Pooch Selfie After Shark Tank: Is It Out of Business or Still Selling?

Jason Hernandez walked into the Shark Tank visibly shaking, holding a simple but clever solution for every pet owner’s daily frustration: getting a dog to look at the camera.

His smartphone attachment, equipped with a squeaky tennis ball, aimed to end blurry dog photos forever, but a saturated market of cheap imitations was waiting in the shadows.

The Bottom Line (Executive Summary)

• The Pitch: Jason Hernandez sought $100,000 for 20% equity in Season 10. He landed an emotional, on-air deal with Daymond John for $100,000 in exchange for 33.3% equity.
• Current Status: As of today, Pooch Selfie is largely unavailable on major e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Walmart. The brand operates as a “zombie” company; the proprietary website remains online, but mainstream retail operations have ceased.
• Founder Update: Hernandez officially exited his role at Pooch Selfie in early 2022. He currently works in the corporate tech and plastics manufacturing sector as a Key Account Manager.

What is Pooch Selfie?

Pooch Selfie is a custom, slide-on smartphone clip that holds a squeaky tennis ball directly above a phone’s camera lens to capture a dog’s attention for photographs. Originally funded via Kickstarter, the physical device is designed to work with both front- and rear-facing cameras on most Apple and Android devices without needing to remove the phone’s case.

Getting a dog to sit still for a photograph is a notorious challenge for pet owners. Dogs are easily distracted by sights, sounds, and smells. The Pooch Selfie intercepts that distraction. By placing a brightly colored, squeaking tennis ball right above the camera sensor, the dog’s eyes naturally lock onto the lens. 

It operates on a simple psychological premise: high prey drive and toy motivation equal perfect eye contact. The product includes the customized smartphone bracket and one proprietary squeaky ball.

Industry	Founder(s)	Core Product	Original Retail Price	Target Audience
Pet Products	Jason Hernandez	Dog Selfie Smartphone Attachment	$9.99	Dog Owners & Pet Influencers

The Founder Behind Pooch Selfie

Every hardware startup begins with an idea, but executing that idea is a brutal process. Jason Hernandez loved his dogs and wanted to document his time with them, but he realized his phone’s camera roll was full of blurred tails and the sides of his dogs’ heads.

To solve this, he developed a rough prototype of a smartphone clip that could hold a tennis ball. Recognizing that he wasn’t the only dog owner with this problem, Hernandez took his concept to the internet. 

In 2015, he launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the initial manufacturing molds. The crowdfunding community responded enthusiastically. Hernandez successfully raised $39,897, giving him the capital required to push the product into physical reality.

However, hardware development is rarely a smooth road. Hernandez took on the enormous task of designing the product, the packaging, and the branding entirely by himself. Seeking lower manufacturing costs, he traveled to China to work directly with factory representatives on creating the injection molds.

This decision proved costly. As happens to many young entrepreneurs navigating overseas manufacturing, the factory ripped him off. They took his designs, produced the molds, and then allowed unbranded, identical versions of his product to flood the market.

Despite this massive intellectual property theft, Hernandez pushed forward. He invested $18,000 of his personal savings into the business and operated with zero debt. His sheer persistence eventually landed Pooch Selfie on the shelves of Bed Bath & Beyond. But physical retail is unforgiving. 

Placed in a standard aisle without an aggressive marketing display, the product confused average shoppers. It simply did not sell fast enough to justify the shelf space.

Bed Bath & Beyond heavily marked down the inventory, and Hernandez was left sitting on $100,000 worth of unsold stock. He needed a Shark’s capital and connections to pivot his strategy.

Pooch Selfie’s Shark Tank Pitch & Deal

Entering the Tank in Season 10, Episode 16, Jason Hernandez was a bundle of raw nerves. His hands shook as he stood on the carpet. The anxiety was so palpable that the Sharks actively paused the pitch, advising him to take a deep breath and collect himself before continuing.

Once he regained his composure, Hernandez delivered a solid presentation. He handed out samples of the Pooch Selfie clip to the panel, which included Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, and guest Shark Matt Higgins.

The financial breakdown immediately grabbed their attention. Hernandez revealed that each Pooch Selfie unit cost a mere $1.30 to manufacture and retailed for $9.99. These are exceptionally healthy profit margins for a physical consumer good. Furthermore, he had already generated $380,000 in lifetime sales up to the day of filming.

However, the mood shifted when Hernandez disclosed the dark side of his balance sheet. He confessed the disaster in China and the intellectual property theft. Worse, he admitted to the failure at Bed Bath & Beyond, telling the Sharks he was currently burdened with $100,000 in dead inventory. 

To a seasoned investor, a massive pile of slow-moving inventory is a giant red flag. It indicates cash flow problems and a fundamental mismatch between the product and its current sales channels.

Sensing the immense uphill battle regarding overseas knock-offs and stagnant retail inventory, the Sharks began dropping out. They liked Jason, but the business fundamentals were too messy.

Then, Daymond John changed the trajectory of the room. John, who built the massive FUBU empire, is known for investing in the person just as much as the product. He became visibly emotional, sharing a personal story about his own dog, Spartan. 

John explained that Spartan had recently passed away, and his biggest regret was that he never managed to capture a truly great photograph of his beloved pet before he died.

Driven by this profound personal connection to the product’s core mission, Daymond John stepped up. He bypassed Hernandez’s original request of 20% equity and offered the full $100,000 in exchange for 33.3% of the company. 

