Wild haggling in the “The Lion’s Den” finale: A start-up rejected all offers from investors. Another founder offered more than Ralf Dümmel wanted. And a deal fell through after the show.
In addition to the types of founders and product ideas, the bargaining for the best deal is what makes the “Lion’s Den” so appealing. In the finale of the 13th season, the viewers got their money’s worth again – and were able to marvel at the very different negotiating tactics.
The hard variant is demonstrated by the founders of Kruut, the herbal elixir with the “power of local nature”. Their juices, made from stinging nettle, lemon balm and other wild herbs, are well received by investors. And the start-up already has an impressive turnover of 1.5 million euros.
Nevertheless, the lions consider the offer to take over ten percent of the company shares for a whopping 400,000 euros to be far too expensive. Investor Dagmar Wöhrl offers the required sum for 20 percent of the shares, Nils Glagau and Ralf Dümmel want 24 percent for their joint combination offer.
“The Lion’s Den”: Kruut founders reject offers
The founders withdraw to consult – and come back with a surprising decision. The offers are not good enough for them and they don’t even want to submit a compromise proposal. Either the deal goes through on their terms or not at all.
Even Dagmar Wöhrl’s last special offer of 15 percent was turned down and left the show without any investment. The scorned lions remain stunned. Didn’t they want a deal at all? There are two options, says Carsten Maschmeyer. “Either they will regret it or they just wanted the advertising.”
Educational holiday deal burst
Negotiations are also lively with Lara Körber and Anian Schmitt, the founders of the Bildungsurlauber platform. The portal arranges a large number of certified courses for educational leave – from language courses to yoga on Mallorca. The best thing about it: Employees in all federal states except Bavaria and Saxony are entitled to educational leave by law. “27 million employees in Germany are entitled to five days of extra vacation per year. And nobody knows about it,” explains Schmitt.
Not all of the lions even know the legal entitlement and are correspondingly flabbergasted. Four investors want to join Bildungsurlauber and after some negotiations, the founders decide on a deal with Janna Ensthaler and Carsten Maschmeyer. However, the collaboration did not materialize after the show, like that star has experienced.
The reason is that at that time there was still a third founder in the company, explains Lara Körber on request. “After the show we were in a very appreciative and close exchange with Janna Ensthaler, Carsten Maschmeyer and their teams. It was then decided against an investment because the exit of the third founder had not yet been settled at the time. But we are on good terms apart went.” The start-up, which claims to be the largest platform for arranging educational leave, is now continuing without an investor. The company employs seven people and is profitable, says founder Körber.
Curious negotiation with Ralf Dümmel
On the other hand, the Dümmel deals with Zebra Ice and Sproutling shown in the show came about. Zebra Ice, which has since been renamed Zebrastic, is fruit puree that is sold unrefrigerated and is only cooled down to fruit ice cream in the freezer at home.
Sproutling is a particularly breathable baby mattress that is designed to minimize the risk of suffocation for babies while they sleep. The negotiations with Ralf Dümmel are strange. Sproutling founder Meltem Aktürk only wants to give up ten percent of her shares in the company. When asked about her pain threshold, she then names 30 percent, but Dümmel has already set it at 25 percent and, to be fair, does not deviate from it anymore.
The start-up Hiddencontact has an interesting idea up its sleeve. The company sells stickers with QR codes that you can stick on your car as an anonymous contact option. If there is anything wrong with the parked car, passers-by can scan the code and notify the owner. Other applications are also conceivable, for example as a sticker on a suitcase. The lions think it’s a good idea, but find it difficult to imagine a working business model. So unfortunately no deal.
Source: Stern
