Where Is Smart Plate From Shark Tank Season 7 Today?

Fitly CEO and SmartPlate entrepreneur Anthony Ortiz had a scare in 2001 when his father had to have triple bypass surgery. His doctors told him that his condition could have been avoided if he followed a healthy diet and exercised. That's what inspired Ortiz to start his company Fitly and develop the idea of an easier way for people to track the portions, calories, and macronutrients of food. Enter SmartPlate, a device that weighs your food and uses three cameras to identify thousands of foods. Ortiz created a Kickstarter campaign to help him fund the prototype for SmartPlate. It raised more than $110,000 through its 576 supporters.

The Kickstarter campaign attracted "Shark Tank's" attention (via Philadelphia Magazine). With a basic prototype of SmartPlate, Ortiz sent Martin Dell'Arciprete in 2015 to make the pitch to the Sharks.  Dell'Arciprete asked for a $1 million investment for a 15% stake in the company. The Sharks were turned off by the fact that the SmartPlate device was still in the works and Dell'Arciprete couldn't demonstrate it. With the three cameras, the Sharks said there were too many moving pieces for the food scale. Mark Cuban and guest Shark Chris Sacca had issues with the device's technology (via Shark Tank Recap). They also scoffed at the hefty $199 price. Even Barbara Corcoran said that the pitch was terrible and confusing (via Philadelphia Magazine).

No Sharks offered a deal for SmartPlate, but Ortiz created an Indiegogo campaign for the product to help with its development and launch. It raised more than $158,000. The product didn't have the three cameras originally pitched on Shark Tank; instead, it relied on the camera on your smartphone to recognize the different foods on the plate. The pitch for the campaign says the AI instantly detects more than 1,000 foods through the app. The app is also linked to 625 national restaurant chain menus and more than 10,000 meals. Motivational speaker and consultant Tony Robbins also partnered with SmartPlate, praising its "accuracy and extensive database" (via PR News Wire).

Fitly began shipping SmartPlate to users in the United States in late 2021, but it was only compatible with the iPhone. Ortiz had posted updates saying the Android version would be available by 2021, but as of this writing, it still isn't. International backers on the Indiegogo campaign posted their frustrations about investing in the company and not receiving their product years later. 

Philadelphia Magazine said that SmartPlate negotiated deals with Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Amazon, and Jet.com. But Bed Bath & Beyond went bankrupt in the spring of 2023, and Walmart acquired Jet.com in 2016. Meanwhile, SmartPlate is currently unavailable on Amazon, and there are no customer ratings or posts on its Amazon store. It's also not available at Target.

You can find the free SmartPlate app on the iPhone's App Store, where it rates a 4 out of 5. The app seems to work without the SmartPlate device itself, and some users are having problems connecting the plate with the app. People like that the SmartPlate app tracks macronutrients in addition to calories, but others don't like that there are persistent user glitches.

You won't find much SmartPlate activity on social media. SmartPlate appeared on X (formerly Twitter) in 2015 but hasn't posted since 2019. It has 693 followers. SmartPlate's Instagram account has more than 19,000 followers, and the posts emphasize the SmartPlate app and portion control rather than the scale. Comments on the posts focus on the photos or the caption rather than how the app or the food scale works. Moreover, there haven't been any posts since December 2022.

The SmartPlate website markets both the plate and the app as a bundle. You can still find the SmartPlate scale for $199 — the original price pitched to the Sharks — but it's advertised as a discounted price valued at $499. The monthly premium membership costs $30 a month, but you can get the first 30 days for free. However, the SmartPlate app is free on the App Store. SmartPlate promises its customers that being a member means they'll lose 20 pounds in six weeks and "keep it off for good without counting calories." Otherwise, the website says you can get your money back. Membership also gives you two fat-loss guides and a calorie-counting guide. The website is also marketing an elite coaching program so you can work with a nutrition coach, but the link doesn't work.

Fitly CEO and SmartPlate entrepreneur Anthony Ortiz's personal account on X says he's the CEO of Fitly but mostly mentions blockchains and NFT. As for Martin Dell'Arciprete, the guy who originally pitched SmartPlate on Shark Tank? Ortiz actually fired him before the Shark Tank episode aired in February 2016. Ortiz said it was "other performance issues," but Dell'Arciprete believed it had something to do with what happened on Shark Tank. Dell'Arciprete said he had shared his concerns about the product with the CEO before the pitch. According to his LinkedIn profile, he's now a Regional Marketing Manager at Wawa.