Yes, Drop Stop got a deal on Shark Tank. Los Angeles friends Marc Newburger and Jeffrey Simon pitched their car-seat gap filler, a neoprene tube that wedges between the front seat and the center console so phones and keys don’t fall down the crack, in an episode that aired on March 29, 2013. They asked for $300,000 for 15% and accepted $300,000 for 20% from Lori Greiner, turning down a royalty offer from Kevin O’Leary. The deal closed, and Greiner still features Drop Stop on her Shark Tank page in October 2026. The company is still in business, still privately held and still selling. The useful lesson is in its sales figures, which have been reported as $24 million, $40 million and $100 million at different times, and do not obviously describe the same thing.
The Drop Stop Shark Tank deal at a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Aired | March 29, 2013 (Season 4) |
| Pitched by | Marc Newburger and Jeffrey Simon |
| Ask | $300,000 for 15% (a $2 million valuation) |
| Sales claimed on air | Over 250,000 units and about $1.3 million, much of it through QVC, per Shark Tank Blog |
| Offers | Kevin O’Leary: $300,000 for a per-unit royalty. Lori Greiner: $300,000 for 20% |
| Deal | $300,000 for 20% from Lori Greiner (a $1.5 million valuation) |
| Did it close? | Yes |
| Status, Oct. 2026 | Active |
$300,000 for 15% values Drop Stop at $2 million; for 20%, at $1.5 million. Our post-money valuation calculator shows both.
A dropped phone, two sponges and a sock
Wikipedia records the origin: Newburger dropped his phone into the gap between his car seat and console while driving and nearly caused a serious accident trying to fish it out. ABC7 Los Angeles, which covered the product before it was famous, reported that the first prototype was two figure-eight car-wash sponges and a dress sock, with a slot cut for the seat-belt latch. “When we first came up with the idea, we knew that it had to be something that was very moldable,” Simon told the station. The finished product is black neoprene filled with polyester fiberfill, about 17 inches long, with a slot that lets the seat-belt latch anchor it so the seat can still slide, according to Wikipedia. ABC7 reported a price of $19.95 for two.
What happened in the Tank
According to Shark Tank Blog’s account of the episode, the founders had sold more than 250,000 units for about $1.3 million, through their website, catalogs and 42 QVC appearances, at a cost of about $4 for a two-pack that retailed for $19.99. Robert Herjavec, Daymond John and Mark Cuban went out. O’Leary offered $300,000 against a $2 royalty on every unit, then lowered it to $1 once Greiner entered. Greiner offered $300,000 for 20% equity, and they took her deal.
What happened to Drop Stop after Shark Tank
Retail followed the episode. Wikipedia, citing episode recaps, records a $2 million Walmart purchase order announced in a November 2013 update segment and a Lori Greiner-branded Bed Bath & Beyond display announced in December 2014. A January 2018 update reported that the Los Angeles Police Department had tested Drop Stop in its vehicles for three months with zero traffic accidents in the equipped cars; Wikipedia reports that the LAPD said it would outfit 3,000 vehicles.
How big is Drop Stop? Read the numbers carefully
Here is every sales figure we found, in order, and who said it:
| When | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| March 2013, on air | More than 250,000 units; about $1.3 million total | Founders, per Shark Tank Blog |
| About five months later | $5 million in sales; $15 million projected the next year | Update segment, per Shark Tank Blog |
| December 2017 | 2.4 million units; $24 million in revenue | CNBC, as cited by Wikipedia |
| Season 11 update | $40 million in lifetime sales | Update segment, per Shark Tank Blog |
| 2024 | More than 9 million units; more than $40 million | Shark Tank Blog |
| 2026 | “$100 Million in sales since airing 13 years ago” | Lori Greiner’s website |
The unit and dollar figures don’t sit together comfortably. $24 million from 2.4 million units is $10 a unit, consistent with a two-pack retail price of about $20 if a “unit” is a single Drop Stop sold in pairs. $40 million from 9 million units is about $4.40 a unit, which would only fit if the larger number counts something different, or if the dollar figure is wholesale revenue rather than retail sales. Greiner’s $100 million is two and a half times the $40 million reported for 2024; her page doesn’t say whether it is retail value or company revenue. None of these is audited, and Drop Stop has never published its own financials. The defensible summary is that Drop Stop has sold millions of units and tens of millions of dollars’ worth since the show, and that any single headline number should be quoted with its source.
Is Drop Stop still in business, and who owns it?
Yes. Drop Stop’s website carries a ”© 2026 Drop Stop, LLC” notice, calls the product “The Original Patented Seat Gap Filler,” and claims more than 75,000 reviews. It is privately held by its founders, with Greiner as an investor; her current stake has not been published. We could not verify an official Amazon listing from the brand’s site, so there is no Amazon link here.
What founders can take from it
First, a simple product with a demonstration beats a clever one without. Drop Stop’s whole pitch is visible in one shot of a phone not falling, which is why QVC and television worked for it before Shark Tank did. Second, pick the Shark for the channel, not the check. O’Leary offered the same $300,000 as a royalty; Greiner offered equity and her retail relationships, and the Walmart order followed within months. Third, keep your own numbers consistent. Units, retail value and revenue are different measures, and mixing them is how a company ends up with four different “sales” figures in public. Greiner made a similar bet the year before on another product proven on QVC, Scrub Daddy; our analysis of Shark Tank deals by the numbers shows how her terms compare.
