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Boca Raton’s Stewart Gold entered the tank with confidence. He was seeking his $75,000 in exchange for his 20% of the company. Ultimately, he signed Kevin O’Leary.
BOCA RATON — On Friday, Jan. 12, Stewart Gold felt a whirlwind of emotions as he watched himself on television from his Boca Raton living room.
So, before ABC’s “Sharks,” he appeared on the hit reality business show “Shark Tank” to promote what he had been working on for the past four years.
Back in 2019, Gold and his friend and then business partner Mark Hamilton began working on a baby product that tackled diaper changing. The two met as neighbors in England and bonded over becoming fathers.
They quickly learned that the implementation was not simple. Responsibilities like changing a newborn’s diapers required me to rethink almost everything. How to keep your baby entertained was at the forefront of that list.
So they devised a device to do just that. The product, now known as the Dingle Dangle, is essentially a portable cloth baby mobile that can be wrapped around a parent’s head.
The device is already popular among new parents and first appeared on American television screens last Friday as “Tank.”
What happened on that episode of ‘Shark Tank’?
Gold confidently entered the tank. He was seeking $75,000 in exchange for 20% of his and Hamilton’s company.
“It’s a shark,” Gold said. “When my wife chose me to be our primary diaper changer, I had no idea that the job would involve so much kicking, screaming, squirming, thrashing, rolling, and kicking. Changing a diaper was almost like wrestling a crocodile.”
The Sharks laughed but were intrigued. Mr. Gold tied a dingle dangle around his head and showed him how it worked. As a head tool to help diaper and change your baby, as a portable baby mobile that clips onto the stroller, and as a removable sensory rattle.
“That’s very smart,” Lori Greiner, who has been a Shark since 2012, told him.
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Daymond John, another member of the Sharks, tried it on and strutted around the stage with it.
Gold said Dingle Dangle had $67,000 worth of sales as of 2022, but he and Hamilton quickly ran out of product. In 2023, sales were approximately $40,000. This year, Gold expects revenue from this product to be $185,000.
For some reason, the sharks each bowed.
“There was a pause for about 10 seconds,” Gold said, recalling the moment. “As I was standing there after the last shark left, I thought, ‘Look, this isn’t me.’
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Gold said he had a hunch in his head that the sharks might bring Dingle Dangle. He just wasn’t ready to give up.
“People love this product,” he told them. “This is for a market segment that doesn’t get a whole lot of attention: dads. New dads.”
And Kevin O’Leary, the shark known to many as Mr. Wonderful, is back. They settled with Gold in the form of royalties in the form of $1 per unit until $300,000 is returned to them on top of their original contract.
At first, O’Leary didn’t seem too interested, even questioning the “silly factor” the product visualized.
“As my wife can attest, I’m one of the stupidest people on the planet,” he said on the show. “It’s designed to look stupid.”
But it was Mr. O’Leary who ultimately signed on.
“Kevin is a tough businessman and that’s what we need,” Gold said. “We want to be known in the baby industry, and we think Kevin is the perfect partner to get us there.”
But Gold said the coolest part of watching himself appear on the show was seeing his 8-year-old son next to him, watching in awe.
Sales have skyrocketed since the Season 15 episode aired, Gold said. He received emails from new parents across the country and around the world.
What is a dingle dangle?
Diaper changing helper, portable baby mobile, and sensory rattle for children aged 13 to 18 months.
Developers say the product was created with both parents and children in mind. One of his options for gadgets has a colorful cloth octopus hanging from it, and another has a turtle with a mirror attached to its belly. But even though most parents only use them for a few minutes at a time, Hamilton and Gold created a design with comfort in mind that is suitable for wear for about an hour at a time.
How can I get the Dingle Dangle?
Dingle Dangle playsets can be ordered online at dingledanglebaby.com.
Prices start at $39.99 and there are five interchangeable parts. Each feature is designed to stimulate important developmental milestones in your baby, such as vision and cognitive function. You can also find it on Amazon.
The Dingle Dangle site is currently accepting entries until January 30th for a Shark Tank giveaway to win a $350 baby gift.
Jasmine Fernandez is a journalist covering Delray Beach and Boca Raton for the Palm Beach Post. You can contact her at jfernandez@pbpost.com and follow her on X (formerly Twitter). @Jasmine Fernands. Please support our activities. Subscribe now.
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