How I Made Over $220M In Sales Creating Scrub Daddy

Before the smiling Scrub Daddy sponge was a staple in millions of American kitchens, it was rejected by a Fortune 500 company.

Scrub Daddy inventor Aaron Krause, 45, sold his first company, which made buffing pads, to 3M in 2008. He tried to include the now-ubiquitous dish sponge he had invented, which was marketed as a “hand scrubber.”

“They carved [the sponge] out of the deal, and left it with me because it was so worthless,” Krause told Fortune in a recent YouTube interview. The circular yellow sponge sat in a box, untouched, for three years.

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Scrub Daddy founder explains how the iconic sponge shape was born

“The scrub daddy is actually my hand,” said 54-year-old founder and CEO Aaron Krause. Today, Scrub Daddy has made over $220 million in sales in 2023.