Who is Jim Tselikis?
Jim Tselikis grew up in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, around lobster boats and family lobster bakes. He attended the College of the Holy Cross and worked in Boston selling orthopedic medical devices. In 2011, on a visit to Los Angeles, he and his cousin Sabin Lomac got talking about the Maine food they grew up on and decided to bring lobster rolls to LA's food truck scene. They launched their first truck on April 27, 2012, keeping their day jobs at first, and pitched on Shark Tank three months later.
Barbara Corcoran invested $55,000 and pushed them toward franchising. Tselikis focused on production, fulfillment and logistics as the company expanded from four Southern California trucks in 2014 to franchised trucks in more than a dozen states, with its first restaurant opening in West Hollywood in 2015. The cousins hosted Food Network's Food Truck Rehab, which premiered in 2021. Cousins Maine Lobster has grown to about 100 trucks and restaurants nationwide, and in September 2026 the cousins published Life and Lobster, a book about building the business.
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