NightCap was invented 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 that could protect her and her friends when they went off to college. She also wanted to make sure that the product would be something that 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 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 6 months working to bring NightCap from concept to reality.
Since launching, NightCap has won multiple awards including Florida State University’s InNOLEvation Challenge, Tallahassee Startup Week’s Annual Pitch Competition, FSU’s Turkey Tank, and FSU’s Jim Moran Micro Grant. NightCap also has been featured on the Fox Business Network, and in USA Today, among many other media outlets. Michael and Shirah believe that NightCap will save lives and are working diligently to make it available to women around the world.
Nightcap was featured on ABC’s hit television series Shark Tank on February 5th 2021 (Season 12 | Episode 12). Shirah and Michael struck one of fastest deals in Shark Tank history with Lori Greiner.
