The Success Story of Scrub Daddy

The following is not a paid advertisement. Scrub Daddy is the only sponge that changes texture just based on the temperature of the water. That means it could be a soft sponge or a hard sponge in hot or cold water. Now when it's soft, it gets all the way into cups, bowls and mugs. And when it's hard, it can scrub through even the most burned on messes in seconds. And cut! But did you know the real story behind that smiley face? Well, you're about to find out in this next episode of The Ground Up. That man you just saw was Aaron Krause, founder and CEO of Scrub Daddy, the smiley face sponge company that started in Folcroft, Pennsylvania, and has filled cleaning shelves since the episode of Shark Tank aired in October 2012. And since then, they moved to an enormous facility in Pennsauken, New Jersey that features office spaces, a television studio, a warehouse, Koi pond, and a store for people to buy their products. Some kids that we encountered in the shop acted like it was Christmas Day. No, I just play one on TV. And ready guys? Cleaning is something that is mundane and is boring and people don't enjoy. And when you make it more fun and you make it really effective, you have something that really clicks with people's psyche. And Scrub Daddy is actually my hand. The original Scrub Daddy runs for $4 at stores and on their website, but select products can run as high as $38. And if you think you've met every product from the sponge dynasty, think again. We even put Aaron to the test. We make Daddy, Mommy, Sponge, Scour, Eraser, Dish Daddy, PowerPaste, Barbecue Daddy, Scour Daddy Steel, Straw Cleaner, Microfiber towels, Streakless Cloths, Scrub Daddy Cif, Scrub Daddy toilet scrubbing system, Tangerine Clean, PowErase Gel. Believe it or not, Aaron missed a few. There's also Big Daddy, Daddy Caddy, Sponge Caddy, Soap Daddy, Cart Daddy and Screen Daddy. That's a long way of saying that there's a ton of products in the Daddy family, over 80 as of today. And with all of these products online and on store shelves, the company has racked in over $220 million in sales for 2023 with no sign of slowing down. We have the best sponge in the world. It's worth every dime that we charge for it. And the profit that we make on it sustains this business and is what's led us to grow so rapidly, because we're able to reinvest over and over and come out with new products. But how did Aaron and Scrub Daddy get here? Well, let's rewind back to when he was just a little kid in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Both of my parents are physicians. At 10 years old, my dad started teaching me to wash the dishes, which is actually how I end up being in a sponge company. I was about 10 years old and I was laying in bed and I was, like, staring at the light switch going, "Oh my God, I need a way to turn that off." The next day I got a bunch of wheel casters and dental floss because that was the longest piece of rope I could find. And I hooked up this whole pulley system so I could turn the lights on and off from my bed. And that was, like, the first time I realized that I could come up with a crazy idea, build something and change my world. And from then, I literally started looking at the world completely different. Before the Daddy of the Scrub Daddy was making his fortune washing dishes and kitchenware, he was making money washing something much bigger. I've been washing cars since I was a kid. Became a professional car washer when my dad told me I could make $10 a car. Started washing cars in the neighborhood. I had been washing cars throughout all of high school to make money. And I just decided I was just going to start my own car washing business. Aaron went on to Syracuse University and graduated with a degree in psychology. In October 1992, he returned home to start his car washing business. While he was proud to be his own boss, some of his family didn't receive the news too well. My dad said "You know, son. I just paid $100,000 for your education in psychology. What are you going to do with your life?" I said, "Well, I've been washing cars my whole life. I think I'll wash cars." My mom was crying. My grandmom said, "Just disown him." And my dad said, "Son, you have till the end of the summer to make it a real business and get it out of my garage." And that's exactly what Aaron did. But not only that, Aaron kept his innovative side going while working at the car wash. It was in 1994 when I invented my first big invention and got a patent on it. And that was for a buffing pad for polishing cars. It was all by hand. It was detailing. Four years into it, I basically damaged a car and I didn't think it was my fault. I thought it was the shape of the pad. And I just immediately, I had this idea of, like, why is the pad cylindrical? It should have edges. And why doesn't it have a recess in the back where the backing plate would be protected? And I literally went around and started asking the distributors. "I'm looking for a pad that looks like this." And they were like, "I never heard of that." After the second guy, I said, "Forget I mentioned it." And I went and got a patent attorney and I filed for my first patent. That was how I learned about polyester urethane foams. Polyester urethane foam, which became a key part of Scrub Daddy, is a flexible, open-cell foam with a range of qualities. It's known for its ability to compress, resist mildew, and insulate. I got a crash course education in every company in the world that makes urethane foams because we started buying those foams and making them into buffing pads. It wasn't for years and years and years later that I found the Scrub Daddy material, which is a very, very unique, highly engineered polymer. And at that time, it was only made by one company in Germany. And this company in Germany sent me this rock hard material that was yellow. I started cleaning my hands with it and it was unbelievable how well it worked, how easily it rinsed clean. With the help of German foam manufacturer FoamPartner, Aaron could modify the pore size and density of his buffing pad. I realized instantly we had a home run. We put some ads in some trade magazines. In three months, we were selling buffing pads all over the United States. And within six months, we were selling it all over the world. Scrub Daddy now calls this material FlexTexture. In 1995, Aaron sold his car washing business and turned his focus to a new venture. Dedication To Detail, a buffing pad manufacturer. This is our first office. Actually, this is the second office. When they sent me the material, I basically cut a rectangular shape, like a traditional sponge, and I just started scrubbing my hands with it. What you find out is that this is an uncomfortable