CowPots left the Shark Tank stage with what looked like a $200,000 investment from Kevin O’Leary. The deal was for 20% of the company, after Amanda Freund refused to give up more equity.
It never actually happened.
That detail changes the usual Shark Tank update. In November 2025, Freund told the Journal of Nutrient Management that she and O’Leary completed their post-show due diligence but ultimately did not make a deal. The company was still operating, however, and in March 2026, The News-Times reported that CowPots was pursuing a new use for its manure fibers: making paper. (jofnm.com)
So the current CowPots story is less about a failed Shark investment and more about a family farm that kept building a business without one.
CowPots asked for $200,000 for 10% of the company
Amanda Freund appeared on Shark Tank on April 4, 2025, representing CowPots, the biodegradable plant pots developed by her family in East Canaan, Connecticut.
Her ask was straightforward: $200,000 for 10% equity.
The business had already been around for nearly two decades. Freund's father, Matthew, began experimenting with turning composted cow manure into plant pots after the family was looking for better ways to manage the manure produced by its dairy operation. The first CowPots went to market in 2006. (jofnm.com)
The product is exactly what the name suggests, although the manufacturing process is more sophisticated than the joke implies. CowPots are formed from composted manure fibers, along with recycled paper and cardboard, and are designed to be planted directly into the soil. The pot breaks down while the plant's roots grow through the walls. (cowpots.com)
By the time Freund reached the Tank, CowPots had 15 styles of pots and trays and were selling through distributors, retailers and directly through the company's website. (cowpots.com)
The numbers she presented to the Sharks were modest by Shark Tank standards. CowPots had generated roughly $3.5 million in lifetime sales, while recent annual revenue was in the $300,000-to-$400,000 range. Those figures come from accounts of the televised pitch rather than audited financial statements, so they are best treated as the company's figures presented on the show, not independently verified revenue data. (sharktankblog.com)
That relatively small revenue ceiling became the central objection from several Sharks.
Kevin O’Leary offered $200,000, but wanted 25%
Most of the Sharks passed.
Daniel Lubetzky did not see a role for himself in the business. Mark Cuban questioned whether CowPots could break through its existing sales ceiling. Lori Greiner and Barbara Corcoran also declined.
Kevin O'Leary was the exception.
O'Leary's interest made some sense. Freund was not pitching only a garden pot. She was also showing prototypes for packaging made from the same material, including packaging intended to protect wine bottles and other fragile products during shipping.
O'Leary works in packaging, so the possibility of taking a farm waste product into a much larger packaging market was more relevant to him than it was to the other Sharks. (ctinsider.com)
His first offer was $200,000 for 25%.
Freund countered at 20%. O'Leary moved to 22.5%. Freund held her ground.
Eventually, O'Leary accepted the original 20% figure, and the episode ended with the two appearing to have reached a deal: $200,000 for 20% of CowPots. Contemporary Connecticut coverage reported the agreement as a completed Shark Tank deal. (ctinsider.com)
That is also why many online CowPots updates still say Kevin O'Leary invested $200,000.
But that is not what ultimately happened.
The $200,000 CowPots deal with Kevin O’Leary did not close
The clearest account comes from Amanda Freund herself.
In a November 2025 profile published by the Journal of Nutrient Management, Freund said that she and O'Leary went through the due-diligence process after filming, but the deal was not completed. She said the family was comfortable with that outcome. (jofnm.com)
That distinction matters because the agreement shown on Shark Tank is not necessarily the same thing as a finalized investment. Deals reached on camera can be subject to due diligence and later negotiations.
CowPots is therefore not a confirmed Kevin O'Leary portfolio investment based on the latest first-person account available from the company.
Freund also put the decision in the context of the family business. CowPots was not a startup created specifically to chase venture capital. It was part of her family's farming operation.
“This operation is not a start-up,” Freund said in the 2025 interview. “This is my dad’s legacy.” (jofnm.com)
That helps explain why giving away 20% or more of the business was a meaningful decision.
CowPots did get something valuable from Shark Tank: exposure
The episode was not a commercial failure simply because the investment disappeared.
Freund told the Journal of Nutrient Management that CowPots experienced a bump in sales after the episode aired, although she described the increase as brief. She was nevertheless grateful for the exposure. (jofnm.com)
The company's own website continues to sell CowPots directly, with products available in 15 styles ranging from small seed-starting pots to larger containers and trays. The site also lists distributors and retailers. (cowpots.com)
The company's retailer page provides another useful signal that CowPots remains an operating commercial product rather than a Shark Tank curiosity that disappeared after its episode. The company says one of its retail customers has seen CowPots sales increase by about 15% annually, although that is a customer testimonial rather than a company-wide audited growth figure. (cowpots.com)
And the current website is actively selling product. It says all 15 styles are manufactured on the family farm in Connecticut and are in stock for shipping. (cowpots.com)
The bigger CowPots story is moving beyond flower pots
The most interesting development came after the failed Shark deal.
In March 2026, The News-Times reported that CowPots had received a $23,255 Connecticut Department of Agriculture Farm Transition grant to investigate commercial paper-making techniques and technologies, along with additives that could make certain CowPots products compliant with organic standards. (newstimes.com)
The paper project had already moved beyond a theoretical idea. Freund said CowPots worked with the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry to turn dairy-farm manure into four-foot rolls of paper that could be used as biodegradable mulch. (newstimes.com)
That is a considerably different proposition from selling biodegradable seedling pots.
The underlying resource is the same: the fiber left over after the farm's manure-processing system separates solids from liquid. The Freund family has spent decades finding ways to turn that material into something useful. CowPots was the first commercial expression of the idea, not necessarily the last.
The company now appears to be asking a larger question: what else can these fibers become?
CowPots is still a family-farm business, not a vanished Shark Tank brand
There is another important piece of the update that gets lost in simplified Shark Tank recaps.
The Freund family no longer owns the dairy herd itself in the way it once did. In 2022, another farming partnership acquired the 300-cow herd and leases the farm facilities from the Freunds. The Freund family continues to manage the manure stream and the CowPots operation. (jofnm.com)
The CowPots factory remains on the Canaan View Dairy property, alongside Freund's Farm Market & Bakery. Production runs five days a week for roughly half the year, with employees shifting to the family's retail business during the spring and summer. (jofnm.com)
The company's current website likewise describes CowPots as a family-owned operation manufacturing biodegradable pots on its Connecticut farm. It is not presenting itself as a venture-backed company or as a business built around Kevin O'Leary's investment. (cowpots.com)
There is still an infrastructure problem in the background. The family's anaerobic digester, which supplies the fiber used for CowPots, is extremely old and no longer operates at its former capacity. Freund has been exploring a replacement, but replacing it would be a substantial investment for a farm of this size. (jofnm.com)
That is a much more revealing constraint than the fact that a Shark Tank deal fell apart.
So, whatever happened to CowPots after Shark Tank?
CowPots did not close the $200,000 investment deal with Kevin O'Leary, despite the on-air agreement for 20% equity.
The company itself is still operating in 2026. Its products remain available through its website and retail distribution, and its Connecticut manufacturing operation is active. More importantly, the Freund family is using the business as a platform for experimenting with other products made from dairy manure fibers, including paper and biodegradable mulch. (newstimes.com)
The Shark deal made for a satisfying television ending: $200,000, 20%, handshake, celebration.
The real ending was quieter.
The money never arrived. The business stayed with the family. And the same strange idea that started with a dairy farmer wondering whether cow manure could become a flower pot is now being tested as something much broader: a source of renewable fiber for products that might otherwise be made from plastic, foam or other non-renewable materials.
