Rob Merlino: Blogger, Writer, Entrepreneur & Foodie

Bedding for girls is something, as a father of four daughters, I am very familiar with. I grew up in a house where the only female was my mother; to her chagrin, my brother and I thought sleeping bags were fancy bedding! Dust ruffles just aren’t the kind of thing boys care too much about. […]

Premium jeans for women are the latest clothing related business to wade into the Shark Tank when Dallas area entrepreneurs Aimee Miller and Megan Jackson-Carreker pitch Hip Chix Jeans to the Sharks in episode 416. Blue jeans are a ubiquitous and uniquely iconic American apparel; just about everyone owns a pair of jeans (or two). Men […]

Duck hunting is a way of life for the hunters who enjoy it. Although duck hunting represents a small portion of the overall hunting population, Muddy Water Camo “huntrepreneurs” Steve Maloney and Stephen Kirkpatrick hope to capture a large segment of the over 18 million hunters in the USA. Muddy Water Camo was originally designed […]

When I heard Bea Arthur was pitching an online therapy business in episode 418, I wondered if the actress who played Maude on TV in the 1970’s had come back to life! The Bea Arthur who will pitch Pretty Padded Room to the Sharks is NOT that Bea Arthur. She’s a young, twenty something, psychotherapist […]

Mister Wonderful does fewer deals than any other Shark, but he’s always making offers. He seems to make multiple offers every week, but they aren’t always accepted. Mister Wonderful makes a BIG offer in episode 418, a million dollar offer at that! There was one other million dollar offer in season four; Lori and Mark made a […]

Custom Sushi sounds like a pretty good concept to me. It sounds good to Yeun and Peter Yung, owners of a fast growing sushi franchise concept called How Do You Roll with stores in 5 states. In addition to “traditional” sushi offerings, How Do You Roll offers custom sushi: customers can build their sushi rolls with […]

Smuffins is fun to say and they’re yummy to eat. What’s are Smuffins? They’re a “muffinized” version of the iconic campfire snack, the S’more. Entrepreneur Carmen Lindner will feed the Sharks some Smuffins in episode 418. She’s pitching Gotta Have S’More, the latest food biz to pitch the Sharks and the first purveyor of confections […]

These six Londonderry, New Hampshire teens (actually a couple of them aren’t even teens yet) are set to take the nation by storm when they appear on Shark Tank episode 418. They aren’t your stereotypical kids who loll around playing video games, they’re part of the Inventioneers, a group formed to compete in the First […]

A thirteen-year-old hand held cooler business makes its way into the Shark Tank in episode 415. My Cold Snap is basically an over-sized drink tumbler with a snapping mechanism that keeps a canned or bottled beverage cold for up to an hour. It does this by keeping ice and water in the hand held cooler, […]

A re-usable Dry Cleaning bag seems like an idea whose time has come. So did husband  and wife entrepreneurs Rick Siegel and Jennie Nigrosh. They got sick of throwing away tons of plastic dry cleaning bags, s o they created The Green Garmento. Nearly 130 million POUNDS of plastic dry cleaning bags are tossed away every […]

Coffee Pouches as a substitute for chewing tobacco? This sounds like one of the strangest “food” items to hit the Shark Tank in quite some time. Billed as an energy supplement and chewing tobacco alternative by entrepreneurs Matt Canepa and Pat Pazet, Grinds Coffee Pouches are catching on with major and minor league ball players […]

A hooded sweatshirt pillowcase business finds its way into the Shark Tank in episode 415. The invention is called the Hoodie Pillow and it’s the product of  husband and wife team Chris and Dana Hindley. The Hindleys are new parents, to TRIPLETS and Chris, a light sleeper, invented the  hooded sweatshirt pillowcase, called the Hoodie Pillow, […]

The February schedule is crowded, much to the delight of Shark Tank fans! The month will be packed with new episodes on Friday nights and re-runs on other nights. ABC is plugging in some Thursday and Sunday night re-runs in the February schedule, possibly to test the lucrative Thursday night-time slot for the future. February […]

An MP3 Teddy Bear is an idea that’s a modern twist on a couple of old toy gimmicks. Cuddletunes, the folks who make the MP3 Teddy Bear, have taken the classic teddy bear, the idea of “personalized” music for children, and an embedded sound device and turned it into a delightful toy for kids. You […]

SoundBender is a unique magnetic iPad amplifier that clips via magnet to the speaker area of an iPad. Inventor and Rabbi, Moshe Weiss, noticed when he was using his iPad, he had difficulty hearing it sometimes since the speakers project sound from the back. Weiss wanted something free of wires and the need for an […]

Barefoot running in huarache sandals is an activity that’s been going on since pre-Columbian times at least (and probably a lot longer than that). Steve Sashen and his wife, Lena Phoenix, brought huarache sandals and the art of barefoot running into the modern age with their “minimalist sandals,” called XeroShoes. They’re also bringing them into […]