way to hold a sponge. Like, this is not the shape of your hand. Actually, that's the shape of your hand. And it turns out that a circle is the easiest thing to hold on to while you're scrubbing your hands. And then I was like, "You know, I don't want to go around my fingers. I'll just cut a hole in it. And I'll just clean my fingers. It's so much easier." Then, I was like, "You know what? I need to get underneath the nails." So I took a knife and I cut some ridges. I cut another hole so I could put two fingers in and grab it. So it had these two eyes, what looked like hair, and it started to look like a little face. Aaron says he stopped selling the foam after a year because of low sales in the auto market. And on September 3, 2008, Dedication To Detail was bought out by multi-national manufacturer 3M. Aaron's sponges ended up sitting at the back of the factory for five years until March 2011 when they found a new life. My wife started nagging me to clean the lawn furniture. And I just took the traditional sponge that I had, which is yellow on one side and green on the other. And I just started to scrub the mold. And it actually scratched the paint off. That's when I remembered this box of this hard plastic scrubbers that we had. And I brought them home and I made a bucket of warm, soapy water because I don't want to work in really cold environment. And when I dunked this rock hard circular sponge that looked like it had hair on it with two eye holes, it got totally soft. And we didn't know that. We hadn't designed that or built that in. That was when I had told this company in Germany to make the material stiffer and denser. That was a byproduct of it. But when it got into warm water, it's like a thermoplastic and it started to get soft. When I took it out and I started to scrub the furniture with it, because it was 50 degrees outside, I could feel it crystallizing in my hands. And the harder it got, the better it scrubbed. But then it was filthy dirty. When I put in the warm water and it got soft, it rinsed out totally clean. And I was like, "Wow, what is this?" And I thought I was gonna be throwing these things away. So I left it at my sink. And that night, I started doing the dishes. And I saw it and I picked it up. And I thought, "Huh, I wonder how this will wash the dishes." And it wasn't scratching anything. I'm like, "This is unbelievable. Where is the flaw? Where is this not going to work?" And then I picked up a mug. And I realized where it's not going to work. And as I went to put it down, I saw the two eye holes. And I put my fingers into the eyes. And I went all the way into the bottom of the cup and it cleaned the sides at the same time it cleaned the bottom. And then I pulled it out. And I looked at it and I thought, "Why would you ever hold onto a sponge if the sponge would hold on to you?" Wait, hold on a second. If I cut a smile in this thing, I could clean the silverware on both sides. I took a knife, cut the smile, put the spoon in and squeezed and pulled it. And I could hear the angels start to sing. The next morning, as the angels ascended back to heaven, Aaron shared his rediscovery with coworkers at the factory. When we sold the company to 3M, they didn't even want it. They thought it was a worthless product and they carved it out of the deal and left it with me because it was so worthless. I said, "I'll tell you what. Everybody take it home and we'll reconvene in two weeks. Go wash your dishes and come back and tell me. And when they came back, it was clear. Everybody was like, "This is the greatest dishwashing tool in the world." And with the confirmation from his coworkers, Aaron knew he needed to act fast. Aaron personally invested $150,000 into the smiling sponge. He also secured a patent for the shape, design and features of the sponge. But Aaron strategically left out details of the scrubbers material composition, which was its main selling point. When you patent the material, I need to tell you what it's made of, how we make it, all the processes of doing it. And I just told everybody how to copy our exclusive material that only one company knows how to make at this point. If you want to go and try and do it like 100 companies have tried already to copy Scrub Daddy, and it failed miserably. I'm not going to make it easier for them. Let's put it that way. These are both knockoffs. And we'll test it against our regular products. And you can tell right away what's a piece of junk and what's Scrub Daddy. So it's easy to identify when there's a knock off in the market. By August 2011, Aaron knew it was time for Scrub Daddy to hit the shelves. Thanks to a friend who owned five local grocery stores, he pitched Scrub Daddy for about eight hours a day. Nearly every day of the week. He did all this while still serving as a developer and consultant at 3M. But he knew he could do more. He knew he had to leverage the local press. They put on the front page of the Sunday Inquirer in the business section. They said, "He's the daddy of the Scrub Daddy." The website exploded. The phone's lit up. And we started selling a sponge almost two or three minute. The next thing I know, I get a call from a guy who says, "Have you ever thought about selling this on QVC?" I was like, "The women's shopping network? Like, no one watches that." He's like, "Oh, you'd be surprised." We went in and we did a little pitch. And they said, "We love it. And we want you to be the on-air person." I was like, "Absolutely not. I'm not going on TV. I don't know how to do that." Next thing you know, I'm in front of the bright lights. And the cameras are coming on. And I am frozen and I'm scared and we don't sell well. It's pretty awful. I went home, I was despondent. I remember just feeling, like, I had one chance to be on TV and I blew it. The broker calls me up and says, "You're not going to believe this. I just got a call from the buyer and the producer and they loved your energy and they wished that you had more time to talk. They're going to give you another shot." I went back on QVC and I told the next host, "This is probably my last show. Anything that you can do to help me, I will be so appreciative." And she said, "Aaron, I'm gonna go wow, wow, wow. And you just go and do your thing." Scrub Daddy became a hit on QVC. And so did Aaron. His confidence on camera convinced him to test out the waters on another big network. I went home and I was bragging to my wife that I was supposed to be on TV. And she was like, "Oh, shut up. You're an idiot. And our favorite show is coming on called Shark Tank." And I watched these guys come in. They had beer flavored ice cream. And it was the worst pitch. They didn't know their numbers. Their product was horrible. I mean, they got eviscerated by