BUFFALO, N.Y. — It’s been five years since Lloyd Taco Truck competed for investment dollars as part of the CNBC show “Restaurant Startup,” and Peter Cimino has a few regrets.
Lloyd Taco competed against another food truck business that wanted to open a bricks-and-mortar site and won. On the show, Lloyd Taco agreed to give up 25% of the business for a $250,000 investment to fund a site on Elmwood Avenue. But the deal never happened, Cimino and his business partner, Chris Dorsaneo, backed out.
“We thought we would be selling ourselves short for what the final offer was,” Cimino said. “We shook hands on the show and did the deal, but there is a due diligence period after the show. We met twice in New York but couldn’t get it to where we wanted it to be.”
