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Rewind Back to March 4, 2021

Local inventor to appear on Shark Tank

Although she couldn’t reveal many details about her upcoming appearance, local Nancy Rothner is set to pitch her Pinch Me Dough creation on ABC’s “Shark Tank” Friday, March 5.

“It’s been a surreal experience,” Rothner said. “I’m really excited, and very lucky to have this opportunity.”

Pinch Me Dough is a squishable putty designed to relieve stress through the senses. Packed in a small tin, the dough comes in a variety of calming colors and scents for their pacifying properties. As users massage the dough, their hands relax and the body releases tension.

Rothner devised the idea for Pinch Me Dough through her work as a clinical hypnotherapist who specializes in stress reduction. After seeing the toll that stress and tension can take on the body and mind, Rothner said she looked for a way to help more people reduce their stress. 

Around 2012, she said, she had the “epiphany lightbulb moment,” which led to the Pinch Me Dough.

“I was somewhat like a mad scientist,” she laughed, noting she put the putty through thousands of test runs for two years until she perfected the compound. 

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