Being On Shark Tank Was A “Dream Come True” For Maria Shriver’s Son Patrick Schwarzenegger

Maria Shriver’s line of business makes her children’s dreams come true.

When the former First Lady of California makes their business debut on Shark Tank this Friday, May 3, she exclusively talks to PEOPLE about how she and her son Patrick Schwarzenegger founded MOSH and why they chose to take a chance on the board.

“I’m super excited,” Shriver, 68, says of the opportunity. “I can tell you that it was [on] Patrick’s bucket list. Ever since that show premiered, he’s been watching it religiously since he had his lemonade stand. He knows every episode, he knows everything about the show.”

She adds fondly of the 30-year-old actor, “And he was always like, ‘One day, I want to be a judge on this show. One day I want to go on this show. This is my favourite show. I want to be on this show.'”

Shriver claims that it was a difficult journey to make a presentation in front of the Shark Tank panel of possible investors, who included Mark Cuban, Robert Herjavec, Barbara Corcoran, Lori Greiner, Daymond John, and Kevin O’Leary. The journalist claims that after multiple efforts and setbacks, Schwarzenegger put in a lot of effort as producers put him through his “paces” and forced him to “pass all of these hurdles.”

“He was determined, and so we got on Shark Tank,” she explains. “So I was so happy, actually, for him. Well, I’m happy for MOSH, but I was so happy for Patrick because it was just such a dream come true for him.”

The mother-son team was finally able to introduce MOSH, a protein bar loaded with components that are good for the brain. The bars, which are available in several varieties such as peanut butter chocolate, cookie dough crunch, and banana bread, also support gender-based Alzheimer’s research at the Cleveland Clinic’s Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement.

When the two moved in together during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shriver claims her son had “always been interested in business” and they were able to realize her long-held desire to open a protein bar.

“I’m a protein bar fanatic and I had this dream, and he said, ‘Let me do it. I’ll help you.”‘And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, really?'” she recalls. “He goes, ‘Yeah, let me help you make your dream come true.’ And he goes, ‘I know people in this space. I know how to get it up and going, and I’ll help you.'”

Despite the fact that Shriver and Patrick are the brains behind MOSH, she says that her other children—Kate, Christopher, and Christina—whom she has with her ex-husband Arnold Schwarzenegger, have supported her at every turn.

“Every one of the kids has been involved in it from picking colours to picking fonts, to tasting and testing every conceivable bar that we’ve gone through. And so I would say that all four of them are deeply involved,” she continues.

After discovering that her father, Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., had Alzheimer’s in 2003 and passed away from the illness in 2011, Shriver felt it was crucial to build a company that supported brain health practices and raised money for research.

“I’ve spent 20+ years as an advocate in this space,” she explains. “And I was the first person to write out and report that women were disproportionately impacted by the disease because we had no research into our brains.”

MOSH is described by Shriver as a “nutritious” and “tastes good” “educational tool” that “does good in the world.”

“I didn’t want to just go and start a protein bar company,” she continues. “I wanted to start a protein bar that had a mission and a purpose, which was to get people thinking about their brains, thinking about what they put into their mouth, and thinking about how to live a lifestyle that when you get to my age, you’ve done all you can to try to prevent neurological disease. And that’s why I’m proud of MOSH’s success.”