9 questions for the founders of “The Lion’s Den”

In this questionnaire we ask the founders and participants of the Vox show “The Lion’s Den” questions about their products and experiences on the show. This time: Florian Hornig and Marcel Büttner, the founders of Fruping.

Fresh fruit is considered a healthy snack between meals. However, since fruits often taste similar, Fruping founders Florian Horning and Marcel Büttner have thought about something. The result was a fruit topping that is supposed to give fruit in particular a special kick in terms of taste.

With this idea, the two Fruping founders were able to convince the VOX start-up show “Die Höhle der Löwen” and attract investor Ralf Dümmel and land

Fruping: The fruit topping for fruit lovers

BASIC thinking: Hello Florian, hello Marcel, you are in the thirteenth season of “Die Höhle der Löwen”. How does that feel?

Everything is new and super exciting for us right now. “The Lion’s Den” offers a unique opportunity, because the radiance of the show and the number of people you can reach at the same time cannot be found anywhere else. We are therefore very happy to be part of it

What makes your product Fruping so special?

With our company “Fruping” we want to increase creativity and variety in the preparation of fruit and offer our customers a great and tasty change. We give fruit that certain something!

The idea and concept behind Fruping

How did you come up with the idea and concept of Fruping?

Our startup story begins when we were students. While we were both working on our theses, we often resorted to fast food and sweets due to lack of time. After we quickly understood that this food tends to drag us down, we increasingly switched to different types of fruit as a snack between meals.

However, we encountered the following problem: Fruit always tastes the same and there is hardly any opportunity to make more out of it.
We then thought of spices that Florian brought back from a trip to Mexico and which are used for fruit, among other things. A thought that hasn’t let go of us: Why do you refine everything but fruit?

So we tried and combined spices from all over the world in our shared kitchen in order to be able to offer the perfect topping. With our prototypes in our backpacks, we then went to the Rhine in Cologne and asked people for their opinions. The result was so good that we said to ourselves: we just have to do this now! The idea for Fruping was born.

Fruping in “The Lion’s Den”

And how did you end up in The Lion’s Den?

We always watched “The Lion’s Den” in our flat share and thought to ourselves: “We absolutely have to stand there!” When our company was able to show the first sales, it was clear to us that we absolutely had to go to the show.

After the application process and a (for us) very long wait, the time had finally come: we were allowed to pitch in front of the investors in “Die Höhle der Löwen”.

The pitch and the negotiations

What was going through your mind just before your pitch?

It was all very exciting for us. We’ve never been on a stage, let alone in a big TV studio. To be honest, you couldn’t absorb the impressions because you were so busy thinking about yourself and the pitch. It was like before an exam: at some point you just wanted to go out and pitch.

How did the subsequent negotiations go?

We were convinced of our idea, otherwise we wouldn’t have gone to “The Lion’s Den”. Nevertheless, we were curious how the lions would react to our product and whether they liked it.

Of course, the lions also had critical questions during the negotiations, after all it was about a real investment. But we expected that and tried to find the right arguments to convince them of our product.

What has happened to you and your product Fruping since the shoot and the participation?

A few days after the shoot we went to Hamburg to Ralf Dümmel’s company, the DS Group, where we met for a kick-off date and discussed how to proceed.

From here on we basically started all over again and rethought our product. From the toppings to the packaging to the marketing. We are a little proud of the end result and are happy that everything went so well.

Fruping: That’s how it’s going to continue

And how does it continue?

What are the next steps? Our vision is to make fruit even tastier and to offer our customers fun and variety when eating fruit. We want to become an established brand for everything to do with fruit.

We wish that everyone who thinks of fruit automatically also thinks of Fruping. As next steps, we would like to launch more products and further expand our presence in supermarkets.

Looking back, how do you rate your experience at The Lion’s Den?

It was a great experience for us that we don’t want to miss. We believe that you only experience something like this once in a lifetime. It was a lot of fun standing in front of the lions and presenting Fruping. Having left the show with a deal with Ralf Dümmel makes it all the more beautiful. Overall, we are very grateful to be able to present our startup to such a large audience.

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