Rob Merlino: Blogger, Writer, Entrepreneur & Foodie

If you ever struggled to get the last drop of anything from a bottle, Flip It Cap is for you. Whether it’s shampoo, lotion, mustard or any other condiment, there’s so much waste with the product you can’t reach. Shaking and pounding a bottle only gets so much. When you just turn it upside down, […]

Imagine locking your door with a wedge at the base of the door – that’s the idea behind the Haven Lock. Clay Banks and Alex Bertelli want a Shark to get on board with their product that Bertelli envisioned while in Afghanistan as a  Special Ops helicopter pilot. He saw people barricading their doors with […]

Warm beer might not be the biggest problem the world faces, but it’s what inspired Teddy Giard, Logan Lamance and Austin Maxwell to invent the Kanga Kase Mate Cooler. The Clemson students, along with two other partners, didn’t like lugging heavy coolers to tailgate parties. They just kept their beer in the cardboard box it […]

Ariel Barbouth came to New York City ten years ago with $9000 and a dream: to disrupt the fast food industry with his native Argentinian empanadas. Empanadas are pastry – baked or fried – with any number of fillings. They can be filled with meat, vegetables, even sweet dessert fare. The result is a hand-held […]

Jamie Ratner was a mommy blogger looking for family friendly bargains when she came up with the idea for Certifikids. She liked using Groupon for deals on things in her community, but there weren’t many kids’ activities on her local Groupon. This led her to start a “copycat” daily deal site that catered strictly to […]

Janet Wu and Erin Wold created Silk Roll to solve a big problem women have: closet space. Their research showed only 25% of women’s clothes get worn more than once, the rest just gathers dust for years in their closets. Janet thought that if women could get a fair value for their once-worn clothes, they […]

Press Waffles founders Caleb and Bryan Lewis loved waffles as kids. Older brother Bryan rediscovered his love for waffles while summering in Belgium back in 2013 with his wife. They ate Belgian waffles every day and fell in love with them. Belgian waffles differ from the waffles most Americans are familiar with because they are […]

Tommy Prestella, an active duty air force pilot, invented Pickup Pools because his daughter was hot and wanted to go swimming. It was a hot Arkansas summer day at Little Rock Air Force Base and the Prestella’s didn’t have a pool, so Tommy made one. He took tarp and a bunch of bungee cords and […]

Dare-U-Go creator Lisa D’Amato made her claim to fame on America’s Top Model as a sassy, outspoken woman.  She was so good, she even won an All Stars competition. None of that prepared her for motherhood. She didn’t count on the minor mayhem or messes associated with parenting two toddlers, especially when it was time […]

Ryan Bethencourt’s WildEarth Dog treats are part mad science and part genius. They’re grown in the lab using a bioreactor. He feeds Koji, a fungus that grows on grain, with beet sugar and it synthesizes the sugar into pure protein. It’s a vegan dog treat with all the protein a dog needs. Bethencourt is vegan […]

Jason Hernandez invented The Pooch-Selfie so he could take better selfies with his dog. Dogs are wonderful creatures, but they don’t always sit still for a photo-op. They tend to get distracted by just about anything. Pooch Selfie solves the problem by becoming the distraction. Basically, it’s a clamp for your cell phone that holds […]

Scott Swerland and Joe Beaudry bring their own tank into the Shark Tank when they pitch Urban Float, their sensory deprivation/relaxation spa business into Shark Tank episode 1013. Sensory deprivation tanks were all the rage in the late sixties and seventies. They were touted as a way to completely relax and unwind. They lost favor […]

Amanda Naqvi created Kudo Banz to help herself parent her own kids in a more positive way. There’s a ton of research that says positive reinforcement makes for more well-behaved kids, so she set out to become a more positive parent. Anyone with kids knows about sticker charts; they’re a way to visibly reward a […]

Toy Box Labs introduces a toy that makes toys in Shark Tank episode 1015 when Jen Chin and Ben Baltes demonstrate their 3D printer made especially for kids. With the Toy Box 3D printer and their online platform, you can choose from over 500 (and growing) small toys a kid can print in a short […]

Lucinda Cramsey tells the Sharks about Moink Meats, sourced from small family farms in episode 1015. The chicken, pork, beef and fish she sells are all ethically sourced and humanely raised. Big factory farms generally have poor conditions and the animals aren’t treated well. Moink meats come from free range, pastured animals. She and her […]

Stephen Berskson and Roger Anderson’s Jolly Roger Telephone Company is a hysterical solution to annoying telemarketers. Anderson is a telephony engineer and consultant who decided to fight back against unscrupulous and annoying telemarketers by hitting them where it hurts: in the wallet. The fact that the solution is entertaining is a bonus. Barely a day […]

Tanya Van Court, creator of Goal Setter, knows about kids. She’s a mother of three and a former Nickelodeon executive. For years, she oversaw content creation for kids but it was her own child that inspired Goal Setter. Her daughter really wanted a bike for her birthday, instead she got a bunch of toys she […]

Friends and serial entrepreneurs turned business partners Justin Miller and Tom Simon made Zookie’s Cookies, their ready to mix and bake dog treats, a business almost by accident. Miller baked his own dog biscuits and had a social media bake sale to raise funds for people victimized by Hurricane Harvey. When he quickly raised over […]

Kressa Peterson invented the Shower-Toga so she had a discreet way of showering off in a public place. Kressa likes to participate in Mud Runs and other outdoor activities that get you pretty dirty. She didn’t want to mess up her car, so she wanted to shower off before heading home after frolicking in the […]

Yes, goat yoga is actually real. Trey Kitchen and Rachael Phillips started their goat yoga business, called Goga, in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey hit. They wanted to raise some money to help folks impacted by the hurricane. Luckily, Trey’s mother raises baby Nigerian dwarf goats, so the goat portion of the business didn’t require a […]

Husband and wife entrepreneurs Kim and Tim Lewis funded CurlMix in a most unorthodox manner. Tim was on the TV show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and brought home $100,000. He used those funds to help Kim start her first business – an online social network for women with curly hair. That venture didn’t […]

Adam and Desiree Haller, creators of the Sub Safe, are your typical Floridians. They like fishing, boating, the beach and Publix subs. Adam got an epiphany one day while fishing off the east coast of Florida. He had a sub sandwich in his cooler, and when it was time to chow down, it was a […]

Fresh Belly baby foods’ Saskla Sorrosa believes picky eaters are made, not born. What she means is we feed our babies overly fruity, sugar laden baby foods that don’t “train” them to like the flavors of veggies early in life. This leads to picky eaters when they get older. When kids don’t eat veggies and […]

Life Lift Vortex Bed inventors Levi Wilson and Tim Todd think  hiding under the bed isn’t a good idea, unless it’s one of their beds. It may be OK to hide under the bed when playing hide and seek, but if there’s a major storm or a burglar, it won’t keep you safe. That’s why they […]

Taylor Wiegele and Sierra Smith, the two Harvard MBA’s who created the Zorpad “odor destruction” shoe inserts, show how disrupting a market can come from just about anywhere. Tasked with creating a product for one of their business classes, the pair combined their areas of expertise to solve a problem. Taylor is a chemical engineer […]