Gavin Duffy – Entrepreneur, Media Coach, Dragon's Den Presenter, Public Speaker

Model Fainted in the middle of my Dragons’ Den Pitch
By Noelle O’Connor Creator, TanOrganic

From today’s Sunday Independent.

This is what actually happened when I was in the Den making my successful pitch for TanOrganic, a 100% natural, organic and anti-aging fake sun tan. I hold the record for having been before the Dragons for almost two and half hours. The truth is the beautiful model demonstrating how wonderful this tan looks on your body fainted.

It was January and there were heavy snows in Rathfarnham where the show is recorded. Poor Jessica was in her bikini freezing as we hung around waiting to go into the Den. Then she went into its searing heat under the TV lights. She stood as the bronzed goddess that she is. Whereas I could move around as I answered questions from the Dragons, poor Jessica had to be still and statuesque.

There was all the banter and Sean Gallagher joking he wanted to try applying the tan to her himself. But about an hour into the questions Jessica keeled over. I kid you not. Obviously the recording had to stop and time had to be allowed for her to recover. The Producers then decided that Sarah Newman would say thank you to Jessica and excuse her from the remainder of the pitch.

Over two hours of grilling from the Dragons is tough but TanOrganic is a world beater. I hope that doesn’t come across as arrogant but I have created a fake tan that will appeal to women because it has zero chemicals and it will certainly appeal to their men because there is no awful smell.

Fake tan is probably the greatest contraceptive on the market. That burnt biscuit smell is horrible. But women never stop to think why do fake tans have that smell for about three hours after it has been applied? Here’s the shocking news. The smell is the chemicals reacting with your skin. Putting chemicals on your skin to change its colour is not good for you. Admittedly it is better than damaging your skin on an UV sun bed. Irish women are the biggest users of fake tan per capita in the world. So putting all those chemicals on your body is aging and damaging your skin.

It has taken me years to come up with the solution, a natural fake tan. Yes I know that’s a classic oxymoron but that is what I have created, a natural fake tan. Here’s the secret. The breakthrough was an organic extract of sugar beet that naturally tans your skin over a period of seven hours.
But that breakthrough alone wasn’t enough. It took another couple of years and a fortune of money to get the world’s leading cosmetic research lab’ based in the US to develop my formula. My two businesses, a chain of salons called Ealu and my cosmetic distribution business Skinlogic were flying in the boom so I just kept spending money looking for the breakthrough.
But as soon as we got the 100% natural, organic tan working we realised we had to add a natural colouring agent so women could see it going on as they applied it. Eventually Caramel was the breakthrough.
The next big hurdle was the packaging. Women keep the same container of fake tan in their bathrooms often for over a year. All fake tans up to now come in plastic containers but a 100% natural, organic tan lotion would be contaminated if it was in plastic for more than fourteen weeks. It now had to be in an in-earth container such as a glass bottle. It also had to have a 100% natural cork stopper with a natural wooden top.

When I eventually showed the prototype to industry experts they loved the glass bottle and cork stopper because it stood out spectacularly from the competitors. But as soon as I did that “Paris” was calling. One of the Cosmetic majors was interested in buying my formula outright. The Celtic Tiger was roaring and foolishly I thought I didn’t need their money. But I also wanted to do it for myself. Women will understand what I mean. I am not saying I am a Coco Chanel or an Yves St. Laurent but they must have had to make the same decision as I did early in their careers.

Then the economy crashed. All my salons are still open and trading surprisingly well but nothing like they were during the boom. But worse I couldn’t raise finance anywhere to launch the product. I am not the showbiz type but I had no choice but to try Dragons’ Den. Watching the programme last year I was intrigued by one of the Dragons, Gavin Duffy. He seemed to be always on the lookout for mass market products. I planned to get him on board. But I never, ever planned to give away 45% of TanOrganic. However on Thursday night, Gavin Duffy clearly wanted TanOrganic as well. So when he made the offer I said yes.

All I can say is, since that day in the Den I have since been convinced it has been one of my best business decisions ever. I thought I was thinking big but I have met my match in Gavin. Also he has great contacts in the Cosmetics Industry so doors at the highest level have been opened for me. After that the product sells itself.

The product is going to have a major launch in May when it will go on sale in all pharmacies nationwide. But straight away it is available in all salons as a spray on. You can get all the information about it on TanOrganic.com. We will also be sampling it at the Spring Ideal Homes Expo in the RDS in mid April. So ladies, it is here at last, a world first, a 100% natural, organic sunless tan lotion and it was developed in Ireland. So I know we all think our little country is going down the toilet but I still believe Ireland can take on the world.