Muddy Paws Cheesecake takes $40,000 order, advice from reality TV's Marcus Lemonis

Muddy Paws Cheesecake closed last week under the weight of nearly $500,000 in debt, a public plea for donations the only potential lifeline for the 30-year-old St. Louis Park business.

Owner Tami Cabrera hoped for contributions from customers, maybe some fellow small businesses. Camping World CEO and TV personality Marcus Lemonis placing a $40,000 order and sharing it with his more than 650,000 followers on X, formerly Twitter, was not part of the comeback plan.

"I haven't stopped typing since last Wednesday," Cabrera said of the increased attention on social media.

It was Muddy Paws' last day in business when Lemonis first posted about the Twin Cities dessert shop saying he'd buy a cake for several followers that reposted his message on X, Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook.

He followed up with questions about shipping and packaging, labor and materials costs, plus a deeper explanation of why a private business needed to solicit donations to cover half of a $480,000 debt. If those answers were "good," he promised to chip in another $10,000 on top of his $40,000 order.

He later offered to hire someone to create a new Muddy Paws website. And he set up a Tuesday night livestream on Instagram (where he has 1.3 million followers) with Cabrera to do an honest coaching session on what went wrong and what could be next.

"Ultimately, it's really trying to fix her business," Lemonis said, "not save her business."

Lemonis said he learned of Cabrera's troubles on X. He hosted "The Profit," a reality TV show where he helped struggling small businesses, for eight seasons on CNBC and has become known for giving away money and supporting entrepreneurs via his social accounts.

"I want them to show me how they're going to solve this," Lemonis said of Muddy Paws.

Without Lemonis, Muddy Paws has raised $16,500 in donations as Cabrera targets a potential reopening Jan. 20. But she said she is bringing back staff to fulfill Lemonis' order. Based on her current prices, Cabrera said $40,000 would buy about 600 cheesecakes, give or take variables for shipping and packaging.

Cabrera said she viewed this encounter with Lemonis as an opportunity to learn and make her business better. Lemonis said after a quick study of Cabrera's business, he already has some suggestions, like working with Shopify, which makes ecommerce software. On the Instagram stream Tuesday, he stressed the importance of a better online ordering system and claimed he could improve it by this Friday.

Also on the broadcast, Lemonis emphasized simplifying the business, raising some prices and sharply trimming the number of flavors Muddy Paws offers.

"You should be able to run a business off of eight flavors, not 222," Lemonis said.

Cabrera suggested the economy was hurting sales because some customers consider cheesecake a luxury item, but Lemonis didn't buy it.

"The reason you closed is you were running out of capital," Lemonis said.

As CEO of Illinois-based Camping World Holdings Inc., the largest retailer of recreational vehicles in the U.S., Lemonis acquired the bankrupt St. Paul-based Gander Mountain chain and its Overton's boating business in 2017 for about $38 million. But the brand has since retired, with any remaining stores under the Gander name converted to Camping World locations, Lemonis said.