Mr. Wonderful. And I said, "What a bunch of idiots. How do you go on a national TV show and you don't know your numbers? You don't know your product. You misrepresent your company and yourself. I could go on that show and kill the sharks. Actually, how do you go on Shark Tank? Oh, look at that. There's a website. You just fill out this form. Hey. Dear sharks, I'm Aaron Krause from Philadelphia. I've been on QVC, and by the way, here's a link to my last QVC show. Three months later, Aaron received a call from a California number he didn't recognize. I'm an ice hockey coach. My phone was ringing. So I answer the call and it's Shark Tank. And then they assigned me two producers and said, "We will have a call with you every week. We don't want you to get excited. There's 50,000 applicants and all we do now is have calls with people. But let's pretend that we're gonna let you on Shark Tank. Give me your pitch. I was like, "Hi, sharks. I'm Aaron Krause from Philadelphia and I'm the daddy of the Scrub Daddy. Today, I'm looking for a $500,000 investment in exchange for 10% equity in the Scrub Daddy So they said, "Okay. business. That's great. That was seven minutes. We're gonna call you next week. Take it down to six minutes." I remember the last time she said there was about 500 people left. And the next time they called, they said, "Aaron, this will be our last call." And I was like, "You're kidding me? That was literally, like, two months of, like, hiding in corners and doing... No one could know that I was talking to Shark Tank by the way. It was totally confidential. I said, "Really? That was so much effort and work." They said, "Oh no, because we're flying you out to Los Angeles. The next pitch you're going to do is going to be in front of 30 producers from ABC and Sony." Aaron didn't let his opportunity on Shark Tank go to waste. He knew he had one shot to make Scrub Daddy explode positively in the public consciousness. When you're going on Shark Tank, you're not just trying to get the sharks. You're literally demonstrating for 7-10 million people. You wanted them to also support you. I memorized every one of our numbers, all of our cost of goods sold, all of our customer acquisition costs. I went and studied all the sharks. After getting through the initial pitch with show producers, they put Aaron's preparation to the test when they made an unexpected change. The day of the show, the producer comes in, like, "Aaron, you ready to go?" I'm like, "I was born ready for this. Let's go." He goes, "Oh no, no, no. We got about another hour. But listen, we subbed Barbara out for this new lady. They call her the queen of QVC and have you ever heard of her? Lori Greiner?" I was like, "No. Even though I've been on QVC, like, four times, I never heard of her." I walked into Shark Tank going, "Don't talk about QVC. Don't talk about QVC." And I prepared for every thing that someone could say to me. And I prepared to never make a response that made me look arrogant. First one who went out was Herjavec. Herjavec said, "I don't see the retail vision. I'm out." In my mind, I said, "You're not the brightest, are you dude? Like, really? You don't see the retail vision? Like, look at this smiley face sponge." I was like, "Alright, don't say that to him." I said, "I understand." But I meant, "I understand that you have no idea what you're talking about." Then Cuban was the next one out and Cuban said, "But I'm not a scrub pimp. So I'm out." And I was like, "That hurts, Mark. I wanted to work with you so bad." And then, of course, Mr. Wonderful came up. I watched every episode of Shark Tank four times. And then I made a flowchart. So the line goes: Mr. Wonderful asks about the valuation, and you answer it like this. And it goes either this way or this way, right. And that one goes this way, or this way. And I had flowcharts for all of the sharks and how it was going to go. And with Mr. Wonderful, they all ended with him telling me he was out. And so I was like, "You know what? I'm never letting that happen." I'm waiting for him to say some nasty thing to me. And the first thing he does is make the worst offer ever for 50% of the company. And I knew exactly where this was going. So I'm like, laughing. I'm like, "Yeah, just keep enjoying it. Look around. This is really gonna happen. Ready? Do it." Alright, you're out. But there was still one shark Aaron had to face. Lori's like, "Where are you selling this now?" I'm like, "Oh, like, some local supermarkets and, like, some television network?" "Oh, like a TV shopping network?" "Something like that." "Which one?" "Like, I've been on QVC, like, four times, you know, over the last four months." And she's like, "Really?" And I'm like, "I know she's going out. Should I just tell her she's out now?" And instead she goes, "You know what? Your pitch was flawless. It was like a QVC pitch. And I know all the little tricks that people do to make things look better on TV. And I watched you really closely. No one else watched it like I did. You didn't use one sponge and one weight and changed the texture. You used two different sponges and two different weights. So either one of your sponges is hard, and the other one is soft, or one of the weights is heavy, and the other one's light. I think your whole thing is a scam." And I'm like, "No, no, it's 100% real." She goes, "Okay, if it's real, the sponge that you just gave me, I want to come down and I want to change the texture." And I'm like, "Come on down." And she dips it in the hot water. She dips it in the cold water. And the sharks are all screaming, "Lori! Lori, does it work? Does it work?" And we're standing this close and she looks at me. She goes, "Oh my god, it's magic." And I'm looking at her going, "Oh my God, you might be my shark. I can't wait for that to air on national TV because it vindicated everything that I was saying." And the night that I air on Shark Tank. I'm waiting for this moment, which never happens. They cut it out of the show. I called the producer and said, "How could you do that?" He said, "Aaron, the show was over in the first two minutes. When you and Lori looked at each other, everyone would have known that you guys were going to be together." I'll go to 20. You got a deal. Got a deal. Alright. Good. Aaron left Shark Tank with $200,000, double what he asked for. That is awesome. And a 20% equity stake deal with Lori Greiner. After the episode aired, the sales just started going through the roof. QVC sales started going through the roof. Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart called us. We didn't even have to call them and the product just started flying off the shelves. Aaron's life changed forever. In just 24 hours, Scrub Daddy hit a million dollars in sales. And to keep up with the success, in 2014, Aaron left his position at 3M to focus on Scrub Daddy full-time. His new partnership with Lori Greiner would propel Scrub Daddy to new heights, but only with the right vision. Alright, ready? So this is my favorite background. And that's me on Shark Tank as one of the sharks. It started out a little bit, I don't wanna say rocky. But the truth is, like, she had a vision and she said it on the show, she wanted to do an infomercial. It wasn't the direction that I wanted to go because I felt an infomercial is, like, a flash in the pan. Like, you do the Snuggie. And it sells for, like, eight months. And then it's over. And then I explained to her my vision that I wanted to be on the shelves competing with all the other sponge companies. And she said, "Listen, that is a long road. And it's hard. And if you want to do it, I'm with you. But if you want to sit back and just collect a check, that's the fastest way to get this thing to market." And I said, "I want to do the long way. And I've done it before and I think I can do it again." And she said, "Alright, I guess that's it. We're gonna do it." That was the one disagreement that we had. And after that, she was great to work with. She has been an absolute PR train. She goes on to all these shows and talks about how much she loves Scrub Daddy. The thing about Lori and that I really love and respect about her the most, she just knows that I know how to run this thing. And that she's like, "Aaron, you are a rock star. And if you need my help at all, I'm here for you." And so most of our conversations are mostly friendship stuff. As Scrub Daddy's sales climbed over the years, in March 2021, Aaron decided to expand the brand and open a new facility in Pennsauken, New Jersey, which is about six miles away from Philadelphia. He knew that his vision included more than just the original Scrub Daddy. The new campus allows Aaron and his team to continue working on product innovation. The vision was never one product. If you sit still in business, someone's coming to eat your lunch. We're starting with one product. That launches the company. Once Mommy rolled in, we literally started just inventing new products every year. We do it all in house. I have an engineering department. We have what's called an ideation meeting, where we sit around and talk about what are the needs that we see in the market. And then we look for new channels. We can do everything from laminating to vacuum forming to taking slices of the material to test. Crushing tests. And then we have all these 3D printers. Right now, we're in the middle of printing something. I think it's going to be for the toilet wand. And this is our barbecue grill brush. And everything had to be invented. Everything from the handle to this material to how are they actually going to put this material together. Part of Scrub Daddy's innovative edge is keeping sustainability at their forefront. This is our solar wall. This is actually living, growing plants. And this shows you the amount of energy that we've created lifetime. 124,000 gallons of gas has been saved. Our sponge is literally the longest lasting most durable sponge on the market. And that in itself is sustainable. Like, the regular sponge you're using for a couple of days, and it smells horrible. And they're literally just going into the landfill every couple of days. Ours are lasting for many months. Second thing is we started a recycling program at Scrub Daddy. So you can send your sponge back to us and we give you a $2 credit, which pays for all your shipping costs, to buy another sponge on our store. And we send them to an industrial recycling facility. They burn hotter than coal. This is a very specific recycling facility where they capture all the emissions. We also make an Eco Daddy. It's made out of recycled water bottles and coconut fibers. And we're sustainable because we're powered off of all solar. We make so much energy that we actually power homes in the neighborhood because we don't use it all. And eight of us now drive electric cars, including me, and we drive our cars off of the sun. If there's one thing Aaron would do differently, it would be to bite the bullet on pricing he felt he deserved. I made all my mistakes in my previous businesses. Luckily, none of them put me out of business. But in my last company, I made one of the most critical mistakes that any entrepreneur can make. I went after volume and played price war when I had the best-in-class product. I had all these patents on buffing pads. And I would compete with everybody out there for the lowest price just so I could keep my volumes up. As for Aaron, he has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. We're actually in the process right now of expanding all over Europe and actually acquiring our European distributor. We have much bigger global presence in five years. There's a lifecycle for businesses. I don't think I want to do this until I'm 90. But at some point, I think we will become an acquisition target for a much larger company. As long as it's the right partner, and they leave us alone, and they let us continue to run the brand, then it's something that I may entertain down the road. And if there's anyone that will let Aaron know about his past mistakes, his family is there to tell him about it. He grew up in a family of five and everyone but him earned a PhD. He says they would often shun him for his career path as he was growing up. For the longest time, I was ridiculed as the black sheep of the family that, you know, I didn't go on to a profession, like, Doctor, lawyer, accountant. Unfortunately, my mom has advanced Alzheimer's, so she doesn't know anything about the business at all. Which is... And that is kind of sad because she also was a huge influence on me growing up and she was constantly the one pushing me in education. And she had a funny way of always motivating me to do stuff. And I wish that she could see the business at this level. My dad's still alive and he's doing great. He's very healthy in his 80's. And I talked to him all the time about the company. And now, I'm the only one in our family that has patents. And I can tell you my dad is awful proud. And today, Aaron says he doesn't feel like the black sheep of the family. Instead, he feels like the golden goose. The reason I'm sitting exactly where I am right now is because of everything that's happened to us. They are all learning experiences. They're things that make us stronger and make us work harder. We know better the next time it comes around. Come on. It's a smiley face sponge company. Look around, like. Hey, are you happy? Did you hear that? We're going with the OG yellow. Who's the king now? I won myself my own product.

