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From Unsightly To Unseen!

Trailing in the closing stages of their first competitive game of the 2007 season against Australia seasoned South African captain John Smit stood with the ball on the 50-yard line contemplating a kick at goal and more over who should take it. Up strode 20 year old rookie replacement Francois Steyn, eyes fixated so intently on the ball that Smits decision was made for him. Steyn duly converted and the South Africans won the game, the Tri Nations tournament and subsequently the World cup.

The stage was set, 2 garish Wheelie Bins and my new invention waiting under those black cloths. For those who didn’t catch it on RTE I started by pointing out the heretofore unsolved problem of peoples bins, specifically, what an eye sore they are and where best to store them. My answer is called the “hidbin”- from unsightly to unseen. It’s a screening frame covered in synthetic hedging. As Richard Curran says “a simple aesthetically sound solution to an everyday problem”.

Memorized presentation over there was silence. An unnerving and rather long lasting silence, which I wish someone, had warned me about! Deep breaths and keep cool. Once the questions started I was away in a hack though. For some reason at one stage I quoted a Polish colleagues’ Father’s favorite saying – “an ounce of commerce is worth a tonne of work. That struck a chord with the Dragons. Also edited out was my comment that presenting in the Den reminded me a bit of playing Poker! Sean Gallagher reckoned I won more than I ever lost. (No comment).

The truth was I figured I had been dealt a strong hand by faith with my hidbin idea and I was determined to drive home the opportunity and win the pot. Applying to the Dragons Den was upping the Ante in a very public way. The stakes were high enough to make it interesting as I’d committed a decent wedge of my own cash at that stage. The risks were also considerable. I could always have folded and not marched up the stairs but my instinct was to play it out. The downside was national humiliation and possible ridicule. I do have a new found respect and admiration for all the brave souls (with the exception of one or two head bangers) who enter the Den saloon.

Besides my hidbin aces I had also kept a kicker. Regardless of how things went I just so happened to be standing on my “SanctuarySynthetics.ie” artificial grass, which was bound to get a mention surly to God. Mind you I needn’t have worried. Despite the fact I was only showing them an early prototype they all immediately understood and liked the idea. Niall O’Farrell said “its great and definitely going to work” and gave me some very constructive criticism , since taken on board in perfecting the hidbin’s design. Even Sarah Newman exclaimed it was a pretty neat idea. Bowing out on the grounds the Celtic tigers spending fest was over I retorted, ever so politely of course, that the focus of peoples spending is now very much on home improvements as nobody’s moving house and besides, with 24 million households in the UK alone, 7 million of them Terraced houses, the potential market is huge. Sean Gallagher was in danger of giving me a big head with his praise. Bobby Kerr meanwhile was definitely game ball but worried I wouldn’t devote sufficient time and energy to the hidbin given the success of my Domestic and Crèches artificial grass installation business. My retort, also not aired, was to point out that I certainly wasn’t the only person in the room with more than one business interest and that hadn’t seemed to hamper their success.

It was a roller coaster hour. At one point I thought they’d all want a stake. However when the chips were down I went all in with Mr. Gavin Duffy. I’m delighted to have gained a mentor who has forgotten mere than I’ll ever know about business success. So that was it. I had gambled my reputation (such as it is) and emerged 50,000 Euro and one serious Dragon up. The next tournament, to stretch and already labored analogy just a little bit more, begins now with the perfected products official launch. Blatant plug time now. Interested readers can investigate further or order now on hidbin.ie, or indeed come and see us exhibit, alongside Noelle O’Connor’s Tan Organics and Herbie Porsche's Toilet pipe cover—the Dragons Den dream team—at the Spring Ideal homes show in the RDS next weekend. I believe the bin trasher will also be there.

Finally a sincere thank you to my Family and friends for their support. Likewise to my team, mentors, market researchers, product development engineers and designers and indeed industry buyers. Cheese maker Kate Carmody made a very cogent argument in this column last week that we as Ireland Inc need to concentrate on maximizing our resources, whether it be the natural grassland of the golden vale or our passion, imagination and ingenuity to create value added products and services that we can trade and export. Well done to the Sunday Independent, in the face of low national moral, for supporting enterprise and giving me and others the oxygen of publicity.

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