Posts Tagged ‘HenParty.ie’
In the case of TanOrganic I was able to tell the assembled experts that the branding would be brilliant on the show and that Noelle would come across as a really savvy business woman.
Noelle was asked to make the pitch she had already done in the Den to my audience of about twenty experts - my own kitchen cabinet of product development and marketing experts. Just like in the Den, Noelle was questioned extensively.
On the day of the pitch we had some industry experts present also. Graham Quinn is a veteran of the cosmetics industry and owner of Graham Anthony, the cosmetics distributors. Graham has brought countless beauty products to the market. Also attending was Graham’s partner, the legendary business woman Sharon O’Buachalla, MD of Leaseplan, Ireland’s leading car fleet suppliers. We were also delighted to have Kieran Flynn of Gosh Cosmetics and Niall Keelaghan a PR and marketing expert.
Noelle was a little concerned when she heard who was to attend her pitch, particularly regarding Graham Quinn who she really looks up to in the business. I assured her Graham is one of those very successful people who doesn’t mind sharing his expertise with others.
My own experts are key to me. If they don’t like a product then I am very concerned. I rely heavily on people like Nicola Byrne of 11890. She is fantastic at marketing and is a real doer. If she told me to jump off a cliff I probably would! I love having enthusiastic people around me and Nicola has endless energy. We held the pitching session in our home and Nicola brought her daughter Emma with her to play with my daughter Aislinn. Long after everyone had left at 7pm Nicola was still talking about TanOrganic and how it could be a world beater. She didn’t go home until late, after she had told her hubby several times on the phone “this is going to revolutionise sunless tanning”.
Darren Hughes is formerly a very successful newspaper editor and now a suit in Independent Newspapers. He is wonderful ideas man. I would not hold one of these events if he was unavailable.
Neil McGeown of KMR accountants in Dundalk is my number cruncher. Tara McMahon is my Intellectual Property Lawyer and Solicitor James Allen completes the Share Purchase Agreements.
I always like to have a few wacky people at these sessions. To say Phil Codd is wacky is very unfair as he is simply one of the funniest men I know and he is always able to think way outside the box. He is also of course a top salesperson.
Brian Coleman of Pictures In Motion, produces TV commercials and corporate films. I always have him on board so we can start planning infomercials or TV advertising.
Paula McMahon has been there to advise on the Web presence for these products but now I tend to use Kate Hyde of Henparty.ie. I have been saying it publicly now for a long time she is the country’s leading SEO expert. She eats Google analytics for breakfast dinner and tea.
And of course my business partner and wife Orlaith is always in attendance.
So we spent a day pulling TanOrganic apart and then putting it together again. A number of things emerged from our day with Noelle that were very impressive. The industry experts were agog at her product and industry knowledge. She was a capable business woman. Her production capacity was well advanced. And the most pleasant surprise of all was that she did not need money for stock. This meant my time and money could be spent promoting and advertising the product.
One of the Best ever Den Presentations
The show kicked off with Dee’s Vegan Burgers. If you want to learn how to make a good investor presentation, watch this pitch again. This was first class. A great Entrepreneur with all the necessary qualifications and experience. A grafter, she had gone out and market tested the product and got her vegan burgers into shops and Dunnes Stores.
Just a tip. Being in Dunnes is fantastic because they have 1.8 million customers in their stores every week, but it doesn’t always impress an investor. Dunnes EPOS system means you supply on a sale or return basis. I am always more impressed by a food product if it has a good distribution deal with prompt payment terms.
Dee was one of the best ever presentations in the Den. I put her up there with Kate Hyde of Henparty.ie, Tim Conway of Surfseeds and of course Donal O’Connor and Michael O’Donnell of pedigreecattle.ie. Hard to say which was the best overall, but Dee was certainly up there. I wish her all the very best in her venture.
Episode 1, “Money for Herbie”
Hi hope you enjoyed the first programme in series 2 of Dragons’ Den. On my blog here each Monday Morning and Thursday night I am going to give you my story on what you are seeing on the show.
Herbie Porshe
The best moment in the show tonight was when Herbie Porsche came out with that phrase “Money for Herbie”. Earlier today, Thursday the 25th, I had a celebratory lunch with Herbie Porsche (what a name) in his favourite restaurant, the Unicorn, off Merrion Row, in Dublin. Herbie used to be in the restaurant business years ago and is good friends with George one of the proprietors. Herbie had just seen the show at a press preview earlier in the Shelbourne. He later headed back to Donegal to watch the show live with family and friends.
Bad Boy Sauces
Ok onto the show. Jenny Lind Lee of Bad Boy Sauces was a superb presenter but I can’t believe she didn’t take my offer at the lower percentage equity. But her reason seemed a good one. She felt she was getting the expertise of two Dragons rather than one. Sounds like a good reason but my experience is that when two Dragons are involved the mentoring falls between the stools. However Niall and I have worked very well together with www.henparty.ie and Sean and I have also had good joint success with www.pedigreecattle.ie. But if you are in the Den and you have an offer from one Dragon versus two or more my advice is always go with one who will be focussed on you.
What to present
Next up was the Marilyn Air Drier. On the edited programme this one appeared to get a rough ride but in the Den it was given serious consideration by myself. I thought it was interesting. The mistake made was bringing in the clothes horse. Had Daniel Bradfield just come in with the device that blows ambient temperature air through the clothes I believe he would have got a better reception. It is always difficult to decide to use a concept prototype or a production prototype. The former is usually a lot rougher but I believe gives you more wriggle room when you are being questioned. You can always say,”Yes we are going to address that issue in the next prototype or in the production model.”
Don’t have information dragged out of you
If a pitch is featured on the programme it gets between eight to ten minutes. However the pitcher may have been in the den answering questions for an hour and a half. The lads who came to pitch www.greenflame.ie seemed to be holding something back. The Dragons had to drag it out of them after a guts of an hour that they had 35 shareholders. Had they come in and said, “we are a famers’ co-operative but we’d love to have a Dragon on board to assist our marketing and invest capital of €200k”, then I believe they may have done better.
Others that featured
Poor Gerard with his website for B.E.R. Cert’s got short shrift and actually that was no reflection on his presentation. He pitched it very well. It is simply down to the fact that none of the Dragons like this whole B.E.R. thing where we all have to go out and get cert’s for buildings. Business people hate this type of compliance for compliance sake.
Eezitfit Blinds the idea presented by Cathal McKinney at first very much grabbed Niall and Sean’s interest. I went back and checked my notes during the programme tonight and I see I was not sure there was robust enough patent protection on this product and I feared it could be easily copied so I passed on it as the rest of the Dragons did.
Urfavrit wasn’t Sarah’s favourite. When she doesn’t like something she tells you straight.
Finally we had Herbie.
Herbie Porche – www.toiletpipecover.com
All I can say is I was so right to invest in Herbie. I just thought it would be fun and he would be great gas. Well I have been working very closely with Herbie and his wife Maire, who is the real brains of the operation, and they are a delightful couple.
Listen out for Herbie on Ryan Tubridy tomorrow morning on RTE radio 1 at 9:05am. Check out the www.allaboutbusiness.ie website to get to see unseen footage from the Den.
On Monday, in my next update, I will tell you a few amazing stories about Herbie Porsche and how we are going to make MONEY FOR HERBIE.