The following is not a paid advertisement. Scrub Daddy is the only sponge that changes
texture just based on the temperature of the water. That means it could be a soft sponge or a hard
sponge in hot or cold water. Now when it's soft, it gets all the way into cups,
bowls and mugs. And when it's hard, it can scrub through even the
most burned on messes in seconds. And cut! But did you know the real story behind that smiley
face? Well, you're about to find out in this next
episode of The Ground Up. That man you just saw was Aaron Krause, founder
and CEO of Scrub Daddy, the smiley face sponge company that started in Folcroft, Pennsylvania,
and has filled cleaning shelves since the episode of Shark Tank aired in October 2012. And since then, they moved to an enormous facility
in Pennsauken, New Jersey that features office spaces, a television studio, a warehouse, Koi
pond, and a store for people to buy their products. Some kids that we encountered in the shop acted
like it was Christmas Day. No, I just play one on TV. And ready guys? Cleaning is something that is mundane and is
boring and people don't enjoy. And when you make it more fun and you make it
really effective, you have something that really clicks with people's psyche. And Scrub Daddy is actually my hand. The original Scrub Daddy runs for $4 at stores and
on their website, but select products can run as high as $38. And if you think you've met every product from the
sponge dynasty, think again. We even put Aaron to the test. We make Daddy, Mommy, Sponge, Scour, Eraser, Dish
Daddy, PowerPaste, Barbecue Daddy, Scour Daddy Steel, Straw Cleaner, Microfiber towels,
Streakless Cloths, Scrub Daddy Cif, Scrub Daddy toilet scrubbing system, Tangerine Clean, PowErase
Gel. Believe it or not, Aaron missed a few. There's also Big Daddy, Daddy Caddy, Sponge Caddy,
Soap Daddy, Cart Daddy and Screen Daddy. That's a long way of saying that there's a ton of
products in the Daddy family, over 80 as of today. And with all of these products online and on store
shelves, the company has racked in over $220 million in sales for 2023 with no sign of slowing down. We have the best sponge in the world. It's worth every dime that we charge for it. And the profit that we make on it sustains this
business and is what's led us to grow so rapidly, because we're able to reinvest over and over and
come out with new products. But how did Aaron and Scrub Daddy get here? Well, let's rewind back to when he was just a
little kid in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. Both of my parents are physicians. At 10 years old, my dad started teaching me to
wash the dishes, which is actually how I end up being in a sponge company. I was about 10 years old and I was laying in bed
and I was, like, staring at the light switch going, "Oh my God, I need a way to turn that off." The next day I got a bunch of wheel casters and
dental floss because that was the longest piece of rope I could find. And I hooked up this whole pulley system so I
could turn the lights on and off from my bed. And that was, like, the first time I realized that
I could come up with a crazy idea, build something and change my world. And from then, I literally started looking at the
world completely different. Before the Daddy of the Scrub Daddy was making his
fortune washing dishes and kitchenware, he was making money washing something much bigger. I've been washing cars since I was a kid. Became a professional car washer when my dad told
me I could make $10 a car. Started washing cars in the neighborhood. I had been washing cars throughout all of high
school to make money. And I just decided I was just going to start my
own car washing business. Aaron went on to Syracuse University and graduated
with a degree in psychology. In October 1992, he returned home to start his car
washing business. While he was proud to be his own boss, some of his
family didn't receive the news too well. My dad said "You know, son. I just paid $100,000 for your education in
psychology. What are you going to do with your life?" I said, "Well, I've been washing cars my whole
life. I think I'll wash cars." My mom was crying. My grandmom said, "Just disown him." And my dad said, "Son, you have till the end of
the summer to make it a real business and get it out of my garage." And that's exactly what Aaron did. But not only that, Aaron kept his innovative side
going while working at the car wash. It was in 1994 when I invented my first big
invention and got a patent on it. And that was for a buffing pad for polishing cars. It was all by hand. It was detailing. Four years into it, I basically damaged a car and
I didn't think it was my fault. I thought it was the shape of the pad. And I just immediately, I had this idea of, like,
why is the pad cylindrical? It should have edges. And why doesn't it have a recess in the back where
the backing plate would be protected? And I literally went around and started asking the
distributors. "I'm looking for a pad that looks like this." And they were like, "I never heard of that." After the second guy, I said, "Forget I mentioned
it." And I went and got a patent attorney and I filed
for my first patent. That was how I learned about polyester urethane
foams. Polyester urethane foam, which became a key part
of Scrub Daddy, is a flexible, open-cell foam with a range of qualities. It's known for its ability to compress, resist
mildew, and insulate. I got a crash course education in every company in
the world that makes urethane foams because we started buying those foams and making them into
buffing pads. It wasn't for years and years and years later that
I found the Scrub Daddy material, which is a very, very unique, highly engineered polymer. And at that time, it was only made by one company
in Germany. And this company in Germany sent me this rock hard
material that was yellow. I started cleaning my hands with it and it was
unbelievable how well it worked, how easily it rinsed clean. With the help of German foam manufacturer
FoamPartner, Aaron could modify the pore size and density of his buffing pad. I realized instantly we had a home run. We put some ads in some trade magazines. In three months, we were selling buffing pads all
over the United States. And within six months, we were selling it all over
the world. Scrub Daddy now calls this material FlexTexture. In 1995, Aaron sold his car washing business and
turned his focus to a new venture. Dedication To Detail, a buffing pad manufacturer. This is our first office. Actually, this is the second office. When they sent me the material, I basically cut a
rectangular shape, like a traditional sponge, and I just started scrubbing my hands with it. What you find out is that this is an uncomfortable
way to hold a sponge. Like, this is not the shape of your hand. Actually, that's the shape of your hand. And it turns out that a circle is the easiest thing
to hold on to while you're scrubbing your hands. And then I was like, "You know, I don't want to go
around my fingers. I'll just cut a hole in it. And I'll just clean my fingers. It's so much easier."
