Your phone slips out of the cup holder, hits the seat and drops into the gap beside the center console, and you reach for it while you’re doing 40. Marc Newburger did exactly that on Sunset Boulevard, drifted toward the sidewalk, and nearly hit a pedestrian and a telephone pole. He and his friend Jeffrey Simon went off and made a flexible filler that blocks the gap, and in 2013 they sold a 20% stake in it to Lori Greiner on Shark Tank.
This post covers how Drop Stop started, how the pitch and the offers played out (the final deal was not the one most recaps say), what sales did afterward, and what the company might be worth. The money part is murky. Drop Stop is private, and the lifetime sales figures published about it differ by tens of millions of dollars, so I’ve said where each number comes from.
Who started Drop Stop
The founders are Marc Newburger and Jeffrey Simon, both of Los Angeles. Mamalode describes Simon as Newburger’s closest friend and business partner. Newburger’s close call came while he was driving on Sunset Boulevard and reached for a phone that had slipped between the seat and the console. He later described it as “one split second of inattention that nearly claimed two lives,” and the two decided to build something that blocked the gap.
What they came up with is a foam rubber tube that slides over the seatbelt clip, with a slot cut for the buckle. A patent application for the design was published in 2009, and the company’s first press coverage dates to that year.
Early on, they funded the venture by asking eight friends to chip in thousands of dollars each — without telling them what the product was — promising each one a $1 million return once profits came in. A 2017 CNBC profile confirmed the founders were still paying off those eight original investors years after the show.
They had real sales before the cameras. By the time of the pitch they had sold more than 250,000 units and generated around $1.3 million in total sales through their website, catalogs and 42 QVC appearances. A two-pack retailed for $19.99. An appearance on The View brought in roughly $122,000 more, per co-founder Jeffrey Simon.
The Shark Tank pitch
Drop Stop appeared in Season 4, Episode 20, which aired on March 29, 2013. Newburger and Simon asked for $300,000 for 15%, a $2 million valuation. Here’s how the Sharks responded:
| Shark | Result | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Lori Greiner | $300,000 for 20% | Pitched her retail and QVC expertise; the founders accepted |
| Kevin O’Leary | $300,000 for a $2 per unit royalty, later revised to $1 per unit | No equity, which is why it lost |
| Mark Cuban | Out | Liked the product but didn’t think he could add value |
| Daymond John | Out | Liked the numbers but passed |
| Robert Herjavec | Out | Wasn’t a true believer |
The final deal was $300,000 for 20%, not the 15% they asked for, and that values the company at $1.5 million. Plenty of summaries online print 15% as the deal, probably because that’s the number in the ask. Wikipedia, Looper and CNBC all confirm 20%. Daymond John didn’t make an offer — if you’ve seen one attributed to him elsewhere, that’s wrong.
Taking Lori meant giving up more equity and accepting a lower valuation than they’d asked for. O’Leary’s royalty would have left them with all of their ownership, but they went with the Shark who sells on QVC and in big retail.
What happened after the episode
The first numbers were big. Shark Tank Blog reports close to $500,000 in sales right after the episode aired and $5 million within five months, with $15 million projected for the next year. Looper cites Beyond the Tank for about $10 million in sales over the 18 months after the appearance, and Lori Greiner told a Staples event that Drop Stop had done $12 million in its first three years. The real trajectory was somewhere across all of those figures.
Retail followed. A second Shark Tank follow-up in December 2014 announced Drop Stop was available at Bed Bath & Beyond in a Lori Greiner-branded display. Shark Tank Blog lists expansion into Walmart (3,500 stores), Target, Staples and Bed Bath & Beyond, and Looper notes it has at times been the top-selling automotive accessory on Amazon.
The biggest institutional customer is the police. A Shark Tank update that aired January 21, 2018 revealed the LAPD had run a three-month test with zero traffic-related accidents in equipped vehicles, and committed to equipping 3,000 cars. Greiner also helped organise a donation of over 400 Drop Stops to the LAPD.
