Well this just gets better and better. Best episode yet! Here are the pitches of tonight’s Dragon’s Den.

The Hangout – http://www.thehangout.ie/

Key people: Eddie O’ Brien

Eddie O’ Brien from Tipperary came to the Dragons Den with his product ‘The Hangout‘, this was a cleverly designed clothes air dryer that is disguised as an out door wooden gazebo with a table attached, so there could be multiple uses to the product.

Although there were initial reservations from Gavin Duffy who pondered about it becoming a large bird house, Eddie stole that idea away, assuring the Dragon’s that it would not be an issue. Sean Gallagher felt that the patent was irrelevant as it could be easily recreated in a similar but slightly different way and declared himself out early on.

As Eddie’s pitch continued he discussed that he had sold 25 already from trade shows, both Bobby and Niall made an offer of €37,500 each and both receiving 10% of the business. As there were no counter offer from Sarah and Gavin as they felt they could not offer anything better, Eddie snapped up the offer of investment from Bobby and Niall, and left the Dragon’s Den with the €75,000 he came for and giving only 20% of his business away. Great Idea and super pitch, Well done Eddie!

Curtain Cosy – http://www.curtaincosy.com/

Key People: Colm Stundon, Pat O’Shaughnessy

Two potential investees entered the Den next, Colm Stundon and Pat O’Shaughnessy from Limerick presented their product the ‘Curtain Cosy’. They claimed in their pitch that the product was energy efficient as it extended the window out and left room for the curtains to rest on while the curtains were closed in order so that the heat from the radiators continued to be released into the room and not get trapped behind closed curtains and causing condensation to form on the window and mould on the curtains.

It was a quick fix device costing €5 to manufacture and to be sold at €10. They initially claimed that the product’s potential market was for every home owner but when Gavin pointed out that the product could cause quality curtains to be creased, they stated that it may not suit homes with expensive curtains. Throughout this pitch, Sarah found it difficult to compose herself and after stating that she found little demand for the product, she declared herself out. Sean enquired about other ideas that they may have come up with and Pat showed a possible new way of keeping heat in the house rather than having heat go out through the walls by using pipes that are on the outside walls covered up which would be more heat efficient to a home. This idea got many of the Dragon’s interested but as it was not the product presented today and it was not completely developed yet they could not consider it.

Sean, Gavin, Bobby and Niall all declared themselves out as they felt that there was not a huge market for ‘Curtain Cosy’ but wished the two men luck with developing the second product!

The Fashion Shed – http://www.thefashionshed.com/

Key People: Paula Rabbit, Fiona Forde

Paula Rabbit and Fiona Forde entered the Dragon’s Den to present their business ‘The Fashion Shed’, a fashion business which entailed offering the public a personal stylist in keeping up with today’s fashion as well as an online business selling clothes designed by ‘The Fashion Shed’.

They were asking for €100,000 of an investment and offering 15% of their business. The two ladies described their business as having the potential to become not only a nationwide business but also a global one through their online potential.

Paula and Fiona had already held 60 styling parties where in which they would give advice to buyers about their styles and how to hide unwanted shapes in their bodies. They projected to train other women in how to help buyers in their styling options and to run future styling parties but Sarah Newman stated that this would be a difficult fete as it can take years for someone to be trained in design and styling. Paula stated that the potential target market was for women between the age of 24 -36 as they felt that the younger generation are more interested in their styles of designs, Sarah also stated that as this was their potential market and she was 39 years old, she was already out of their demographic and declared herself out.

When it was requested as to what would they do with the €100,000 investment, it was explained that €45,000 was to increase there existing stock, €30,000 was for online marketing and a further €25,000 was for offline marketing. When one of the Dragon’s pointed out that their niche was to offer potential buyers a personal styling service and doing styling parties to offer clients advice about fashion styles and how to hide their unwanted shape, a global market was unrealistic as this service would not be possible. The Dragon’s then all declared themselves out as they felt that other than a local business success, the potential was not there. I think the girls did a great job in their pitch and come across very warm and intelligent. We will be hearing from these two again.

Paddy Games – http://www.paddygames.ie/

Key People: Colin Carroll

Colin Carroll was the last presenter into the Dragon’s Den with his business idea of paddy games. An event to be hosted with sports games with a difference, i.e. three legend race and running backwards etc… Colin caught the Dragon’s eye’s with his luminous yellow suit and the Dragon’s struggled to take the presentation seriously.

Colin presented an interesting and entertaining video to illustrate his point about what the paddy games was about but it wasn’t until he disclosed that other sponsors were interested that the Dragon’s began to perk up and taking the presentation seriously. Sarah asked about what the investment of a €100,000 would be used for, Colin explained that it would be to help in the hosting of an event to take place in August 2009, staging the event in Cork where he expected about 200 – 300 contestants would take part although he said that there was a huge potential for it to be bigger but he felt initially he wanted to keep it small for the first time round.

Gavin stated that he felt that this event would be bad for the Irish reputation and felt that Paddy wackery was already over used and gave bad publicity to the Irish, Gavin also felt that Colin had an alternative motive on coming on the Dragon’s Den, dressed in an luminous suit in an effort for publicity and air time on television and his goal was not necessarily an investment from the Dragon’s and declared himself out. Sarah went onto say that she felt that he had completely over estimated on the potential of profit from the business as she could not see the numbers adding up and declared herself out. Niall and Bobby both declared themselves out as they felt that they would not like to be associated with an event like this. Sean then stated that he also did not want to be associated with this and reiterated what Gavin had stated about bad publicity for the Irish and felt Colin needed more help than an offer from the Dragon’s and declared himself out.

A passionate man with big dreams, who knows he may be the man laughing at the Dragons for not investing.