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: Robin Schmedes and Simon Biener, the founders of Ceiling Lightning.
Painting ceilings can be a real challenge because you have to work overhead. Not only can this be exhausting, it can also lead to shoulder and neck pain. In addition, with white coats of paint, it is often not possible to see exactly which surface has already been treated. That can mean double work.
The brothers Robin Schmedes and Simon Biener now want to remedy this problem. The marker Ceiling flash is designed to enable ceilings to be painted quickly and easily with the help of a special paintable ink. In the VOX start-up show “Die Höhle der Löwen”, the two founders could win investor Ralf Dümmel for their start-up.
Contents
Ceiling flash: The marking pen with special ink
BASIC thinking: Hello Robin, hello Simon, you are in the thirteenth season of “The Lion’s Den”. How does that feel?
It feels totally awesome. We’ve been working towards getting into The Lion’s Den for so long and we’re huge fans of the show ourselves. It means a lot to us that we were able to present our ceiling flash in the cave.
What makes your product ceiling flash so special?
We have developed the world’s first marking pen that makes painting walls and ceilings much easier. Everyone knows the problem: When renewing light-colored paint, it is difficult to orientate yourself, especially on the ceiling, and you can hardly tell where you have already painted and where not.
So you paint some places twice and three times while you forget other areas. This costs nerves, strength, time and also leads to a blotchy result.
With the ceiling flash marking pen you can divide the areas to be painted into smaller sections. When painting over with wall paint, the blue auxiliary lines become invisible. So you can orientate yourself exactly and paint the surface easily and easily in one go. You save a lot of time and also have a result like from a professional.
“The Lion’s Den”: The concept behind ceiling flash
How did you come up with the idea and concept of ceiling flash?
We were just getting home when our mom was struggling to paint the ceiling in the living room. Even after the second coat, the ceiling was still stained and she suffered from neck pain and fatigue. That was the moment when we thought: “There must be an easier way!” After months of research, various prototypes and hundreds of tests, we finally held our ceiling flash in our hands.
And how did you end up in The Lion’s Den?
One could almost say that the ceiling flash is only available today because we have always been big fans of the founding show “The Lion’s Den”. The success stories in the show inspired us when we were young and showed us that you can turn a simple idea into a real start-up. When we then had the brilliant idea for our own start-up, it was clear from the start that we definitely wanted to present the ceiling flash to the lions.
The pitch and the negotiations
What was going through your mind just before your pitch?
We were pretty excited. Since our mom is part of our founding story, she was also present at our pitch. In fact, she was so nervous that she forgot all of her part of the speech just before the performance in front of the lions.
How did the subsequent negotiations go?
The negotiations with Ralf went on for several weeks. Since this is the first time we have entered into such a cooperation with an investor, the exact drafting of the contract was still fairly new territory for us.
We had a lot of fun negotiating the deal in detail. All in all, we are very happy about the cooperation with Ralf Dümmel, because we always feel that we are in good hands with him and his team and that we are treated fairly.
What has happened to you and your product since shooting and participating?
Since we made the deal with Ralf Dümmel, we finally have professional support. We were able to find the perfect supplier for our product and have redesigned the ceiling flash packaging.
We’ve also set up a great company website. Ralf’s network made it possible for Netto and Kaufland to sell the ceiling flash in addition to QVC.
Ceiling flash: So it goes on now
What’s next? What are the next steps?
Now – shortly after the pitch – it is very exciting for us to analyze the reactions of the audience and the demand for the ceiling flash.
All further steps in the next few weeks will depend on whether we were able to convince people of our problem solver. Since we ourselves firmly believe in the added value that the ceiling flash provides, we are full of hope that our start-up will be a success.
Looking back, how do you rate your experience at The Lion’s Den?
Not only the performance, but also the entire application phase for “The Lion’s Den” was really super exciting for us. On the day of shooting, we were accompanied by very warm and friendly employees.
Our supervisor in the application process even stayed on the set after work to follow the outcome of our pitch. We can only recommend everyone to apply to “The Lion’s Den” with their start-up or product idea!
→ There is a marking pen for the ceiling light here to buy.
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