Drop Stop net worth and revenue
There’s no published valuation. Drop Stop is private, and the sales totals that circulate are sequential milestones at different points in time — not competing claims:
| When | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Before the show | About $1.3 million total | Shark Tank Blog |
| Five months after | $5 million | Shark Tank Blog |
| 18 months after | About $10 million | Looper, citing Beyond the Tank |
| Three years after | $12 million | Lori Greiner, via Yahoo Finance / Staples event |
| December 2017 | $24 million lifetime | CNBC |
| Season 11 on-air update | $40 million lifetime | SlashGear / Shark Tank Blog — founders announced on-air during Greiner’s $1B celebration segment |
| 2024 (per Newburger) | 9 million units sold | SlashGear, citing AEPi interview |
The most solid single-source figure is the December 2017 CNBC article confirming $24 million in lifetime sales. The $40 million figure carries real authority because it came from the founders themselves in an on-air Shark Tank segment. The $60 million figure you’ll see on a separate Shark Tank Blog page is an editorial headline characterisation, not a figure the founders stated — treat it as approximate. Lori Greiner’s own site claims $100 million with no date or breakdown; that’s a promotional number.
Annual revenue is also soft. Looper cites ZoomInfo for $5 million to $5.4 million a year and 27 employees — an automated estimate rather than anything the company has stated. Shark Tank Companies corroborates $5 million annual revenue as of 2024.
Valuation
No confirmed valuation exists beyond $1.5 million post-money from the 2013 deal. At 1.5 to 2 times the $5 million annual revenue estimate, you land at around $8 million to $11 million. If the larger lifetime sales claims are accurate, the real number could be higher. Treat it as rough arithmetic, not a reported figure.
Greiner’s return is also unpublished. She paid $300,000 for 20% of a company valued at $1.5 million, and the company has since done over $40 million in confirmed lifetime sales. What she has earned from her stake, nobody outside the company has said.
What founders can take from it
Start with a problem you’ve actually run into. The idea came from a near accident, and the product does one clear thing. Anyone who has dropped a phone while driving understands it immediately, with no explanation needed.
Sell it before you pitch it. They had $1.3 million in sales and 42 QVC appearances behind them when they walked into the Tank. Mark Cuban and Daymond John liked the numbers and still passed — but those numbers were why Lori and Kevin both made offers.
Choose the investor for what they can do, not just the terms. O’Leary’s royalty let them keep their equity. They gave up 20% to Lori anyway, and Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond and Target followed within two years.
Don’t expect the show to do all the selling. Sales kept coming from QVC, retail buyers and fleet customers like police departments long after the episode aired. The Shark Tank bump was the beginning, not the business.
FAQs
Who owns Drop Stop today?
Marc Newburger and Jeffrey Simon founded it, and both remain involved. Through her Shark Tank deal, Lori Greiner took a 20% stake in the company. No other ownership changes have been reported publicly, though the eight original pre-show investors were still being paid off as of 2017.
Is Drop Stop still in business?
Yes. Lori Greiner’s site still lists it, and Shark Tank Blog confirms it continues to operate through online sales and retail partners as of 2024. Check buydropstop.com for current stock.
How much did Lori Greiner make from Drop Stop?
No one has published a figure. She invested $300,000 for 20% and has called it one of her most successful Shark Tank investments, with confirmed lifetime sales now above $40 million.
Where can you buy Drop Stop?
BuyDropStop.com, Amazon and Walmart. Looper noted a two-pack listing at $24.99 in 2022, up from $19.99 at the time of the show.
What was the Shark Tank deal?
$300,000 for 20% from Lori Greiner, on a pitch that asked for 15%. The deal valued the company at $1.5 million.
How much is Drop Stop worth?
No confirmed figure exists. Lifetime sales exceeded $40 million as of the founders’ own on-air statement in a Shark Tank Season 11 update. Annual revenue is estimated at around $5 million. A rough valuation based on that revenue would be $8 million to $11 million, but that is an estimate, not a reported number.
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