Arizona-based DynoSafe will be featured on Shark Tank to pitch a solution to limit the increasing number of porch pirates and ruined packages.
On April 2, East Valley entrepreneurs Rebecca Romanucci, DynoSafe CEO and Founder, and her husband Eric Romanucci will stand in front of the infamous Shark Tank panel in the hopes of securing an investment deal with one of them.
Rebecca Romanucci decided to apply for Shark Tank more for awareness than anything else. Right now, Dynosafe is pre-production and pre-revenue and customers have to join a waitlist. Rebecca’s hoping a deal with one of the Sharks can move the lockbox to the next phase.
Rebecca can’t share whether or not they made a deal or how much money they were asking for because of contractual obligations to the show, but she says the experience was anxiety-inducing and intense.
“They behave like unruly children,” she says.
DynoSafe is a climate-controlled, smart-home integrated lockbox that prevents packages from being stolen or spoiling on porches. The lockbox stores perishable items, like groceries and medicine, at the right temperature and features one-click unlock and battery-powered keypad access.
Both Rebecca and Eric have worked in the medical industry — Rebecca as a registered nurse and Eric as a colorectal surgeon and Colonel in the US Army Reserve. Both are advocates for veterans and their families and Rebecca invented DynoSafe with them in mind. She hopes it will provide a way to increase independence for those suffering from PTSD and other disabilities that make going to the grocery store or pharmacy difficult — or impossible.
The Romanuccis call their lockbox a “last-mile delivery solution,” designed to make sure package contents get from the delivery truck to the customer’s hands in “protected, unattended and contactless delivery.” They’re hoping the Sharks will see the product’s potential in a world where online shopping has become more and more popular, especially during the pandemic.
Rebecca believes the box will be especially attractive to online grocery shoppers and she’s banking on what she sees as huge market potential. She’s been in touch with several grocery store executives about implementation of the product and she says the one thing all grocers have in common is a “tremendous desperation” for something like DynoSafe.
Online grocery shopping claimed $106 billion — about 10% — of the $1.04 trillion grocery industry in 2020, according to a recent study by Mercatus. By 2025, the online grocery market is expected to grow to more than $250 billion.
Not only did online shopping increase in 2020, but so did the number of stolen packages. According to a recent study by C+R Research, 43% of Americans reported having at least one package stolen in 2020 — up 7% from 2019 — and 61% knew someone who had a package stolen, up from 56% in 2019.
DynoSafe could prove to be an alternative to Americans’ current package theft prevention solutions. Some of these solutions include staying home for deliveries, choosing to use in-store pickups or shopping in-store or installing a surveillance camera/doorbell.
The current iteration of the lockbox is fairly large and reminiscent of a treasure chest, which could potentially be a deterrent to customers. But Rebecca says that each retailer can specify the box size and incentives to meet specific customer needs. The Romanuccis also make big claims of the lockbox’s potential power, noting that DynoSafe protects from disease-causing organisms and significantly reduces fuel use, CO2 emissions and traffic congestion.
Ultimately, it will be up to the Shark Tank panel to decide if they want to write a check.
Will the two make a deal? Find out Friday, April 2 at 7pm.