Rebel Cheese

Rebel Cheese makes artisan-style vegan cheeses using traditional methods like culturing and cave aging, but with plant-based ingredients instead of dairy. The Texas-based company was founded by Kirsten Maitland and Fred Zwar, who approached vegan cheese as a craft product rather than a meltable substitute, building a range meant to satisfy people who actually miss real cheese boards. Their cheeses aim for the texture, tang, and complexity that most plant-based options never reach.

Maitland and Zwar walked into Season 15 asking for 750,000 dollars for 5 percent, a valuation near 15 million that reflected their premium positioning. Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner saw the upside in high-end plant-based food and teamed up, ultimately closing at 750,000 dollars for 10 percent. The negotiation centered on growth potential and margins in a fast-growing category, and the founders accepted the two-shark offer at the adjusted equity.

Rebel Cheese stood out by treating vegan cheese as a delicacy rather than a diet compromise. The cave-aging and culturing process gave the products a credibility most plant-based brands cannot claim, appealing to food lovers as much as to vegans. Pairing two complementary sharks, Cuban's scaling instincts and Greiner's retail and product muscle, also signaled that the brand had backing to push well beyond its specialty roots.

The episode drove a clear sales surge, with the company reporting strong overall growth and a large jump in e-commerce orders in the period after airing. The founders used the exposure to widen distribution and raise the brand's profile, including national press coverage that highlighted its rapid growth and mission. That momentum helped move Rebel Cheese from a niche favorite toward broader retail availability.

As of 2026 Rebel Cheese is still operating and selling. Coverage indicates its products are carried in hundreds of physical stores nationwide along with multiple e-commerce outlets, and the brand has added new retail partners over time. It continues to position itself at the premium end of the plant-based aisle, leaning on its craft cheesemaking approach as the thing that separates it from mass-market vegan cheese.