A 16-year-old walked onto Shark Tank with a shampoo ball and left with a deal from Mark Cuban. But the product he pitched never made it to market in its original form.
This article covers what Benjamin Stern pitched, why the original product didn’t work, how the business model changed, what the company built over the years, and where things stand today.
What Benjamin Stern Pitched on Shark Tank Season 7
Benjamin Stern was 16 years old when he appeared on Season 7 of Shark Tank. His product was called NOHBO Balls — single-use, water-soluble shampoo pods designed to replace plastic bottles in the bathroom.
The idea borrowed from a familiar concept: laundry pods. Instead of liquid in a plastic bottle, you get a small dissolvable pod that activates with water. Stern applied that same logic to shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.
He asked for $100,000 in exchange for 20% equity. Mark Cuban made the deal. During the pitch, Cuban said he saw himself in Stern — a comment that stuck, and helped frame the investment as much about the founder as the product itself.
The core promise was straightforward: no plastic bottle, no cap, no waste. Just a biodegradable pod that dissolves completely in the shower.
Why the Original Shampoo Ball Design Did Not Work
The concept was solid. The execution, however, ran into real-world problems.
In a 2021 Shark Tank update, Stern admitted that the original shampoo ball design “didn’t really work.” The balls had issues with how they dissolved, how they felt to use, and how practical they were in an actual shower environment.
Think about how laundry pods work: they dissolve inside a closed machine, in controlled water conditions. A shower is a different environment — hands, water pressure, timing, and grip all vary. Getting a shampoo ball to dissolve consistently and usefully in that setting proved harder than expected.
This is not unusual for early-stage products. The idea passes the logic test, but real users find friction points that a prototype phase can’t fully predict.
Nohbo responded the way most startups should: they redesigned. The shampoo ball became NOHBO Drops — a pod and sheet format that kept the plastic-free, biodegradable promise but worked better in practice. The pivot was driven by feedback, not failure of the overall vision.
Customers who ordered after the 2020 Shark Tank update also experienced long shipping delays — in some cases waiting years before receiving their orders. That reflects another common startup challenge: scaling production of a new format while managing direct-to-consumer fulfillment at the same time.
How Nohbo Changed Its Business Model After the Pivot
Once the product was redesigned, Nohbo made a strategic shift. Instead of focusing on individual consumers, the company moved toward B2B sales — targeting hotels and cosmetic companies.
The hotel use case is easy to picture. A mid-size hotel chain goes through hundreds of thousands of single-use mini shampoo bottles every year. Replacing those with compact dissolvable pods reduces plastic waste, lowers shipping volume, and gives the property a concrete sustainability talking point. As ESG and environmental responsibility became bigger priorities in hospitality, Nohbo’s offering made real sense for that market.
This B2B focus helped stabilize the business. Bulk purchasing from commercial clients is more predictable than direct consumer sales, and it let Nohbo scale without depending on individual orders.
Later, with additional funding, Nohbo expanded into consumer-facing products through a brand called Sunrise Session. Sunrise Session sells plastic-free personal care pods directly to shoppers — the same core concept from the Shark Tank pitch, but in a refined, market-ready format.
The Sunrise Session products work as single-portion pods that dissolve in the shower. No bottle, no plastic residue, and easy to travel with since the pods are dry and compact. It’s worth noting that the exact relationship between Nohbo and Sunrise Session — whether it’s a spinoff, a rebrand, or a separate entity carrying the product concept forward — has not been officially confirmed in detail. Based on available sources, it appears the product idea continues under the Sunrise Session name.
Revenue, Awards, and What Nohbo Built Over a Decade
Despite the product pivot and operational growing pains, Nohbo built a real business over the years.
According to SharkTankBlog, Nohbo’s annual revenue reached approximately $8 million as of July 2024. That’s a significant result from a company that started with a $100,000 investment and a prototype shampoo ball.
The company also earned meaningful industry recognition:
- Ocean Impact Organization grand prize winner — 2021
- Sustainable Innovation Award at the SEAL Business Sustainability Awards — 2024
These awards reflect real credibility in the sustainability space, not just feel-good branding. Reducing plastic in personal care is a measurable, documented problem, and Nohbo’s biodegradable pods offered a commercially viable approach to solving it.
The product also contained no microplastics — an important distinction, since some biodegradable packaging still breaks down into harmful particles. Nohbo’s dissolvable film was designed to avoid that.
Why the Nohbo Brand Went Quiet
Despite the revenue and awards, the Nohbo brand appears to have wound down as a public-facing company.
By 2022, Nohbo’s website went inactive and its social media accounts — Instagram, LinkedIn — stopped being updated. One tracking site, SharkTankCompanies.com, lists Nohbo as no longer in business.
There is some tension in the available data worth acknowledging: SharkTankBlog reported $8 million in annual revenue as recently as July 2024, while other sources point to a dormant website and inactive social presence. It’s possible the company’s technology or product lines continue operating in some form — perhaps through B2B licensing or the Sunrise Session brand — without a public-facing Nohbo identity.
For readers at Repute Business following sustainability startups, Nohbo is a useful example of how a brand can quietly evolve or consolidate without a formal public announcement. The product concept may still be alive even if the original brand name is not.
What Benjamin Stern Is Doing Now
After more than a decade leading Nohbo — a company he started at 16 — Benjamin Stern stepped down in March 2024.
In a LinkedIn post, Stern said he and the company’s shareholders had “reached a crossroads” about the direction of the business. He chose to hand over leadership rather than push the company in a direction he wasn’t aligned with.
He took time to rest, then moved on to build Tenakara AI, described as a technology platform designed to support startup businesses. It’s a logical next step for someone who spent a decade navigating product pivots, investor relationships, B2B sales cycles, and consumer brand building from a young age.
Stern is a Viera High School graduate from Florida. His story is often cited locally as an example of a young entrepreneur who turned a Shark Tank moment into a decade-long business — not just a viral appearance.
Key Lessons from the Nohbo Story
If you’re tracking startup stories or building your own business, Nohbo offers a few concrete takeaways:
- A great concept doesn’t guarantee a working product. The shampoo ball idea was strong enough to land a deal with Mark Cuban. But it still needed a full redesign before it could work in practice.
- B2B can be a smarter early path than going direct-to-consumer. Nohbo found more traction selling to hotels than handling individual consumer orders, especially during the redesign phase.
- Operational scaling is its own challenge. Customers waited years for orders after the 2020 update. Good product and good funding don’t automatically solve supply chain and fulfillment problems.
- Founders can move on. Stern built something real, then stepped away when it made sense. His next move — building Tenakara AI — shows that a single startup is rarely the end of the story.
Is Nohbo Still Available?
The Nohbo website is currently inactive, and the brand’s social media channels have been quiet since 2022. If you’re looking to buy similar products, Sunrise Session appears to carry forward the same concept — plastic-free, dissolvable personal care pods — though the exact connection to the original Nohbo entity isn’t fully confirmed in public records.
What started as a 16-year-old’s idea to replace plastic shampoo bottles became a company that generated roughly $8 million in annual revenue, won sustainability awards, and supplied hotels with a product that didn’t exist when Stern first walked onto the Shark Tank stage. That’s a more complete outcome than most Shark Tank pitches ever reach.
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