TV review
The lions are back and the new one is competing with Ralf Dümmel. Also: Hamburger Peking ducks cause enthusiasm. And Carsten Maschmeyer doesn’t want to play with small change.
“The lion’s den” is back with fresh staff for Season 13. Investor Janna Ensthaler can only be seen in episode 2, but the second newcomer, family entrepreneur Tillman Schulz, gives his business card in episode 1. “Mr Regal” could be written on it – if this title hadn’t already been given to Ralf Dümmel. Because Schulz prefers to supply stationary retail with its food and non-food products. And is thus the natural competitor for serial investor Dümmel, who has so far regularly cleared deals in this area.
The first pitch of the show already shows that old and new lions get in each other’s way. It’s about a minimalist, practical wallet from the 3D printer – and the makers of “” (the startest you can read here) have obviously read all founder biographies from Bill Gates to Elon Musk. Dropped out of college in your early 20s? Check. Set up a company in your own basement? Check. And now get to the investor money to spin the big entrepreneurial wheel.
The two busy guys, who have already gained a lot of attention on social media, want to get out of the basement with their 3D printers and set up a real production. So much entrepreneurial spirit naturally impresses the lion. “I can help you with purchasing, with production, with finding the production site”, says new lion Schulz. Dümmel has to swallow first, that had always been his text so far.
Nevertheless, the top dog prevails in the end. Dümmel gets himself in association with the self-proclaimed “founding father” Carsten Maschmeyer the deal with the wallet start-up. Dümmel/Maschmeyer beat the competing offers from Dagmar Wöhrl and Tillman Schulz, who wanted to work together with Nils Glagau. 1-0 to Mr Regal Original.
But Schulz doesn’t go away empty-handed in his debut show either. Together with Dagmar Wöhrl and Nils Glagau he invests in “Mary Kwong”. The founders, who already run a very successful Chinese restaurant in Hamburg, want their famous Peking duck “in restaurant quality on the table within 30 minutes”. So on the home of the customers, of course. They have packed everything you need into a cooking box. The duck is already prepared in such a way that you only have to put it in the oven at home. Have fun carving.
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“You think big but plan too small”
A special one “Den of the lions”On the other hand, the founders of Cityscaper, whose augmented reality app can impressively visualize urban planning designs, went bankrupt. The app should make it easier for municipalities, building owners and citizens to enter into a constructive dialogue. Maschmeyer shows interest in the idea, but ultimately criticizes the founders for not wanting to collect enough money.
Maschmeyer predicts that the founders will not get very far in marketing and customer acquisition with the requested 240,000 euros investment. “If you had said now that you need 240,000 and in three months one million and in one year ten million, then I would have said that I understand these business models”, according to Maschmeyer. Without such world conquest plans in the drawer, the founders cannot end up with him. “You think big but plan too small”is the verdict.
Ride on the dwarf shrimp
The start-up didn’t get a deal either “plugvan” with his likeable idea of being able to turn any van into a camper with removable interior fittings. So the same car could serve as a camper a few weeks a year and as a delivery van the rest of the time. Sustainable idea, but no lion wants to invest in it. Summary of the founders: “Investors lacked understanding of the product.”
Finally, something down-to-earth. A inventor from the Ruhrpott has built a water filter for aquariums that takes up less space than the commercially available ones and is still supposed to be more powerful. Ultimately, however, his shirt, which shows the founder riding a dwarf shrimp, is particularly impressive. Mr. Regal Schulz has no weakness for aquariums, so the way is clear for Mr. Regal Dümmel. There have been more spectacular deals, but certainly not such a nice conclusion as that of the Aquakallax founder: “Now I’m riding into the sunset with my dwarf shrimp.”
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Source: Stern
