For folks who live active lives, having a reusable water vessel is paramount. Water bottles are an extension of us, going everywhere we go. We fill them, sip, and fill them again. Eventually, they become a bit dirty — perhaps even a little funky. Then, we are tasked with figuring out the best way to clean our emotional support water bottles. The dishwasher doesn't get all the nooks, crannies, and valves, and soaking them in harsh chemicals isn't the best option. This "dirty bottle dilemma" is the problem Season 6 "Shark Tank" contestants Seth Friedman and Justin Koehneke sought to resolve with Bottle Bright.

Friedman and Koehneke were just two mountain-biking buddies before they partnered to develop Bottle Bright, a plant-and-mineral-based dissolvable tablet that works to naturally clean and sanitize dirty bottles and remove odors. It was their mission to find an all natural cleaner for their CamelBaks that fell in line with their healthy lifestyles. They spent over a year developing the perfect effervescent formula containing ingredients like hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, wood pulp, and citrus fruits. While they found a niche by private-labeling the product for other brands, they were ready to take Bottle Bright to the next level, so they brought it to the Sharks in 2015. 

What happened to Bottle Bright on Shark Tank?

During Season 6, Episode 14, Seth Friedman and Justin Koehneke walked onto the "Shark Tank" stage, asking for $75,000 in exchange for a 15% stake in Bottle Bright. Right off the bat, Lori Greiner compared the product to the popular denture cleaner, Efferdent. However, they countered that Bottle Bright was made with all-natural ingredients. Far less excited than he was about Clean Bottle (a water bottle that opens at both ends for easy cleaning), Kevin O'Leary jumped in to say that he didn't foresee consumers caring much about the product and anticipated low sales. Friedman and Koehneke revealed that in the year before their TV appearance, they generated $110,000 in sales and another $85,000 that year. Because they private-label manufactured the product for two outside businesses, each pack cost $.79 to make, retailed for $2.99 , and were sold by the companies for $5.99 per unit.

After revealing that the company suffered a $100,000 loss when a large quantity of product was damaged in transit, O'Leary felt compelled to call Bottle Bright a "bad idea" and a "loser" before dropping out. Robert Herjavec, Barbara Corcoran, and Mark Cuban quickly followed suit. Greiner, however, offered the partners some advice about using investments to sell more product instead of for administrative purposes as they intended. When they said they'd be happy to take her advice, she made a $75,000 bid for a 35% stake and floated using her connections at QVC and Bed Bath & Beyond. Koehneke countered, asking if she'd take 25%. Ultimately, they agreed on 33.3%. 

Bottle Bright After Shark Tank

Seth Friedman and Justin Koehneke were thrilled to strike a deal with Lori Greiner and even called her their "dream Shark." Apparently, she lived up to the hype. Not only did she make good on their deal, she also helped them transition from a strictly online presence to selling the product in brick-and-mortar stores. After the show, Bottle Bright was sold in upwards of 50 Bed Bath & Beyond locations, thanks to Greiner's connections with the home goods store. You can still find it there nearly a decade later. 

This increased visibility apparently did a world of good. In a surprising turn of events (at least for Kevin O'Leary), in 2019, Bottle Bright was acquired by HydraPak, a company that makes sporty drinking vessels and rakes in an estimated $15 million a year.  It's unclear how much HydraPak shelled out for the company, but with folks who use hydration packs as their main market, it seems like a natural fit.

Is Bottle Bright still in business?

If you're wondering how in the world you're supposed to clean that dirty Hydro Flask, lucky for you, Bottle Bright is still in business. Although it appears Seth Friedman and Justin Koehneke stepped away from the company after the HydraPak acquisition, the product still seems to be going strong under the new company's reign. 

While the original owners initially sold 10-packs of the Bottle Bright tablets, you can now find packs of 12, 36, or 78 tablets (for $8.00, $20.00, and $38.00, respectively) on Bottle Bright's website.The same options are also available for purchase on Amazon, though they cost slightly more. Thanks to HydraPak's connections to athletic and outdoor retailers, Bottle Bright has also expanded to sell brushes of various sizes that fit into bottles and valves as well as Gear Cleaning tablets for cleaning larger containers. While the original Bottle Bright tab is intended to be mixed in 1 liter of water, the gear tablet should be mixed with 3 liters of water.

What's next for Bottle Bright and its founders?

While HydraPak has been busy taking Bottle Bright to new heights, it's founders have been on their own journeys. Justin Koehneke — who's LinkedIn bio reads, "Serial Experimenter, Marketer, Consultant — I shepherd half-baked notions into 'Whoa, that actually worked!' moments," has been busy with several entrepreneurial endeavors. Until 2020, Koehneke stayed busy as a content marketer, website designer, and sales funnel director for other businesses, helping them to strategically grow their customer bases. However, for the last five years, he has been an email and growth consultant for Haymaker, a company he started in 2020, focusing on gaining more customers for CBD brands via a successful emailing strategy.

Seth Friedman, on the other hand, has remained out of the public eye since "Shark Tank" and the Bottle Bright acquisition. The entrepreneur is does not appear to have a public presence on social media and has no LinkedIn profile. It's unknown if he and his former co-founder keep in contact.