Then, I was like, "You know what? I need to get underneath the nails." So I took a knife and I cut some ridges. I cut another hole so I could put two fingers in
and grab it. So it had these two eyes, what looked like hair,
and it started to look like a little face. Aaron says he stopped selling the foam after a
year because of low sales in the auto market. And on September 3, 2008, Dedication To Detail was
bought out by multi-national manufacturer 3M. Aaron's sponges ended up sitting at the back of
the factory for five years until March 2011 when they found a new life. My wife started nagging me to clean the lawn
furniture. And I just took the traditional sponge that I had,
which is yellow on one side and green on the other. And I just started to scrub the mold. And it actually scratched the paint off. That's when I remembered this box of this hard
plastic scrubbers that we had. And I brought them home and I made a bucket of
warm, soapy water because I don't want to work in really cold environment. And when I dunked this rock hard circular sponge
that looked like it had hair on it with two eye holes, it got totally soft. And we didn't know that. We hadn't designed that or built that in. That was when I had told this company in Germany
to make the material stiffer and denser. That was a byproduct of it. But when it got into warm water, it's like a
thermoplastic and it started to get soft. When I took it out and I started to scrub the
furniture with it, because it was 50 degrees outside, I could feel it crystallizing in my
hands. And the harder it got, the better it scrubbed. But then it was filthy dirty. When I put in the warm water and it got soft, it
rinsed out totally clean. And I was like, "Wow, what is this?" And I thought I was gonna be throwing these things
away. So I left it at my sink. And that night, I started doing the dishes. And I saw it and I picked it up. And I thought, "Huh, I wonder how this will wash
the dishes." And it wasn't scratching anything. I'm like, "This is unbelievable. Where is the flaw? Where is this not going to work?" And then I picked up a mug. And I realized where it's not going to work. And as I went to put it down, I saw the two eye
holes. And I put my fingers into the eyes. And I went all the way into the bottom of the cup
and it cleaned the sides at the same time it cleaned the bottom. And then I pulled it out. And I looked at it and I thought, "Why would you
ever hold onto a sponge if the sponge would hold on to you?" Wait, hold on a second. If I cut a smile in this thing, I could clean the
silverware on both sides. I took a knife, cut the smile, put the spoon in
and squeezed and pulled it. And I could hear the angels start to sing. The next morning, as the angels ascended back to
heaven, Aaron shared his rediscovery with coworkers at the factory. When we sold the company to 3M, they didn't even
want it. They thought it was a worthless product and they
carved it out of the deal and left it with me because it was so worthless. I said, "I'll tell you what. Everybody take it home and we'll reconvene in two
weeks. Go wash your dishes and come back and tell me. And when they came back, it was clear. Everybody was like, "This is the greatest
dishwashing tool in the world." And with the confirmation from his coworkers,
Aaron knew he needed to act fast. Aaron personally invested $150,000 into the
smiling sponge. He also secured a patent for the shape, design and
features of the sponge. But Aaron strategically left out details of the
scrubbers material composition, which was its main selling point. When you patent the material, I need to tell you
what it's made of, how we make it, all the processes of doing it. And I just told everybody how to copy our
exclusive material that only one company knows how to make at this point. If you want to go and try and do it like 100
companies have tried already to copy Scrub Daddy, and it failed miserably. I'm not going to make it easier for them. Let's put it that way. These are both knockoffs. And we'll test it against our regular products. And you can tell right away what's a piece of junk
and what's Scrub Daddy. So it's easy to identify when there's a knock off
in the market. By August 2011, Aaron knew it was time for Scrub
Daddy to hit the shelves. Thanks to a friend who owned five local grocery
stores, he pitched Scrub Daddy for about eight hours a day. Nearly every day of the week. He did all this while still serving as a developer
and consultant at 3M. But he knew he could do more. He knew he had to leverage the local press. They put on the front page of the Sunday Inquirer
in the business section. They said, "He's the daddy of the Scrub Daddy." The website exploded. The phone's lit up. And we started selling a sponge almost two or
three minute. The next thing I know, I get a call from a guy who
says, "Have you ever thought about selling this on QVC?" I was like, "The women's shopping network? Like, no one watches that." He's like, "Oh, you'd be surprised." We went in and we did a little pitch. And they said, "We love it. And we want you to be the on-air person." I was like, "Absolutely not. I'm not going on TV. I don't know how to do that." Next thing you know, I'm in front of the bright
lights. And the cameras are coming on. And I am frozen and I'm scared and we don't sell
well. It's pretty awful. I went home, I was despondent. I remember just feeling, like, I had one chance to
be on TV and I blew it. The broker calls me up and says, "You're not going
to believe this. I just got a call from the buyer and the producer
and they loved your energy and they wished that you had more time to talk. They're going to give you another shot." I went back on QVC and I told the next host, "This
is probably my last show. Anything that you can do to help me, I will be so
appreciative." And she said, "Aaron, I'm gonna go wow, wow, wow. And you just go and do your thing." Scrub Daddy became a hit on QVC. And so did Aaron. His confidence on camera convinced him to test out
the waters on another big network. I went home and I was bragging to my wife that I
was supposed to be on TV. And she was like, "Oh, shut up. You're an idiot. And our favorite show is coming on called Shark
Tank." And I watched these guys come in. They had beer flavored ice cream. And it was the worst pitch. They didn't know their numbers. Their product was horrible. I mean, they got eviscerated by Mr. Wonderful. And I said, "What a bunch of idiots. How do you go on a national TV show and you don't
know your numbers? You don't know your product. You misrepresent your company and yourself. I could go on that show and kill the sharks. Actually, how do you go on Shark Tank? Oh, look at that. There's a website. You just fill out this form.
