Technically, Lori Greiner isn't the Scrub Daddy's first big-money backer. Aaron Krause, who at the time was a car detailer by trade, originally invented what would become the recognizable sponge as a buffing pad after he accidentally damaged a car while trying to wash and wax it. In 2008, the buffers Krause had developed and manufactured were acquired by 3M, who then proceeded to simply sit on them. It was only after he started using the otherwise useless items to do the dishes that he realized he had a lucrative idea at his fingertips.
One of Krause's major selling points for the Scrub Daddy was the fact that, using a specific blend of polymers, it is able to change its texture based on the water's temperature. This meant that the sponge could stay firm for more heavy-duty scrub jobs. This had gotten the attention of buyers even before Krause appeared on "Shark Tank." By that time, the Scrub Daddy had already made handful of appearances on QVC, selling out every time.
When the sharks asked Krause why he needed to come on "Shark Tank" to find investors in the first place, he responded that he needed to buy a manufacturing plant exclusively for Scrub Daddy in order to keep up with demand. With so much already-proven success behind the product, it's little wonder that a bidding war followed among the sharks. The rest, as they see, is history, and Scrub Daddy is part of the fairly impressive list of everyday products that got their start on "Shark Tank."