Knowing that John’s expertise in manufacturing, licensing, and retail placement was exactly what he needed to rescue his inventory, Jason Hernandez eagerly accepted the deal.

Season / Episode	Season 10 / Episode 16
Initial Ask & Valuation	$100,000 for 20% ($500,000 Valuation)
Sharks Present	Mark Cuban, Kevin O’Leary, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, Matt Higgins
Notable Offers	Daymond John: $100,000 for 33.3%
Final On-Air Deal	Daymond John: $100,000 for 33.3%

Did the Pooch Selfie Deal Actually Close?

The dramatic handshake on national television is only the first step in a Shark Tank investment. Following the broadcast, companies enter a rigorous due diligence phase where the Shark’s legal and financial teams audit the business.

So, did Daymond John actually sign the final deal for Pooch Selfie?

All available evidence points to the deal falling apart behind the scenes. According to the Shark Tank Blog’s extensive tracking, there is no public confirmation that the transaction was ever finalized.

When deals close, Sharks typically feature the products on their personal websites, include the founders in PR campaigns, or post updates on their social media channels. Daymond John never actively promoted Pooch Selfie in the years following the episode’s airing.

The likely culprit for the deal’s collapse was the severe knock-off issue. During due diligence, an investor’s team assesses market share and competitive threats. A quick search on Amazon in the months following the pitch would have revealed dozens of Chinese manufacturers selling exact replicas of the Pooch Selfie for a fraction of the price. 

Without a bulletproof utility patent to scrub those counterfeiters off the internet, protecting the $9.99 price point would be impossible. Faced with $100,000 in dead inventory and aggressive intellectual property theft, it is highly probable that Daymond John’s team advised him to walk away from the term sheet.

Pooch Selfie After Shark Tank: The Current Update

Following the immediate burst of sales from the Shark Tank broadcast, often called the “Shark Tank Effect,” Pooch Selfie expanded its footprint. For a brief period, the product found its way onto the digital shelves of Chewy, Amazon, The Grommet, and a few other specialty retailers.

However, the foundational issues discussed in the Tank only accelerated. Without the resources to fight endless legal battles, Hernandez watched as copycat products consumed his market share. Shoppers searching for “dog selfie sticks” on Amazon were met with identical widgets priced at $4.99 or $5.99, completely undercutting his margins.

The pressure of running a single-product hardware startup against an army of overseas manufacturers took its toll. Sometime in early 2022, Jason Hernandez made the difficult decision to step away from the brand he built. He updated his professional LinkedIn profile to indicate he was no longer operating the company.

As of today, Jason Hernandez has successfully transitioned into the corporate sector. He currently works as a Key Account Manager for Kingfa Sci. & Tech. Co., Ltd., a major player in the global plastics and advanced materials industry. His experience dealing with overseas injection molds and manufacturing, while painful during the Pooch Selfie days, undoubtedly gave him the specialized expertise required for his current, highly stable corporate role.

What is the Net Worth and Valuation of Pooch Selfie?

Estimating private company valuations requires analyzing their last known financial data, market position, and current operational status.

When Jason Hernandez pitched in Season 10, he valued Pooch Selfie at $500,000 (asking $100,000 for 20% equity). Daymond John’s on-air offer adjusted that valuation down to $300,000 ($100,000 for 33.3%).

Given the realities, the current valuation of Pooch Selfie is practically zero. Because the founder abandoned the project in 2022 and the physical inventory has been exhausted or liquidated from major channels, the company generates negligible active revenue.

While exact revenue is completely private, industry estimates place their total lifetime sales between $500,000 and $750,000, maxing out shortly after their Shark Tank appearance before the knock-offs seized the market.

Jason Hernandez’s personal net worth is now independent of Pooch Selfie. It is sustained by his corporate salary as a Key Account Manager rather than the sales of his former pet accessory business.

Is Pooch Selfie Still in Business?

For the average consumer, the answer is no. Pooch Selfie is no longer an active, operating retail business.

However, it exists in a state of digital limbo. If you visit PoochSelfie.com, the website is still active. The storefront appears functional, and the checkout system may even passively process orders.

But on the platforms where over 90% of modern consumer shopping occurs, the product is dead. A recent search on Amazon yields a “Currently Unavailable” tag for the official brand, and Walmart.com lists the item as explicitly “Out of Stock”.

When a founder leaves a company but the original domain stays live, it is usually managed by a third-party liquidator, or it simply runs on an automated web-hosting subscription until the domain registration expires. There are no new product lines, no social media updates, and no active marketing campaigns.

Where to Buy Dog Selfie Attachments?

While the original Pooch Selfie has faded from the marketplace, consumer demand for the concept remains steady. Pet owners who want to capture the perfect photo of their dog still have plenty of options.

The void left by Pooch Selfie was quickly filled by private-label sellers on Amazon and Walmart. Currently, you can easily find functional alternatives by searching for generic terms like “dog selfie stick,” “pet smartphone attachment,” or “dog picture ball clip”.

These modern alternatives often feature minor upgrades to avoid direct patent infringement, such as universal magnetic rings that snap onto Apple’s MagSafe cases, or adjustable arms that can hold standard treats instead of just a tennis ball. Most of these generic attachments retail between $9.00 and $15.00 and can be delivered with standard next-day shipping.