Hey. Dear sharks, I'm Aaron Krause from Philadelphia. I've been on QVC, and by the way, here's a link to
my last QVC show. Three months later, Aaron received a call from a
California number he didn't recognize. I'm an ice hockey coach. My phone was ringing. So I answer the call and it's Shark Tank. And then they assigned me two producers and said,
"We will have a call with you every week. We don't want you to get excited. There's 50,000 applicants and all we do now is
have calls with people. But let's pretend that we're gonna let you on
Shark Tank. Give me your pitch. I was like, "Hi, sharks. I'm Aaron Krause from Philadelphia and I'm the
daddy of the Scrub Daddy. Today, I'm looking for a $500,000 investment in
exchange for 10% equity in the Scrub Daddy So they said, "Okay.
business. That's great. That was seven minutes. We're gonna call you next week. Take it down to six minutes." I remember the last time she said there was about
500 people left. And the next time they called, they said, "Aaron,
this will be our last call." And I was like, "You're kidding me? That was literally, like, two months of, like,
hiding in corners and doing... No one could know that I was talking to Shark Tank
by the way. It was totally confidential. I said, "Really? That was so much effort and work." They said, "Oh no, because we're flying you out to
Los Angeles. The next pitch you're going to do is going to be
in front of 30 producers from ABC and Sony." Aaron didn't let his opportunity on Shark Tank go
to waste. He knew he had one shot to make Scrub Daddy
explode positively in the public consciousness. When you're going on Shark Tank, you're not just
trying to get the sharks. You're literally demonstrating for 7-10
million people. You wanted them to also support you. I memorized every one of our numbers, all of our
cost of goods sold, all of our customer acquisition costs. I went and studied all the sharks. After getting through the initial pitch with show
producers, they put Aaron's preparation to the test when they made an unexpected change. The day of the show, the producer comes in, like,
"Aaron, you ready to go?" I'm like, "I was born ready for this. Let's go."
He goes, "Oh no, no, no. We got about another hour. But listen, we subbed Barbara out for this new
lady. They call her the queen of QVC and have you ever
heard of her? Lori Greiner?" I was like, "No. Even though I've been on QVC, like, four times, I
never heard of her." I walked into Shark Tank going, "Don't talk about
QVC. Don't talk about QVC." And I prepared for every thing that someone could
say to me. And I prepared to never make a response that made
me look arrogant. First one who went out was Herjavec.
Herjavec said, "I don't see the retail vision. I'm out." In my mind, I said, "You're not the brightest, are
you dude? Like, really? You don't see the retail vision? Like, look at this smiley face sponge." I was like, "Alright, don't say that to him." I said, "I understand." But I meant, "I understand that you have no idea
what you're talking about." Then Cuban was the next one out and Cuban said, "But I'm not a scrub pimp. So I'm out." And I was like, "That hurts, Mark. I wanted to work with you so bad." And then, of course, Mr. Wonderful came up. I watched every episode of Shark Tank four times. And then I made a flowchart. So the line goes: Mr. Wonderful asks about the
valuation, and you answer it like this. And it goes either this way or this way, right. And that one goes this way, or this way. And I had flowcharts for all of the sharks and how
it was going to go. And with Mr. Wonderful, they all ended with him
telling me he was out. And so I was like, "You know what? I'm never letting that happen." I'm waiting for him to say some nasty thing to me. And the first thing he does is make the worst
offer ever for 50% of the company. And I knew exactly where this was going. So I'm like, laughing. I'm like, "Yeah, just keep enjoying it. Look around. This is really gonna happen. Ready? Do it." Alright, you're out. But there was still one shark Aaron had to face. Lori's like, "Where are you selling this now?" I'm like, "Oh, like, some local supermarkets and,
like, some television network?" "Oh, like a TV shopping network?" "Something like that." "Which one?" "Like, I've been on QVC, like, four times, you
know, over the last four months." And she's like, "Really?" And I'm like, "I know she's going out. Should I just tell her she's out now?" And instead she goes, "You know what? Your pitch was flawless. It was like a QVC pitch. And I know all the little tricks that people do to
make things look better on TV. And I watched you really closely. No one else watched it like I did. You didn't use one sponge and one weight and
changed the texture. You used two different sponges and two different
weights. So either one of your sponges is hard, and the
other one is soft, or one of the weights is heavy, and the other one's light. I think your whole thing is a scam." And I'm like, "No, no, it's 100% real." She goes, "Okay, if it's real, the sponge that you
just gave me, I want to come down and I want to change the texture." And I'm like, "Come on down." And she dips it in the hot water. She dips it in the cold water. And the sharks are all screaming, "Lori! Lori, does it work? Does it work?" And we're standing this close and she looks at me. She goes, "Oh my god, it's magic." And I'm looking at her going, "Oh my God, you
might be my shark. I can't wait for that to air on national TV
because it vindicated everything that I was saying." And the night that I air on Shark Tank. I'm waiting for this moment, which never happens. They cut it out of the show. I called the producer and said, "How could you do
that?" He said, "Aaron, the show was over in the first
two minutes. When you and Lori looked at each other, everyone
would have known that you guys were going to be together." I'll go to 20. You got a deal. Got a deal. Alright. Good. Aaron left Shark Tank with $200,000, double what
he asked for. That is awesome. And a 20% equity stake deal with Lori Greiner. After the episode aired, the sales just started
going through the roof. QVC sales started going through the roof. Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart called us. We didn't even have to call them and the product
just started flying off the shelves. Aaron's life changed forever. In just 24 hours, Scrub Daddy hit a million
dollars in sales. And to keep up with the success, in 2014, Aaron
left his position at 3M to focus on Scrub Daddy full-time. His new partnership with Lori Greiner would propel
Scrub Daddy to new heights, but only with the right vision. Alright, ready? So this is my favorite background. And that's me on Shark Tank as one of the sharks. It started out a little bit, I don't wanna say
rocky. But the truth is, like, she had a vision and she
said it on the show, she wanted to do an infomercial. It wasn't the direction that I wanted to go
because I felt an infomercial is, like, a flash in the pan. Like, you do the Snuggie. And it sells for, like, eight months. And then it's over. And then I explained to her my vision that I
wanted to be on the shelves competing with all the other sponge companies. And she said, "Listen, that is a long road. And it's hard. And if you want to do it, I'm with you. But if you want to sit back and just collect a
check, that's the fastest way to get this thing to market."
