It's more handy than it looks.
Over the past eight years, we've seen a lot of brilliant inventions and smart business ventures on Shark Tank—so it's a little hard to believe that the most successful product to come out of the ABC reality show so far is a tiny, smiling sponge. Don't let its size fool you, though.
Aaron Krause introduced Scrub Daddy to the "sharks" in 2012, and entrepreneur Lori Greiner offered $200,000 for a 20 percent stake in the company. Since then, the sponge has sold over 10 million units, resulting in over $50 million in sales, according to INSIDER.
So what exactly makes this little foam guy so special? Due to its exclusive FlexTexture material, the Scrub Daddy changes its texture depending on the water temperature. For instance, placing the sponge under warm water turns it into your average soft sponge, perfect for washing dishes or wiping countertops. But soak the sponge in cold water, and it becomes so firm that you can give any dirty pot or pan a good, hard scrub, no harsh chemical cleaning products needed.The scratch-free foam can be used to clean silverware, too, and it even self-cleans.
If that video didn't convince you that the Scrub Daddy is brilliant, its 4.5 star rating on Amazon might change your tune. With over 2,000 reviews, the product has received tons of praise from customers. "I was a little skeptical of these 'self cleaning' sponges,'" one commenter wrote. "I use sponges regularly and they always get messy and difficult to work with. It was time to buy some new sponges so I figured I'd give these a try and see if they lived up to the hype. Sure enough, they did."
"I love, love, love these! The soft when hot, hard when cold [feature] is awesome," another commenter wrote. "I won't use any other sponge ever again!"
The Scrub Daddy brand has now expanded to include other cleaning products including the Big Daddy and the Scrub Mommy, with a dual-sided scrubber and sponge. Want to see what all the hype's about? You can purchase the original Scrub Daddy in a pack of four for $14.92 on Amazon.