Rob Merlino: Blogger, Writer, Entrepreneur & Foodie

Slate Milk is what you get when two entrepreneurial friends team up to re-invent a favorite childhood drink. Manny Lubin and Josh Belinsky were classmates and buddies at Northeastern University in Boston. Both guys worked for startups after they graduated, but they joined together on a venture to make chocolate milk more appealing to millennials. […]

I’m not sure if entrepreneurial siblings Jonathan and Deborah Torres meant for Atlas Monroe – their vegan food and catering company – to appeal to carnivores or not, but it does. When a vegan dish wins “Best Dish” at the 2018 National Fried Chicken Festival, you know carnivores like the stuff. If you look at […]

MinusCal creators Barrett Jacques and Crom Carmichael hope to convince the Sharks to invest in MinusCal, their fat-blocking protein bars and supplements. The pair developed their product with Choleve, “a proprietary blend of fermented tea extract that works by blocking the absorption of fat in the small intestine.” Choleve occurs naturally in all tea, but […]

With Blue Land, Syed Naqvi and Sarah Paiji Yoo want to change the way the world cleans and clean up the world at the same time. Single use plastics are a huge problem – they cause tons of pollution and now degrading microplastics are found virtually everywhere. Cleaning products come almost exclusively in single use […]

Cassidy Crowley invented the Baby Toon at age seven to solve a problem that was close to home. Her infant sister always got long handled, hard spoons jammed at the back of her throat. This was dangerous for the baby and it also caused her mom a lot of anxiety. When Cassidy entered the Honolulu […]

Quik Flip is a hooded sweatshirt that transforms into a backpack and vice versa. Creator Rener Gracie invented QuikFlip to have a way to carry a hoodie once he was too hot to wear it anymore. Gracie isn’t an apparel person, he’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who comes from a family of jiu-jitsu instructors […]

Tony Armenti started The Fat Shack in 2010 inside of a bagel shop in Ewing, New Jersey with just $5,000. Nine years later, he has 13 franchises in three states. Initially, he just made late night sandwiches in the bagel shop when it wasn’t open. When things got too tight in the bagel shop, Tony […]

If you live in an area where coyotes roam and you have a small dog, the Coyote Vest could save your dog’s life. Think of it as body armour for your dog. While it might make your dog look like a cut-rate punk rocker, your dog won’t mind, especially if a coyote attacks. Paul Mott, […]

Bat BnB isn’t a house rental business for Batman, it’s an elegant, modern looking bat house for homeowners. Bats are the most efficient form of mosquito control around. a single bat eats as many as 1,000 mosquitoes per hour; imagine what a whole colony can do. Entrepreneurs Harrison Broadhurst and Chris Rannefors (aka the Batmen) […]

Desk View creators Jason Grohoski and Michael Bolos know the value of a stand up desk. Stand up desks have become very popular over the past ten years as people spend more and more time at a desk in front of a computer. A stand up desk lets you stand up and work – something […]

Inventors create products that solve problems and the Sauce Moto guys are no exception. They saw a problem and created a solution and now they’re on Shark Tank to get their invention – the SauceMoto Dip Clip – into every car in America. Creators Tony LaHood, William Moujaes and Michael Koury. Simply put, “Sauce Moto […]

Doughp Cookie Dough creator Kelsey Witherow pitches her “legit cookie dough” to the Sharks in episode 1021. It’s pronounced DOPE as in “that’s Dope,” a saying from her youth in Northern California. She started her quirky company in San Francisco in 2017 at Pier 39 – a popular tourist attraction – with a small kiosk. […]

I don’t know if Cubi Call inventors Nick and Anthony Pucci were fans of the TV show Get Smart, but the first thing I thought of when I saw their invention was the Cone of Silence. That was a device that dropped from the ceiling in “The Chief’s” office that allowed two people to have […]

Best Pocket Square Holder inventor Cedric Cobb likes to dress to the nines. He and several elegantly dressed men pitch his Best Pocket Square Holder in Shark Tank episode 1020. His company, Best Wardrobe Solutions, sells much more than the Best Pocket Square Holder, they also sell shoes, ties, socks and more. Cobb wants to […]

Anna Skaya created Base Paws to make more information available to cat owners about their cat’s genetic background. She’s helped found several start-ups in the past, so she’s no stranger to amping up a company. DNA test kits for humans became widely available several years ago. Test kits for dogs and cats are now appearing […]

Jason Hadley feeds the Sharks his “World Famous” Bang Shack Chicken Dip when he tempts their taste buds in Shark Tank episode 1020. Hadley is the type of guy who WILL SUCCEED no matter what life throws at him. As one of five kids in a single parent family, Hadley learned to cook at a […]

Jason Woods first pitched Kymera Body Boards back in season five, episode 501. To say it was an unsuccessful pitch is an understatement. He’d just come off an unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign he claimed failed because of Kickstarter’s rules about selling multiple products for each donation. The Sharks didn’t buy it. Daymond John eviscerated Jason and […]

Swover Alls are over-alls made out of sweatpant material. Kyle Bergman “invented” them after seeing a pair online. The problem for Kyle was, they were only available in women’s styles and sizes. When he couldn’t find any for men, he made his own. When it came time to turn Swover Alls into a business, Kyle […]

D’Ontra Hughes created the Spare App to eliminate the need for ATM machines. ATM machines break down and sometimes it’s unsafe to withdraw cash from them. With the Spare App, a merchant can dispense cash from their cash register just like an ATM. Customers load their Spare account with funds from a bank, PayPal or […]

“Champion snorer” Andre Machalak created Somni Fix mouth tape strips to keep himself from snoring and keeping his wife up at night. He patented the product and enlisted his son Nicholas to help him market it. Somni Fix is a patented, anti-snoring tape/strip that basically tapes your mouth shut while you sleep. This opens up […]

Gwen and Christine Nguyen didn’t know anything about baking or food production when they started Maven’s Creamery out of their parents’ garage. Now, they have one of the hottest dessert items in southern California. The sisters are children of boat people. Their parents came to this country with nothing and now the sisters are living […]

Hydroviv Water Filters were born in crisis. Founder Eric Roy started making their first water filters in response to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. The company, still in start-up phase at the time, began shipping high capacity lead removal water filters to Flint residents for free in the summer of 2015 – before government […]

Price-titution is a new game based on the idea that everyone has their price. Dan Killian always found himself asking his friends ‘how much money would you do (insert task here) for?” So he made a game out of it. Each Pricetitution game box comes with 125 different tasks that people have to guess what […]

Attorney and Luma Soda creator Jim Otteson is a soda junkie. He was always guzzling diet soda before big trials, but he didn’t like all the crap that is in “big soda’s” diet drinks. Aspartame, a common sweetener, has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. It also disrupts the body’s metabolism making your […]