Two Denver teens are on a mission to stop those sticky drips while you’re eating an ice cream cone.
Sam Nassif and Oliver Greenwald believe they’re in the business of helping people out especially when their sweet tooth is kicking in.
“We were at an ice cream store one day and we saw a little girl who had messy drips all over her hands and clothes and we both turned to each other and thought, 'there has to be a better way,'” said Nassif.
The Kent Denver School freshmen submitted their idea, The Drip Drop, into the Gates Invention Competition and won money to patent it.
“The actual drip drop material is made out of the same as the cone except we wanted to make it taste like a cookie,” said Greenwald.
If ice cream falls from the top of the cone, the disc around it catches the drips.
Three years later Nassif and Greenwald got the patent and applied for Shark Tank with 50,000 other hopeful entrepreneurs.
“Even before the drip drop started we had been watching Shark Tank, and we had always dreamed of being on it, and now that the reality is here we’re just super excited about the whole process,” said Nassif.
Last summer, Sam an Oliver went to L.A. to shoot the episode and ask the sharks for an investment to pitch The Drip Drop to cone manufacturers for licensing.
“We practiced so many times. I can’t even tell you. And our parents helped us come up with a list of all the possible questions the sharks could ask us and we memorized that,” said Greenwald.
We can’t tell you what happened in the tank just yet, but The Drip Drop is now waiting for licensing, and Sam and Oliver are selling t-shirts on their website to help with the funding.
The Drip Drop duo has learned a lot from this process for future endeavors and they also have advice for other hopeful entrepreneurs.
“The simplest things are the next invention. It doesn’t have to be an app or a robot,” said Greenwald.
And Nassif encourages your curiosity.
“When you wake up in the morning just be looking around for problems in your everyday life. Just look to see if you can improve on anything.”
Catch The Drip Drop on Shark Tank Friday, April 22 at 8 p.m. on Denver7.
Learn more about the product at its website and also follow them on Instagram.
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