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

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Comments

  • Company Representative Posts: 16 Verified rep I'm an inventor, AMA


    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 :D). 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 :D

    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.
    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 :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,587 ✭✭✭✭Muahahaha


    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.


  • Company Representative Posts: 16 Verified rep I'm an inventor, AMA


    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 :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,247 ✭✭✭Gloomtastic!


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


  • Company Representative Posts: 16 Verified rep I'm an inventor, AMA


    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 :D


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  • Registered Users Posts: 517 ✭✭✭Ironman76


    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.


  • Registered Users Posts: 63 ✭✭Joe Schmo


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


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,201 ✭✭✭Del Griffith


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


  • Moderators Posts: 12,352 ✭✭✭✭Black_Knight


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

    SAVE10


  • Boards.ie Employee Posts: 5,461 ✭✭✭✭✭Boards.ie: Mark
    Boards.ie Employee


    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!


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