Now ye're talking - to someone who's been on Dragon's Den UK

steam iron · 06-12-2019 10:42am

Thank you

I'm an inventor, AMA · 06-12-2019 11:30pm

Kersh wrote: »

Great success, wishing you all the best.

How do you find Amazon is going?
We used it for a while, but found they took far too much commission and monthly fees, and after tax and product cost there wasnt much in it for us.
Do you get more favourable rates off them for volume?

I don't think amazon UK is fully necessary as I think people would be happy to solely buy of our website where I would make more margin. The only thing is that I'm afraid of closing our Amazon listing incase I am wrong on the above and then it will be hard to get back to the top again.

I don't know, but I am guessing that in the US Amazon is an essential part of doing business unfortunately as half of internet purchase related queries are not on Google but instead directly on Amazon which totally limits the reach of a normal website.

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

No mention of the 'B' word yet? How do your dragon backers view Brexit?

They used it to try to move manufacturing to the UK but they major worry over it tbh.

Black_Knight wrote: »

Just bought one. Was all set to buy back when you were asking for help around your website, but the wife said no. There's about 8 shower bottles on the shower basin that I say overrule her.

Cheers for the boards code. Tis that I needed to prompt me to buy

No probs, let me know how it goes for you

Sleeper12 wrote: »

My business is shower repair. I stand in 5 to 8 showers and baths every day. It brings a smile to my face every time I see a Shower Gem. It's a 20 to 30 euro product when you look at it first. I comment on the product every time I see one. Every single person is happy with the product and feel that it is value for money. Its a once or twice in a lifetime purchase. I have yet to meet a client who felt ripped off by the price or let down by the product

It makes me proud every time I see one. 100 percent Irish invented & manifactured except the adhesive & a father & son team no less!

I saw dragons den and you were well able to stand your ground

Thanks a lot for this comment. Do you see many of them around !? I love seeing them in random places. We even got messages from random courier drivers saying how are they delivering so many ShowerGems (this is actually true!).

steam iron wrote: »

Where can i find the boards code ?

Code is SAVE10

ILoveYourVibes · 07-12-2019 7:57am

Will you come back in two years for an update to AMA?

Well done on getting investment good luck!

naughtysmurf · 07-12-2019 8:59am

Remember seeing this & thinking it was a good product but didn't buy at the time, ordered one yesterday though, just a little stocking filler for the Mrs, she'll be delighted, seriously though our en-suite is tight enough so will be ideal

S_D · 07-12-2019 6:28pm

Great AMA topic

What’s the future plan to keep working with the 3 investors , is there a finish line as in right contracts are up or does it just keep going ? Have they been asking you for more inventions since coming on board ?
I know you said you had a lot of doors already opened already and by the sounds of things didn’t ‘really’ need it that badly .. maybe I’m wrong but are you seeing a huge change since them joining or is it minamum ? I’m guessing they have so many investments and teams aligned they probably just can’t give much time but interested to know

And finally .. did you mention about paying them back and going back to 12%? Or is that still a no no topic

I'm an inventor, AMA · 09-12-2019 7:54pm

Might be on Nationwide tonight at 7! RTEONE

I'm an inventor, AMA · 13-12-2019 4:22pm

Nationwide rescheduled for tonight at 7 RTEONE.

limnam · 13-12-2019 5:37pm

No real questions.

Just congratulations on the product.

and on the price point.

I find it amazing that Irish people will drop 100 quid+ on a night out and then complain about 50e for a product that they'll get benefit out of every single day.

all the best in the future.

Muahahaha · 13-12-2019 10:27pm

Just saw the Nationwide slot earlier this evening which then prompted me finally to look at the Dragons Den clip. Fair play to you in there for getting a deal with three of them.

So a couple more questions- in the Den you were adamant that you were not revealing where your glue is manufactured (not even the continent

), its clearly part of the secret sauce as such. But can you tell us how you arrived at that selection. How was testing done in terms of longevity of the glue? For some reason Im imagining you with 20 Shower Gems hung up on a shed wall with 20 different glues and you powerhosing them every day for months on end

And the other is more a question on IP that all inventors face. If someone in the far east copied your product do you have workable legal recourse to get a stop put to it? I know years back there wasnt but have things changed in this respect?

Brendan Flowers · 15-12-2019 6:42pm

Any plans to produce the ShowerGem in different colours?

