that degree and all this other stuff, but we can help them by giving them a chance. Sallie ann tell your story. I think thats so important. You speak to every mom out there, and i think thats an important piece of the story. Sallie ann yeah. Jennifer it sells me as a mom. Sallie ann lisa telling it, i mean, its so powerful when you tell it, and i think on amazon, we want to bring that to life. Well help you with marketing. Well help you as you on board. Give you consultants to kind of help you navigate the big amazon landscape. Were like an extension of your team. Lemonis i thought lisa did great. She went from somebody feeling like she didnt belong somewhere, to sitting in a Conference Room at amazons new york headquarters basically saying, were entrepreneurs. Lets do business together. Thank you very much. Jennifer thanks so much. Sallie ann yeah. Thank you, marcus. Lemonis after meeting with amazon, i asked cory and lisa to meet me in downtown englewood. There was some Unfinished Business i wanted to discuss. We are gonna look at office spaces, right . So walk me through the whole office idea that you guys have. Lisa lets say we have new accounts, new clients, its not gonna look good. You cant come to my house, and people are gonna starbucks or coffee shops, which is what we currently do. Lemonis what do you think, cory . Cory i think we need it because were gonna need customer service, too, when we get online. Were gonna need an account department to get accounts. Lemonis so lets just look at it, and then next week, at the end of the week, we can make a decision. Cory okay. Lemonis is that fair . Cory yeah. Cool. Lisa sure. Thank you. Cory oh, my god. [ laughing ] lemonis for exclusives, extras, and business advice, visit theprofit. Cnbc. Com. Cory oh, my god. [ laughs ] lisa oh, my god. This is my office. Cory amazing. Oh, they have cookies look at that lisa thank you. Cory wow. Lisa this is real. I cant believe somebody like me really got an office. Cory yeah. Lisa i got an office cory im out of here. Lisa im sorry. Cookie mom got an office woman camera up here. Im here. Lisa i dont care. They got to hear that. She said, good for you. Lemonis she did . Lisa she did. She said, good for you. Lemonis so this office cost 3,200 a month. If the margins are 75 , how much revenue do you have to do . My experience with cory has been unbelievable. Hes far more engaged, and he understands the magnitude of what were doing. And while i dont totally believe him, he says he likes math now. Can we sell 100 a day . Cory mmhmm. Over. Lemonis do you know how many i think we can sell . 500 . 1,000 minimum. Cory i think we can. Lemonis were gonna be rolling in some dough. Cory yeah lemonis you like that . Lisa rolling in some dough. Lemonis you like that . Cory yeah. Lemonis you like that . Ive been waiting for about a month to say that to you. Cory yeah . Lemonis i think through the process, what i enjoyed more than anything else is watching cory and lisa really evolve into Business Owners. I have one favor to ask. Just one. When i first met you, you doubted a lot, and so all i ask out of this whole relationship is other people who think like you used to think, that you help convince them that anything is possible. We run a good business. We take care of the business. We take care of our customers, but that we tell other people when they say to you, its not possible, you say to them, im an example. Its possible. And you have to really be a leader and show people that. Thats why i invested in you because i felt like you earned the shot, and you are one unbelievable mother. Lisa thank you. Lemonis i guess most importantly, i wanted both of them to know that they are worthy, and they deserve to be here. This is for you. Youve earned it. Thats your key. And i have a very strong feeling that in years to come, this thing is gonna be huge. Its time to run a business. Cory wahoo lemonis okay . Lisa thank you. Thanks. We got an office we got an office, we got an office cory oh. Mom, look. Headphones. You guy. Justin as much as we can. Ray yep. [ laughs ] lemonis at a sportsapparel business in illinois, the product is topnotch. Justin sun protection. Ray completely custom shirt. Lemonis but somethings fishy. Why am i here . Katie well, youre here because the business is out of money. Lemonis the facility is quite literally a sweat shop. Katie it gets really hot in here. Lemonis no ac in here. Katie no ac. Lemonis the employees are up in arms. Marci i actually have a video of a friday afternoon i think you would probably find pretty interesting. Lemonis and one of the owners has a troubling side gig. Ray im going to say what every other man wants to say that doesnt have the balls do to it. Lemonis if i cant get them to make some radical changes to their culture. I am a big believer that you are who you do business with