I Took My Breastfeeding Solution to 'Shark Tank'— Now It's Making Thousands of Moms Feel More Comfortable (2025)

For What to Expect's "Mom Heroes" series, parents who have gone to great lengths to help others share their inspirational stories.

By Jacqueline Samuelson, as told to Sarah Bruning

When my daughter, Sunny, was about 5 months old, I reached a breaking point. It was August 2022, and we were at my cousin’s baptism when Sunny needed to breastfeed. Even though I was wearing a lightweight dress, the summer heat in the stuffy church felt unbearable, especially when I draped a nursing cover over me and Sunny. It felt so hot, I worried whether Sunny was overheating. So for the 20-minute feeding session, I asked my husband to hold the cover up away from my body and aim a portable electric fan we’d brought underneath the cover.

The same thing happened at the family party afterward: While we were eating lunch, Sunny needed to nurse again, and I asked my husband to bust out the fan once more. That’s when he had a genius idea: "What if we just attached a neck fan to the cover?"

A week later, my grandma, who is a seamstress, helped me create a prototype for a cooling nursing cover. I had no idea where this invention would take me, but two-and-a-half years later, it still surprises me how many moms have reached out to say how much it's helped them.

After I had to stop working during pregnancy, I wanted to start my own business

Before I got pregnant with Sunny, I was running a housekeeping service with my mom, but I ultimately decided to stop during my first trimester because the work was so physical. In elementary school, I saw my dad build a few different businesses from the ground up, and I felt the same kind of entrepreneurial drive from an early age. I knew that once the baby arrived, I wanted to shift my career into something more flexible and creative, too. I also didn't want to lose my sense of self and purpose.

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After the baptism, after my husband and I started talking about our idea for a cooling nursing cover. I also floated the concept past my sister, who has a daughter a year older than Sunny. She thought it was a good idea too. The next day, my grandmother and I went to Walmart and bought $15 worth of fabric, and we started figuring out how to attach it to a neck fan I'd bought off Facebook Marketplace.

Back at her house, I showed her a sample I’d mocked up in Photoshop with pictures of a neck fan and nursing cover I'd found online. I'd labeled all the components and added arrows where the pieces would attach. We spent two days making sure it felt sturdy and worked the way I’d envisioned. Sunny was our little model to make sure the sizing was right. When she didn't fuss or try to pull it apart, I got so excited, I started FaceTiming every mom I knew to show them. They all told me I’d nailed it.

Just to be sure, I did some marketing research on social media and parenting forums, including the What to Expect Community. I had tons of great conversations with moms who offered honest feedback about what features and materials they’d want to see, as well as how much they’d be willing to pay. All of the positive feedback helped me feel even more confident that we were onto something.

The nursing cover solved a big problem in many moms' lives

I launched my business on February 4, 2023, and sales were slow at first — mostly friends and family. But a few days later, an influencer who had reached out on TikTok posted a video of our nursing cover that went viral.

Within four weeks, we’d sold all 300 units in our inventory. The response from moms was incredible. One called it her new favorite thing. Another shared that she could now nurse her newborn in pure comfort and thanked us for making such a "badass" product for hot summer days.

That March, after months of applying and following up, I heard from the producers of Shark Tank. We ended up taping a segmentthat fall. Barbara Corcoran (a mom herself!) jumped in with the first offer, and we accepted. The business has continued growing ever since.

Moms tell us all the time about the comfort and flexibility the cooling cover has given them

I think a lot of our success comes from what a game changer the nursing cover is for moms. Even if you don’t use it for breastfeeding, it’s so helpful for hands-free shade and cooling. On TikTok, I saw a mom call it a must-have because she "didn’t have to miss a moment of the tailgate in Alabama." That feeling resonated with me a lot.

After I had Sunny, I felt really isolated at home — taking a newborn out in the Arizona heat is really intense. But once I made the prototype for the cover, I started joining my family's summer gatherings at the park. Instead of running back to my car periodically to crank the A/C and keep Sunny cool, I could spend quality time with everyone. It changed my whole experience as a postpartum mom.

From all the comments I’ve gotten from other new moms, I know it's done the same for countless others, including moms who might not feel as confident nursing in public. A second-time mom who'd been scared to breastfeed her first out in the open wrote to us saying, "I teared up when I found your page because I would actually feel comfortable breastfeeding in public with your product." That’s stuck with me.

The most frequent comment I get, though, is from moms who are past the breastfeeding stage but tell me how much they could've used it when their kids were babies. It makes me proud to know that something I created has helped solve this problem.

This whole experience has shown me that when something lights you up inside, it can spark this internal force that pushes you to go after it, no matter what challenges come up. I knew that this idea was special and could help a lot of families on their feeding journeys. Looking back, I'm so glad I followed that spark.