I'm an inventor, AMA · 17-12-2019 3:58pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

So a couple more questions- in the Den you were adamant that you were not revealing where your glue is manufactured (not even the continent ). But can you tell us how you arrived at that selection. How was testing done in terms of longevity of the glue? For some reason Im imagining you with 20 Shower Gems hung up on a shed wall with 20 different glues and you powerhosing them every day for months on end

And the other is more a question on IP that all inventors face. If someone in the far east copied your product do you have workable legal recourse to get a stop put to it? I know years back there wasnt but have things changed in this respect?

With the glue, your guess was pretty close. We started with loads of different glues hanging on one type of a tile in a workshop. Ones that fell were immediately ruled out. Ones that passed went onto the next stage in which we stuck them to loads of different tile types. Ones that passed were then stuck in real shower environments with bottles of water hanging of them for a few months. At the same time we also had them stuck to tiles that were left outside so had to experience the sun, UV, really cold temps etc. Eventually we found our winner! Literally went through 30 types of glue and double sided tapes. Above is a really simplified explanation however there were also a lot of other tests that had be done and factors to consider.

We have good IP but the real strength is in our marketing which is very hard to copy so it's not something I spend too much time worrying about! Legal recourse with the far east is always hard but I would more go after the retailers that facilitate the sale of imitation products. They have a reputation they need to keep up and if they sold knock off products I'd make them very aware that the media is going to know about their support of counterfeit goods. We also had an issue with Amazon but it stopped pretty quickly thanks to trademarks that I own.

Brendan Flowers wrote: »

Any plans to produce the ShowerGem in different colours?

Not in the immediate future. More colour types means that you have to hold more stock which ties up money and makes it harder to grow! The see through looks the best also

Muahahaha · 17-12-2019 5:50pm

I'm an inventor, AMA wrote: »

With the glue, your guess was pretty close. We started with loads of different glues hanging on one type of a tile in a workshop. Ones that fell were immediately ruled out. Ones that passed went onto the next stage in which we stuck them to loads of different tile types. Ones that passed were then stuck in real shower environments with bottles of water hanging of them for a few months. At the same time we also had them stuck to tiles that were left outside so had to experience the sun, UV, really cold temps etc. Eventually we found our winner! Literally went through 30 types of glue and double sided tapes. Above is a really simplified explanation however there were also a lot of other tests that had be done and factors to consider.

Thanks for that. Really interesting how you got to select the glue, it sounds like quite the process.

Also from the Nationwide piece thought it great that you are manufacturing the ShowerGems in a local factory, fair play to you for keeping jobs in the country. It must be a great feeling to know that as your company grows you are creating more jobs for the lads in the factory.

I'm an inventor, AMA · 18-12-2019 7:54pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

Thanks for that. Really interesting how you got to select the glue, it sounds like quite the process.

Also from the Nationwide piece thought it great that you are manufacturing the ShowerGems in a local factory, fair play to you for keeping jobs in the country. It must be a great feeling to know that as your company grows you are creating more jobs for the lads in the factory.

When I think about it, it is great feeling being honest. The plastic part made in Longford, boxes made in Cavan, instruction leaflets printed in Mayo and orders fulfilled from a warehouse in Galway! Loads of other businesses do work for us as well

Gloomtastic! · 20-12-2019 10:33am

Did you approach Enterprise Ireland at any stage? Have they now approached you?

I'm an inventor, AMA · 23-12-2019 1:16pm

Yeah, Enterprise Ireland has been involved with us since two years ago. I rate them highly and think they are very good at what they do

Ironman76 · 23-12-2019 3:26pm

This is class. Really interesting as I was always a fan of the show.

What’s the story with the wall? Do you have an time limit to make up your mind whether to accept an offer etc? On TV it looks like it’s 30 seconds or so but this is obviously edited. Could you be there for a half hour say?

Thanks for doing this. I reckon it’s well worth the price. It is clearly a quality product given the effort gone into sourcing the glue alone.

Best of luck.

Joe Schmo · 27-12-2019 10:07pm

I have been talking about your product for 2 years and finally Santa heard me! Best of luck with everything.

Del Griffith · 30-12-2019 10:46pm

Hi im thinking about buying one, whats the chances of boards.ie discount ?

Black_Knight · 30-12-2019 10:56pm

Del Griffith wrote: »

Hi im thinking about buying one, whats the chances of boards.ie discount ?

SAVE10

Boards.ie: Mark · 31-12-2019 10:30am

Thanks everyone for your questions; I'm going to wrap this up now. And thanks very much to our guest for all the time spent taking questions (hopefully it wasn't as hard a grilling as the dragons gave you) and for the discount code. Best of luck with your venture from here!

Now ye're talking - to someone who's been on Dragon's Den UK

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