Veronica Shaw, the TikTok creator behind the notorious Pink Sauce sensation last year, said that she hasn't been paid by sauce company Dave's Gourmet after they took her viral creation to Walmart stores nationwide.
In a GoFundMe campaign launched last week, Shaw claimed that she is broke because the company that helped her sauce go legitimate isn't holding up its end of the bargain. "As a young entrepreneur with big dreams, I followed my intuition and went forth toward my dreams to create something new," she wrote in the campaign, which has a goal of $100,000. "I made a few mistakes on the way. Which lead me to trust a company that is trying to take everything away from me. They lied to me. They are not paying me and are not being transparent about records."
She accused the company, which she doesn't name directly but is almost certainly Dave's Gourmet due to the deal she struck with them last year, of failing to reimburse her for marketing expenses that came out of her own pocket. "I have been silienced and financially sabotaged," she continued. "I am a single mom and I do everything for my kids. Right now I don't even have enough money to buy my kids food on my own."
In a statement shared with Blavity, a representative for Dave's Gourmet denied Shaw's accusations. “Dave’s Gourmet has adhered to the terms of the agreement with Ms. Shaw. We disagree with Ms. Shaw’s allegations,” the statement reads. “Dave’s Gourmet has paid Chef Pii over $120,000 to date and it continues to make all payments as due and on time based upon the terms of the contract. We’ve offered to reimburse Ms. Shaw for her lawyer’s time to go over the terms of the agreement and how it relates to the payments that were made to Ms. Shaw. She indicated that she’s open to an amicable resolution of the dispute and the parties are in discussions."
The initial version of the sauce was controversial after it proved it wasn't FDA-approved, which Shaw suggested at one point that it didn't need to be because it wasn't a medicinal product. There were also reports of the sauce exploding in the mail, which was all the more distressing to customers because it cost $20 a bottle. All the viral attention eventually led to Dave's Gourmet partnering with Shaw to bring the sauce to Walmart, across over 4,300 stores and online. The sauce was launched earlier this year and concluded its availability in July.
“Our R&D team was able to re-formulate the sauce to match Chef Pii’s exact color and flavor profile for the product and at the same time change some of the ingredients to make the sauce less complicated, dairy-free, and clean of any preservatives, artificial colors or flavors," said Dave's Gourmet president David Neuman upon announcing the partnership last year. "The public will end up receiving a shelf-stable version of the sensational sauce than Chef Pii envisioned in her Miami kitchen."
