Posts Tagged ‘Sarah Newman’
What Actually Happened in the Den
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.
Runaway Brides
I loved Rosemary Meleady and Zara Stassin of Runaway Brides, but I lost interest when I realised my money was paying for a round the world trip for two competition winners to promote their company. Niall did not like the idea of Weddings going out of Ireland and may have been a bit critical of the womens’ idea, but he did speak with passion.
Vantastival
Brendan Taffe is from Ardee, a favourite town of mine and his festival is going to take place in Dunany Estate. That is the home of the Workman family, and they are really lovely people. If I could have in anyway justified an investment here, I would have given Brendan the money. But he did say he hoped we would get our money back in five to seven years and to an investor in these times that is just not investable. Let me explain. If it is going to take five to seven years you would want large multiples of a return. With some deals you are in and out in 24 months and you earn a modest profit, but if you are involved over a longer period of time, you need sizeable returns for tying up capital for a longer time.
By the way Brendan was very entertaining in the Den, so it is a pity he only got a few seconds on the show tonight and I wish his festival every success.
Another Golf Idea
Seamus Chawke got very little encouragement from the Dragons. Sarah is lady captain at the K Club so I thought she might go for it, but not this time.
Whelan’s Corned Beef
Brian Whelan was a real meat expert and knew what he was talking about. However I know from previous investments, long before I ever did Dragons’ Den that bringing a food product successfully market is a very long haul.
I ask you which would you go for? A Corned beef product in development or a Vegan Burger as promoted by County Clare woman Dee, who through sheer grit and determination had already gotten her product into a major multiple. That’s the challenge of the Den. You can’t invest in everything, so you hold out in the hope that a really good one is about to come along. When it does you grab it with both hands, and as we saw tonight, you don’t even let your vbf Niall O’Farrell get some of the action. I am talking about the incredible TanOrganic.
TanOrganic
I learned something about myself and Sarah Newman during this series; Investors can have very different views. I was pleased to see Noelle O’Connor, the creator and promoter of Tanorganic.com , had two other businesses. This demonstrated to me she was experienced and is a capable business woman. Not only had she set up a successful chain of beauty spas named éalu, but she also had a thriving distribution business, skinlogic. However Sarah and I believe Sean Gallagher, both shared the view that they would have preferred to see Noelle totally focussed on just one business, in this case TanOrganic.
Clearly I see it differently. I like to invest in people who have tried their hand at several businesses. I am all the more impressed if the have recovered from the odd failure. Most of us learn a lot through failing. Success makes us arrogant but failure can help us grow into better people.
Bobby Kerr – Brilliant Speech
My fellow Dragon, Bobby Kerr, was the main attraction at the Castleknock Old Boys lunch last Friday in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel. Bobby was joined by Fellow Dragons, Niall O’Farrell & Sarah Newman. Niall wore his chain of office as President of the PPU of CUS. I am sorry that I couldn’t get along, as by all accounts Bobby’s speech went down a treat.
Finally Eamonn Treacy’s experience of how he succeeded in the Den
Are you one of the thousands of people who climb into your wheelie bin to compress the bags of rubbish inside? Or maybe you use one of the children to jump up and down in the bin so you can get those last two or three refuse sacks into it. When a friend of mine fell out of his bin and broke an ankle, I started thinking about my Bin Trasher. At my light engineering business in Bunclody, County Wexford, I came up with a prototype and have since successfully patented the idea. Then last October I did a mad thing. I applied to go on Dragons’ Den.
On that day, in the Den, after we all shook hands on my deal, I sensed there was great banter amongst all the crew about the fact that Sarah had made her first investment on the programme. What I sensed was, despite her tough as nails TV persona, she was good fun and joined in the slagging about her eventually making an investment.
It was all jolly after the deal had been struck but that wasn’t how I felt when I went up those stairs. It is very hard to explain it unless you have been there. I had featured on an enterprise slot last year on the Late Late Show. Pat Kenny was an absolute gent. But when I got to the top of the stairs and entered the Den, it felt like I was facing a firing squad.
When you face those Dragons you are so nervous you could forget your own name. Before I went in I had written off Sarah, accepting she will probably bow out early on. When she seemed to be genuinely interested in my product I began to feel really confident and I started to believe I was going to do well.
But if the Den is treacherous, it is worth it. I sense there is a much bigger reaction to the Bin Trasher this time than there was when we were on the Late Late. Admittedly I was heavily featured on Dragons’ Den whereas I only got a couple of minutes on the Late Late. During the programme last Thursday night we sold 160 Bin Trashers before my web site, BinTrasher.ie froze because there was so much traffic. So Friday was spent sorting out that glitch. Also that day I got a security check call from PayPal wanting to know why was this account suddenly so busy?
All this confirms our strategy is the correct one. Since the show was recorded, I have got great assistance from both Sarah and Bobby and they are of the view, and I agree with them, that we will keep this as a web product rather than going into the shops. If we went into shops they would want a margin and it would almost double the cost. By keeping it as a web based product I can keep it at just €49.95. Isn’t the web a fantastic development? Here I am making my Bin Trashers in Bunclody and over the web I get paid for them before they leave the yard. There’s a lot of talk about the Recession and how difficult it is to get paid. With the right idea and with the help of Dragons’ Den I am enjoying a very different experience.
The above article was written by Eamonn Treacy and was published by the Sunday Independent , 7 March 2010.