Careful What You Wish For
Going on the show with only a prototype and no sales is usually a death sentence in the Den and Kevin O’Leary is likely to rip you apart and shred your confidence if you don’t have sales. I knew this and prepared the best I could with a strategy in mind.
The week prior to filming the Dragon’s Den, we debuted the HEFT™ at The National Hardware Show in Las Vegas, the second largest hardware show in the world. At the show, we asked everyone that visited our booth for their feedback and price suggestions. This gave The HEFT™ credibility and much needed market research. We met with the movers and shakers in the hardware industry, including a meeting with a senior buyer from Amazon. Yes, THAT Amazon. Having this experience was invaluable in preparing for pitching to the Dragons, and I flew to Toronto feeling confident about my presentation and invention.
Pitch Day
It was finally May 10, the day of my pitch in the Dragons' Den. I arrived at the CBC by 5:30 am and informed that one of the members of the production team would be waiting to sign me in at the registration table and take me and my props up to the studio. The producers first took all the ‘pitchers’ on a studio tour; we were all ‘locked’ in a staging room and not permitted to leave.
I was having difficulty with keeping my pitch organized in my head. Having been at the Vegas show, I had ‘pitched’ The HEFT™ many times and felt my presentation was very solid. However through a great twist of fate, an amazing business advisor with experience working with Venture Capitalists had entered my life just after the Vegas show and completely rewritten my ‘pitch’. The cause of my lost sleep. As hard as I tried to incorporate the new changes to my pitch, the Vegas pitch kept surfacing, leaving my brain in a muddle.
At 9 am my producer, Amy, asked me to give her my pitch. Not 30 seconds into the pitch, she said, “STOP, this just isn’t working.” She wanted me to have one of the Dragons on stage with me far earlier than I had planned. So for the third time in less than one week I rewrote my pitch, with less than 90 minutes until I met the Dragons.
Next thing I heard was, “Marco, they need you to get ‘miked up’, it’s show time!”
Check 1-2-3
The CBC staff was fabulous, helping me though the process of the sound check. A few moments later, I was sitting outside the sound stage, lost in my thoughts, ready to pitch and sweating… a lot. Finally it was show time.. I was brought to the top of the stage and then down the stairs to meet the Dragons! My heart was pounding out of my chest and I was about to cross ‘pitching to the Dragon’s Den’ off my bucket list.
The last staff member I saw did their best to keep me side-tracked until I heard those words… “5-4-3-2-Marco we are live, GO.”
To find out what happens next, you’ll have to tune in December 5th at 8 pm to CBC Dragons' Den!
