Let’s take a second and be honest about something: Our smartphones are far from the cleanest things we have. They lie on virtually any surface imaginable, we drop them, and hand them off to other people whose hands may or may not be clean. It’s not like you can just dunk a smartphone in water and wash it with soap, either. Enter PhoneSoap, Wesley LaPorte’s and Daniel Barnes’ solution to sanitizing your smartphone.
Even though the case is called PhoneSoap, it doesn’t actually use soap to sanitize your handset. Instead, it uses the same ultraviolet light that is used “in clean rooms around the world.” The case, which charges your phone while it’s being cleaned, allegedly kills 99.9 percent of germs in a span of five minutes. Of course, your phone won’t be in PhoneSoap all day, so the company also offers a microfiber cleaning pad and screen polish, as well as an antimicrobial case.
If PhoneSoap sounds familiar, it’s because LaPorte and Barnes showed it off in a recent episode of Shark Tank. At first, PhoneSoap doesn’t make a great impression on most of the investors, but Mark Cuban stepped forward and thought it would be a good idea for hospitals. He then made a $300,000 deal with 15 percent ownership. “Queen of QVC” Lori Greiner thought it would be an even better idea for consumers, then stepped forward with a $300,000 offer, so long as she holds 20 percent ownership of the company. A far cry from the 7.5 percent ownership LaPorte and Barnes were looking for, Greiner then lowered ownership to 10 percent.
LaPorte and Barnes agreed, and QVC will sell the device sometime in the near future. In the meantime, you can purchase PhoneSoap online and through a few Staples locations for $60. The aforementioned microfiber cleaning pad and screen polish go for $5 and $15, respectively. Meanwhile, the antimicrobial case costs $20.