And I said, "I want to do the long way. And I've done it before and I think I can do it
again." And she said, "Alright, I guess that's it. We're gonna do it."
That was the one disagreement that we had. And after that, she was great to work with. She has been an absolute PR train. She goes on to all these shows and talks about how
much she loves Scrub Daddy. The thing about Lori and that I really love and
respect about her the most, she just knows that I know how to run this thing. And that she's like, "Aaron, you are a rock star. And if you need my help at all, I'm here for you." And so most of our conversations are mostly
friendship stuff. As Scrub Daddy's sales climbed over the years, in
March 2021, Aaron decided to expand the brand and open a new facility in Pennsauken, New Jersey,
which is about six miles away from Philadelphia. He knew that his vision included more than just
the original Scrub Daddy. The new campus allows Aaron and his team to
continue working on product innovation. The vision was never one product. If you sit still in business, someone's coming to
eat your lunch. We're starting with one product. That launches the company. Once Mommy rolled in, we literally started just
inventing new products every year. We do it all in house. I have an engineering department. We have what's called an ideation meeting, where
we sit around and talk about what are the needs that we see in the market. And then we look for new channels. We can do everything from laminating to vacuum
forming to taking slices of the material to test. Crushing tests. And then we have all these 3D printers. Right now, we're in the middle of printing
something. I think it's going to be for the toilet wand. And this is our barbecue grill brush. And everything had to be invented. Everything from the handle to this material to how
are they actually going to put this material together. Part of Scrub Daddy's innovative edge is keeping
sustainability at their forefront. This is our solar wall. This is actually living, growing plants. And this shows you the amount of energy that we've
created lifetime. 124,000 gallons of gas has been saved. Our sponge is literally the longest lasting most
durable sponge on the market. And that in itself is sustainable. Like, the regular sponge you're using for a couple
of days, and it smells horrible. And they're literally just going into the landfill
every couple of days. Ours are lasting for many months. Second thing is we started a recycling program at
Scrub Daddy. So you can send your sponge back to us and we give
you a $2 credit, which pays for all your shipping costs, to buy another sponge on our store. And we send them to an industrial recycling
facility. They burn hotter than coal. This is a very specific recycling facility where
they capture all the emissions. We also make an Eco Daddy. It's made out of recycled water bottles and
coconut fibers. And we're sustainable because we're powered off of
all solar. We make so much energy that we actually power
homes in the neighborhood because we don't use it all. And eight of us now drive electric cars, including
me, and we drive our cars off of the sun. If there's one thing Aaron would do differently,
it would be to bite the bullet on pricing he felt he deserved. I made all my mistakes in my previous businesses. Luckily, none of them put me out of business. But in my last company, I made one of the most
critical mistakes that any entrepreneur can make. I went after volume and played price war when I
had the best-in-class product. I had all these patents on buffing pads. And I would compete with everybody out there for
the lowest price just so I could keep my volumes up. As for Aaron, he has no intention of slowing down
anytime soon. We're actually in the process right now of
expanding all over Europe and actually acquiring our European distributor. We have much bigger global presence in five years. There's a lifecycle for businesses. I don't think I want to do this until I'm 90. But at some point, I think we will become an
acquisition target for a much larger company. As long as it's the right partner, and they leave
us alone, and they let us continue to run the brand, then it's something that I may entertain
down the road. And if there's anyone that will let Aaron know
about his past mistakes, his family is there to tell him about it. He grew up in a family of five and everyone but
him earned a PhD. He says they would often shun him for his career
path as he was growing up. For the longest time, I was ridiculed as the black
sheep of the family that, you know, I didn't go on to a profession, like, Doctor, lawyer, accountant. Unfortunately, my mom has advanced Alzheimer's, so
she doesn't know anything about the business at all. Which is... And that is kind of sad because she also was a
huge influence on me growing up and she was constantly the one pushing me in education. And she had a funny way of always motivating me to
do stuff. And I wish that she could see the business at this
level. My dad's still alive and he's doing great. He's very healthy in his 80's. And I talked to him all the time about the
company. And now, I'm the only one in our family that has
patents. And I can tell you my dad is awful proud. And today, Aaron says he doesn't feel like the
black sheep of the family. Instead, he feels like the golden goose. The reason I'm sitting exactly where I am right
now is because of everything that's happened to us. They are all learning experiences. They're things that make us stronger and make us
work harder. We know better the next time it comes around. Come on. It's a smiley face sponge company. Look around, like. Hey, are you happy? Did you hear that? We're going with the OG yellow. Who's the king now? I won myself my own product.

Transcript for:The Success Story of Scrub Daddy

Transcript for:
The Success Story of Scrub Daddy