Here's What Went Down With Sunscreenr After Shark Tank
Cast your mind back to 2016 and you may remember a product pop up on "Shark Tank" called the Sunscreenr. The device is a specialized UV light camera that allows you to scan your skin and see whether you've sufficiently applied enough sunblock (because we should be slapping on that SPF every single day) to be properly protected from dangerous rays.
The company was founded by entrepreneurs Dave Cohen and Jon Mayer, who created the camera under their Voxelight umbrella business following some difficult family circumstances. "We designed Sunscreenr to protect our own families. Each of us has watched family members struggle with skin cancer. We wanted to create a way to better protect our children and ourselves from sun damage," they explained to The Dermatologist in a 2016 interview.
The two created Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns to help get the idea off the ground, but they also knew that could do with a little more help to really help the idea to take off and reach people all over the world. That's how Cohen and Mayer found themselves on none other than "Shark Tank."
Sunscreener landed a six-figure deal on Shark Tank
Sunscreenr appeared on Season 8 of "Shark Tank" when Dave Cohen went solo to show off the healthy skin gadget to Mark Cuban, Daymond John, Kevin O'Leary, Lori Greiner, and Robert Herjavec. Cohen headed into the Tank looking for $800,000 in exchange for 10% equity. During his pitch, he revealed his company had raised more than $270,000 in crowdfunding, but hadn't actually shipped out any products yet due to some challenges sourcing the UV camera. This didn't exactly leave the Sharks impressed. Mark Cuban was the first to make it clear he wouldn't be investing, admitting he wasn't confident in Cohen's ability to be able to run the business himself. Herjavec was next, declaring himself out over Cohen's admission that the UV camera is best used every 30 minutes during exposure to the sun.
However, despite previously taking issue with Cohen's $8 million dollar business valuation, O'Leary was in. He told Cohen that he was willing to give the full $800,000 — but he wanted 33.3% of the company in exchange. After that, Greiner dropped out, leaving O'Leary the only one with an offer on the table. Cohen tried to haggle Mr. Wonderful down to 25% equity, but the Shark made it clear he wouldn't go any lower. And, with that, Cohen and O'Leary agreed to a deal.
Sunscreenr saw serious delays after Shark Tank
After "Shark Tank," it seems Sunscreenr continued fundraising, since the company Kickstarter page remained active in the months following the Cohen's episode. The page is still active at the time of writing, but hasn't been updated since 2018, when it received $119,629 from 1,319 investors. Back then, Dave Cohen kept fans updated with the Suncreenr journey via the outlet, but wasn't able to offer a lot of good news for quite a while. In the first update since "Shark Tank," shared in December 2016, Cohen confirmed there would be a further delay in shipping out the product due to the sourcing issue he touched on during his "Shark Tank" appearance. It wasn't actually until June 2018 that the product finally started shipping out to customers. That meant it missed the "Shark Tank" publicity bump a number of businesses, including the deodorant brand Curie, saw immediately after its episode aired.
But, despite that setback, it still seems as though things were going pretty well for a while. In 2017, Sunscreenr received a good amount of media attention, including being featured on the likes of Vogue. By 2019, it had launched its own app. The concept was also tested by a few famous faces, with Suncreenr sharing a snap on Instagram showing none other than Wesley Snipes checking out Sunscreenr's ZEISS UV viewer device during an expo in January 2019.
Continued delays appeared to result in the end of the business
But, sadly, it seemed even having celebrities check out the Sunscreenr couldn't make it the success Dave Cohen hoped it could be. Suncreenr appeared to go out of business, as the product is impossible to find online and its social media accounts have been abandoned. The company's final Instagram post happened in 2019, while its X account hasn't been updated since 2017. On top of that, its one-time website, sunscreenr.com, is also no longer available to the public. Unfortunately, this also means those who already paid for their product won't get to use it either. In one 2020 Reddit thread, consumers point out that the app had been disabled and contact with the company had stopped. So it seems like Suncreenr never really got off the ground after months of delays.
A look at Dave Cohen's LinkedIn also appears to confirm that Sunscreenr is no more. Cohen lists himself as the CEO & Founder of Voxelight, the company that oversaw Suncreenr, from October 2015 until September 2022. It doesn't appear the business continued on after that.
Dave Cohen and John Meyer appear to have moved on from their UV ray days
So, what's Suncreenr founder Dave Cohen up to today now the product is no longer around? Well, according to his LinkedIn, he's moved on from life with Voxelight and Sunscreenr. At the time of writing, he lists himself as working as a staff life sciences technology manager at Plexus Corp., a role he's been in since May 2022.
As for Cohen's his one-time business partner, John Meyer, he also appears to be busy with other projects. His LinkedIn doesn't make any mention of Voxelight or Sunscreenr, but instead lists his current role, chief technology officer at CAPTRUST, as the job he's held since 2016. That suggests Voxelight and Sunscreenr were potentially never his full-time focus in the same way they seemed to be Cohen's.
But while the two sadly couldn't make Sunscreenr a huge success, there's no doubting they did manage bring attention to the serious dangers that UV rays can have on our bodies (even including our hair!) And you really can't put a price on that.