Ep. 96 | Amazing Drink Spiking Prevention Device Goes Viral - Michael Bernarde Co-Founder and President of Night Cap

NightCap was invented in early 2019 by then 16-year-old Shirah Benarde from West Palm Beach, Florida. The idea came to her in a dream after hearing about the horrors of drink spiking from friends who experienced it after going off to college. Fortunately, her friends were okay, but Shirah was determined to come up with a pragmatic solution to this problem to protect her and her friends when they went off to college. She also wanted to make sure the product would be something girls would feel comfortable using. The next morning, she went to her mother’s closet, grabbed a pair of pantyhose, cut them up, and attached them to a scrunchie to create the first NightCap prototype.

 

Her brother, Michael, 21 at the time, came home from college for the summer and saw the prototype sitting on a table. As someone who had been living on a college campus for four years, he understood how prevalent this problem was — and is. Knowing that there was no product on the market that had been adopted at scale, Michael saw huge potential for NightCap due to its unbeatable convenience and reusability. Together, Michael and Shirah took action and spent the next six months working to bring NightCap from concept to reality.

 

Nightcap was featured on ABC’s hit television series Shark Tank on February 5, 2021 (Season 12 | Episode 12). Shirah and Michael struck one of the fastest deals in Shark Tank history with Shark Lori Greiner who wasted no time jumping in. 

 

In this episode, Micahel Benarde who is Co-Founder and President of NightCap joins us on another episode of Small Biz Florida to discuss the story of Night Cap, their experience on Shark Tank, and his advice for young entrepreneurs. 

– Check out NightCap: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nightcapit/ 

For more segments like these, subscribe to Small Biz Florida and Follow the official Small Biz Florida Instagram! This and the following segments were recorded at this year’s annual JMI Small Business Leadership Conference hosted at the JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes. These segments were also cohosted by Dr. Herbert Ricardo Professor at the School of Business at Indian River State College.

– Connect w/ Dr. Herbert Ricardo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/herbert-ricardo-ph-d-91b1ba225/

– To learn more about the JMI Institute, visit their website here

– To learn more about the JMI Small Business Leadership Conference, visit their website here