TV review
“The Lion’s Den”
CBD creams and Thai food: not all start-ups were convincing
Carsten Maschmeyer in the “Lion’s Den”
© RTL / Bernd-Michael Maurer
While the lions could hardly get enough of the dishes from a Thai food start-up, a grill delivery service from Leipzig left them completely cold. A glitch happened with a squeezable drinking bottle: Nils Glagau squeezed a little too much.
“Giant role model”, “fascinating personality”, “one of the most inspiring founders in the history of the show”: The euphoria curve quickly rises in the “Lion’s Den” – but the peak in the cooking boxes from concrua already had Matterhorn level. And as is so often the case, the focus was not so much on the product as on the person behind it. In this case: Pim, a native Thai who is as strong in the kitchen as she is in Excel. “I’m in love with you,” Carsten Maschmeyer adored the 30-year-old. He left his wallet in his pocket anyway.
The presented products:
• Grillaxed
The startup delivers grills and grilled food and picks up everything, including the rubbish.
• Imaginew Playhome
The pluggable playhouses for children were still presented on the show under the old brand name “Imagine Playhouse”. They take three minutes to set up and are wind and water resistant. (The star tested the product in advance.)
• Keego
Despite its titanium coating, the drinking bottle can be squeezed and is said to be more durable than its plastic counterparts.
• concrua
The cooking boxes want to bring the “real taste of Thailand” to Germany. All the ingredients come from the Southeast Asian country, including the reed grass packaging, which is made by senior women.
• This Place
The creams of the natural cosmetics series contain the hemp active ingredient CBD and are supposed to be a natural alternative to cortisone.
Thai She!
“Wow,” exclaimed Georg Kofler after Pim von concruaannounced her decision. She gave the lionesses duo Williams and Wöhrl a basket – and went with the South Tyrolean. Unbridled profit maximization against concentrated woman power. That was somewhat surprising, especially for Kofler himself, but somehow the vote suited the self-made woman, who runs her business extremely purposefully and without compromise. She traveled around Thailand alone, meeting with farmers and looking for products that would meet their needs. It had to be the best coconut milk, not the cheaper one, and the soy sauce couldn’t contain any preservatives. “I’m better than Georg at brand building,” drummed Judith Williams for herself. But “Georg” had the more convincing argument for Pim: “From the start we quintuple your turnover.”
Game deal of the week
When belief in God relaxes someone as deeply as the boss of Imaginew Playhome, one would like to get the Bible out again. The 34-year-old spent three years with his family in Los Angeles to study theology – then he returned to Germany and now wants to “take the imagination in German children’s rooms to a new level”. His playhouses: really cute and super practical. “I feel bad when I see your houses,” said Nico Rosberg, who also tried his hand at a cardboard hut for his children.Ralf Dümmel saw the whole thing as usual “multichannel”, that is, everywhere – except in the church he received the blessing of the pious founder.
The most flexible idea
When plastics are crushed and white lines appear afterwards, this is referred to as stress whitening. It’s not a bad thing, more of an aesthetic issue. But the phenomenon shouldn’t be at the – original sound – “first and only squeezable titanium bottle” appear. And certainly not in front of running cameras. Nils Glagau had the demonstration of Keego probably pressed a little too hard, which led to lightning white fractures on the faces of the founding duo. Carsten Maschmeyer and Georg Kofler left the plastic breakdown cold, probably also because Maschmeyer had the opportunity to show off to the “world-famous athletes in my circle” again. The major investor negotiated harder than Titan and squeezed the drinking bottle buddies to the brink of a blocking minority.
applause and out
Product great – but the company construct too complicated: This Place relies on the mega trend hemp and woke up with the lions CBD creams (The star tested the creams in advance.) definitely desires. Especially since the effectiveness of the care series is supported by studies. But the fact that the startup is only a spin-off from a larger parent company scratched the brows of the investors. In the end, the founders got out of poker themselves. Judith Williams insisted on 25.1 percent. No way, no deal. That the Leipzig delivery service Grillaxed would come up empty handed, came as no surprise. Grilling is just a seasonal business, and Glagau and Co. shied away from the large investments that would be necessary to roll out the business throughout Germany. “It’s very difficult to see when this will pay for itself,” said Judith Williams. Charcoal is not only burned when grilling.
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