No one expected this 'Shark Tank' founder to deliver the most iconic pitch in all of its 16 seasons
Simply having an innovative product and an impressive pitch to bag an investment on “Shark Tank” doesn't guarantee success for a business. Some of the firms that bag deals on the show go on to make it big, while some crash and burn. When it comes to one of the best products to have ever come out of the show, Scrub Daddy is definitely one of the names right up there. The company’s founder is a man named Aaron Krause, who came to the show asking for $100,000 for a 10% stake.
At the time of recording, the company had made sales of just over $100,000 within four months of hitting the market. His pitch on the show got a good response, but offers were hard to come by at first. Robbery Herjavec and Mark Cuban both backed out as neither of them saw the product’s value in the retail space. However, the three remaining sharks, Daymond John, Kevin O’Leary, and Lori Greiner, all saw value in the product, so much so that a bidding war started. Mr. Wonderful offered one of his classic royalty deals, but the upside was that he was not going to take any part of the company. It started with 50 cents per unit until he made back his $100,000, which would then drop to 10 cents perpetually.
John and Greiner offered deals that would see them take a part of the company, but they kept bidding to one-up each other. One shark would offer $150,000, and the other would go up to $175,000. In the end, when Greiner offered $200,000 for 25%, her rival decided to back out. O’Leary now stepped in and reduced his royalty fee from 50 cents per unit to 25 cents.
Krause then asked if Greiner would be willing to go down to 20% for $200,000. This was agreeable for the shark, and hence, one of the most historic deals in “Shark Tank” history was struck. According to a 2024 report in Screen Rant, Scrub Daddy went on to hit sales of more than $670 million ever since it came on the popular reality TV show. Greiner had struck gold, and she knew that this product would do wonders.
She made a hundred times more than what she had invested, perhaps even more, and she deserves every bit of it. Krause only had kind words for the celebrity investor when asked about her later on. “She’s not human! I’ll send her an email at 2 in the morning, and she’ll reply,” he had said about the shark according to a report in Collider.
It didn’t take long for Grenier to work her magic, either. As per the report, Scrub Daddy went from being only in a few supermarkets to having a strong presence in 17 in a little more than a decade after its appearance on “Shark Tank.”
