Scrub Daddy is one of the most successful products (Pitch) from Shark Tank.
It is a cleaning tools company which is best known for a sponge that it manufactures in the shape of a smiley face called ‘scrub daddy’. The USP of the product is that it is made of a polymer which changes texture – soft in hot water, hard in cold water.
As of 2019, Scrub Daddy had the highest revenue of any product successfully pitched on the ABC reality show Shark Tank.
About the Founder, Its story and Product
Like many entrepreneurs, Aaron Krause’s story has humble beginnings, starting in the 90s with a small car-washing business which grew into a sizeable US-based company selling car buffing pads all over the world. He had an entrepreneurial and inventor mindset from the very beginning and always wanted to create something really innovative.
Scrub Daddy is a company that was founded in 2008 by Krause and Business Mogul Lori Greiner, after the latter invested in it in the fourth season of the famous reality show- ‘Shark Tank’. The company sells smiley-faced dish washing sponges that changes its texture and feel depending on the temperature of the water. The features of this sponge is that it is scratch-free and odour resistant, as well as dishwasher-safe. The sponge gets hard in cold water and soft in warm.
More about Krause
Krause graduated from Syracuse University in 1992, with a major in Psychology and a minor in Marketing. In his early days, Krause ran his own business detailing cars that turned into a brief success in 1994 in the small town of Bala Cynwyd, in Pennsylvania. While he was working in the production department at the company, he damaged a car as he was machine polishing and that got him to invent a new kind of buffing pad, which was acquired by the 3M Corporation in 2008.
Krause had always had a bone for invention and even as a child, would be constantly inventing in his room, much to the vexation of his family. Thus, a show like Shark Tank served as the perfect platform for him to showcase his talents.
Krause came up with the idea behind ‘Scrub Daddy’ in the strangest way. During his days of manufacturing buffing pads for cars, working with the chemicals in the factory would often get his hands scrubby and greasy. He thus initially began to formulate the concept of the Scrub Daddy sponges for cleaning hands purposes, and after toying around with several different materials, found the perfect combination for it. But his eureka moment took place another day-
“I took some Scrub Daddy sponges home to wash my deck furniture and left one in the sink. At home, my wife cooks, and I do the dishes. I used the Scrub Daddy to wash the dishes, and the skies opened up. I realized I missed the boat. This thing had nothing to do with scrubbing your hands. It was the greatest kitchen sponge I ever used,” he said.
Turnaround Moment (Season Four of Shark Tank)
When Krause took part in the Season Four of Shark Tank, he didn’t know if his product was strong enough to sell to the investors. But the tides were turned in his favour and one of the ‘Sharks’, Lori Greiner, also called ‘The Queen of QVC’, saw some potential in his product and made him a deal of $200,000 in return for a 20 per cent equity. She even helped him expand his product line by bringing Scrub Daddy into QVC and stores like Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart and Target, where they have become best-sellers.
On being asked about co-partnering Scrub Daddy with Greiner, Krause said- “Our goal is to have this in every supermarket, drug store chain and major retailer in the country and in the world. I’ve already been contacted by probably 20 countries since “Shark Tank” aired. They want to be distributers of the product.”
Krause emphasizes on the need to make your product unique and to sell it the right way. In the case of Scrub Daddy sponges, his pitch was-
It had been tested on all surfaces- like glass, ceramics, plastic, stainless steel and non-stick cookware and it didn’t scratch any of these surfaces.
It is dishwasher and machine-washer safe, rinse-clean and always comes back yellow.
It shows no odours and no aesthetic changes to the product.
Finally, the ‘eye-hole’ feature of the sponge, through which you can put your fingers which makes the sponge stay on your hand instead of you having to hold onto it. This would also allow greater access to cleaning the sides and bottoms of the various utensils, which otherwise often lead a spot.
The fact that one can endorse an idea as simple as making a smiley-shaped sponge (USP: more durable, hygienic and effective than a traditional sponge) that can be turned into a multi-million business, goes to show that if you play your cards right, the world will invest in your idea too. Krause’s philosophy towards all entrepreneurs is much the same- to believe in your product and make it the best.
Scrub Daddy is made from a strong “high-tech polymer”. The texture changes in water: hard in cold, soft in hot. The original product is yellow. Krause has two patents on its design.
Its Other Products –
Krause has launched other sponges in the Scrub Daddy line, including products in multiple colors, lemon-scented, Scrub Daddy Heavy Duty, and Scrub Mommy – half Scrub Daddy material and half foam sponge. The Scrub Daisy has also been added to its lineup.
