Rutgers Grad Wins Backing on Shark Tank for Therapeutic Soap

A therapeutic soap massage bar cooked up in the kitchen of a Rutgers physical therapy graduate earned the backing of a billionaire on the TV show Shark Tank.

“It’s been a crazy few weeks,” said Daniel Staats, who created the soap bar in his kitchen in Point Pleasant that is specially shaped to soothe aches and pains. He cofounded SorSoap with David Restiano, who had been a physical therapy patient. The pair accepted a $100,000 investment offer from Shark Tank's Mark Cuban.

Staats, who graduated from the School of Health Professions Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program in 2004, and Restiano pitched their product on the show in June – but had to keep the exciting news to themselves until the show aired on April 12.

“We had three weeks’ notice that it was going to be on, so we made sure we had enough of everything in stock and had a big party at a local restaurant,” Staats said.

Even so, they are trying to keep up with the demand – their total sales have doubled since the show aired two weeks ago.

The idea came out of a physical therapy session.

Two years ago, Staats, who operates Staats Physical Therapy practice in Brick, was working on Restiano’s hip flexor with a therapy tool. A week later, Restiano called to say that, while using soap in his shower, he had an idea for a massage bar made of soap that could be designed to replicate the tool used by Staats.

“He thought this is similar to what Dr. Dan was doing. When he called me, I said that’s great,” said Staats. “And I started making soap in the kitchen, but there’s a byproduct called lye and it’s highly poisonous. I had to dress in Ghostbusters protective clothing and get everybody in my family out of the house.”

Using a silicone mold, he designed a bar of soap with a grip handle and curved edges that could be used while showering to soothe daily aches and pains.

He conducted a study on the effectiveness of the soap, testing it out on deli meat slicers. The 30-day trial showed the use of the soap significantly improved muscle and soft tissue performance and function. The study led to an article co-authored by Staats that was published in the peer-reviewed journal  Occupational Diseases and Environmental Medicine in August 2022.

He said the Shark Tank producers were impressed that he could validate the results of the product with science.

Still, the first four investors on Shark Tank passed on the product, with one saying that it would be too difficult to mass-market. But Cuban, owner of the basketball team the Dallas Mavericks, had been using the SorSoap during the pitch to massage his sore neck – and he liked the results.

“My neck has been killing me,” Cuban said. “It fixed my damn neck. That’s the reason I’m giving you an offer.”

In addition to being a Rutgers graduate, Staats returned to the physical therapy department as an adjunct professor. Department Chair Nancy Kirsch said she loved seeing him on Shark Tank.

“It filled me with tremendous pride to watch a colleague and graduate of the Rutgers DPT program in the national spotlight speak so proudly of being a physical therapist,” she said.

She said his entrepreneurial spirit was evident as a student when he worked on a required project.  “He embraced the opportunity to be creative, and looked forward to the day that he would take his project from design to implementation.”  

Staats said the partners hope to use the money to offset production costs. The soap is manufactured at a small facility in Nebraska, but the quantities have been too low to support the use of a more efficient but more expensive automated process. 

They plan to create a branded line for the Dallas Mavericks, and perhaps, other sports franchises.

While the partners found success with their product and are now working on another therapy tool, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.

“We had our ups and downs. We put a lot of money into the company and at times wondered, 'When will we see a return on this?'” Staats said.

“But my partner is the most optimistic person you’ve ever met. So if I shared a shadow of a doubt that this would not work, he’d squash it in two seconds,’’ Staats said. Right now, it’s paying off, so all is good.”