‘Billion-dollar idea’: Las Vegas cafe owner to pitch her brand on ‘Shark Tank’

Dina Mitchell was determined to make it onto “Shark Tank.”

What made the Las Vegas entrepreneur think she was a good candidate to pitch her business on the ABC series?

“Well, I know I am,” she says. “For a fact.”

Mitchell spent 15 years building a brand as the owner of the rights to Tropical Smoothie Cafes in Nevada and Southern California. She launched PowerSoul Cafe, a certified gluten-free fast-food concept, with three valley locations in 2024.

She sent her first video application to “Shark Tank” in December that year.

“As a female, you have hair and makeup, and you wanna look great,” Mitchell says. “And you’re a perfectionist on top of it, you know. I was shooting it sometimes, like, 20, 30, 40 times, where you’re just exhausted. Then you submit it, and they’re like, ‘OK, great. But we want you to redo it.’ ”

Mitchell figures she repeated that process maybe eight times before the show’s producers were satisfied.

A billion-dollar idea

“I loved what I did with Tropical Smoothie, but I’m in love with PowerSoul Cafe,” she says. “Because what I did is, I took everything I knew and did successfully, and I took it apart and put it all back together, rethinking every single step.”

After selling her Tropical Smoothie Cafe interests in 2015, Mitchell spent the five years of her noncompete clause traveling the world and researching. She’s gluten-free by choice and realized during her journeys just how few true gluten-free options existed, especially in the fast-food space.

Things finally clicked in New Zealand where, Mitchell says, gluten-free food “was just a part of everyday life, and they did it so beautifully.”

She spent the COVID lockdowns in her kitchen, learning traditional recipes and trying to convert them into gluten-free vegan options. If that didn’t work, she’d settle for just gluten-free, which was possible with most recipes.

Once the specifics became clearer, Mitchell created a spreadsheet for the financials.

“I put it all in and literally my heart beat out of my chest where I had to turn off my computer and go lay down. I was like, ‘Holy blank, I blank did it,’ ” she says, as though auditioning to be a “Match Game” host. “ ‘This is it. This is a billion-dollar idea.’ ”

A safe place to eat

Those billion-dollar ideas, though, don’t come cheap.

“Our pizzas are made with ingredients imported from Italy (that are) grown without pesticides,” Mitchell says. “Our fresh mozzarella is made from small little farms all over Europe — some farms as little as just 10 cows grazing on grass without pesticides — produced Old World-style without citric acid.”

The recyclable, reusable, compostable packaging also adds to the expense, as do the words “certified gluten-free.”

“Oats grow next to wheat. Even though they’re naturally gluten-free, I can’t buy those oats,” Mitchell explains. “I have to make sure that they are certified gluten-free, they are not grown next to wheat, that they’re also … not made on equipment that’s shared with wheat.”

Those standards increase the cost of her ingredients threefold, Mitchell says, but it’s worth it to provide an outlet for people with celiac disease and other autoimmune conditions.

“People with food disabilities deserve a safe place to eat, and that is what I’m doing,” she says. “And I’m doing it 24 hours a day with a drive-thru.”

Hard work pays off

Mitchell made it through to the final “Shark Tank” cut but was placed on the show’s standby list. If something happened to enough of the other entrepreneurs, producers said they’d reach out.

“It didn’t feel real,” she says of the rejection. “It didn’t feel like that was the end result.”

Mitchell told producers she was willing to wait in the show’s green room, camera-ready with all her products, every day of shooting on the off chance someone didn’t show up.

They eventually found room for her. Mitchell’s episode was recorded in June and is scheduled to air at 10 p.m. Wednesday, April 15.

Regardless of whether she’s able to attract investors among the show’s Sharks, she’s thrilled to be able to expand awareness of the brand.

“In my mind, God doesn’t give away billion-dollar companies,” Mitchell says. “You have to work for it.”

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.