Take it or leave it in the lion's den

The fifth show of the fourth season of "Die Höhle der Löwen Schweiz" flickered across the 3+ channel on November 1, 2022. The first of the six startups that presented themselves to the investors initially sounded a bit like Japanese martial arts: "kiyo. In fact, this term is Japanese, but means "pure." Nando Nichele and Jeffrey Christen from Merlischachen (SZ) have developed toothpaste tablets under this name. The tablets are chewed, then the teeth are brushed as usual and rinsed with water. The advantage over conventional toothpaste is that no plastic packaging is needed, and the tablets are sold in refillable jars. The lionesses and lions liked the product, and the sales figures presented also sounded appealing. From this point of view, it should actually be realistic to invest the 150,000 Swiss francs demanded in exchange for 12 percent company shares. But the lions and the lioness present were bothered by the high sales price, which made the product not suitable for the masses. In the end, there was no deal.

Deal for prostheses, no deal for legal platform

The ETH spin-off "mac4u", represented by Lukas Schiller, Myriam Lingg and "Bionicman" Michel Fornasier, uses 3D printing to produce forearm prostheses with exchangeable parts. There are attachments for playing tennis, cycling, paddling, for the gym, etc. Interested parties can put together their desired prosthesis online in a configurator. A very sensible thing, as the lions also stated. The three company founders wanted 150,000 Swiss francs in exchange for a 4 percent share in the company. However, the market is not particularly large, even if there are around 20 million people worldwide who are dependent on forearm prostheses, and a few thousand more in Switzerland. Lukas Speiser and Jürg Schwarzenbach quickly dropped out. Anja Graf also did not want to make an offer. Roland Brack then offered 200,000 Swiss francs in exchange for a 6 percent stake, and Bettina Hein in turn made an offer of 150,000 Swiss francs in exchange for 5 percent. The young entrepreneurs had to withdraw for consultation and then wanted to bring the two offers down to a common denominator with a counter-offer: 300,000 francs against a 10 percent stake. Roland Brack and Bettina Hein accepted, and the deal was perfect.

150,000 Swiss francs against 2.5 percent company shares was what David Roegiers from Zurich wanted invested in his legal platform "Jurata". "Jurata" is an online platform that brings SMEs and private individuals together with lawyers. People seeking legal advice can describe their case online, and the platform then suggests suitable lawyers. In addition, "Jurata" offers legal products such as notices of termination, trademark registrations and the drafting of contracts at a fixed price. Sounds good in principle, but as it is in legal matters: The devil is in the details. And the lionesses and lions wanted to know a lot about that: Sales? Exact business model? Prospects? Internationalization? USP? Founder David Roegiers got very defensive and became visibly tangled up in his explanations. This was of course poison for the further course of events. It came as it had to: no lion or lioness wanted a deal.

Lions tough: Take it or leave it

"Sunday Seltzer" is a sparkling water with alcohol. American-born Norell Narum and Yves Heer from Zug launched it. Launched in 2020, the drink is made with the best Swiss ingredients. In five flavors and with four percent alcohol, it contains neither sugar nor sweetener and has half the calories of a beer. With "Sunday Seltzer," the two want to popularize a beverage trend that is already established in the U.S. in Switzerland as well. The market potential is huge; there is talk of a global market potential of 10 billion francs. But initially, 200,000 Swiss francs are to be invested in exchange for a 5 percent stake. An initial foundation has already been laid, as the Swiss start-up has already made the leap into the retail trade. Sunday Seltzer already has more than 100 customers. Sales of 160,000 Swiss francs were achieved in the first year of production. The lionesses and lions taste the drink and show great interest. Production costs of 1.05 Swiss francs at a retail price of 3.50 Swiss francs, steadily increasing sales figures seem to make the lionesses' and lions' mouths water even more. Tobias Reichmuth even finds the projected sales figures - 1.2 million in 2023 - rather conservative. Indeed, the ambitions of Norell and Yves are great: Not only Switzerland and Europe are to be conquered, but also America thanks to Swissness. Bettina Hein was correspondingly impressed. But because she is more interested in technology investments, she dropped out. Jürg Schwarzenbach also did not want to join, for him the ambitions seemed too much "at the upper end". Roland Brack, Tobias Reichmuth and Lukas Speiser talked it over, were somewhat bothered by the high valuation of 4 million francs, but were then jointly prepared for an offer of 300,000 francs against a 15 percent stake. The two young entrepreneurs withdrew for a brief consultation, and a calculator was also pulled out. Because they did not want a company valuation below 3 million. The result was a counteroffer of 300,000 francs against a 9 percent stake. But Lukas Speiser made it clear: Too low for him, because the company had not sufficiently proven that it could exploit its huge potential on its own. He therefore dropped out. Tobias Reichmuth and Roland Brack then followed this line of reasoning - take it or leave it, was their tough stance.

Another job platform? One of the lions says: "Yes"

"Let's match" was then the motto of Thomas Balli, Arlinda Ismaili and Alexandra Eicher from Zug with their personnel recruitment platform "mtchbx". This actively suggests jobs to job seekers that could be a good fit based on education and work experience. Because all the information about the person is already stored on the app, you can apply for a job with just one swipe. A "Tinder" for recruiting, then? With 250,000 Swiss francs against a 10 percent share in the company, "mtchbx" now competed to convince the lioness and the lions to invest. In response to their initial inquiries, the three company founders then revealed a few not inconsiderable key figures: An applicant pool of 40,000, 157 advertised positions, 10 to 15 matches per month - whereby a match does not yet mean employment. "Seems like an insanely small number to me," Tobias Reichmuth noted. And how to make the app better known still turned out to be a shortcoming. But the sales targets sounded ambitious: 45,000 Swiss francs at present, 350,000 should be reached by the end of 2022 with 1000 advertised jobs. In 2023, the target is 2500 jobs, and in two years, 5000, "conservatively calculated," said Thomas Balli. Then came the verdict of the investors: Bettina Hein as lioness quickly dropped out due to lack of internationality and scalability. Lukas Speiser found the solution interesting, but did not want to invest. Tobias Reichmuth put question marks behind the competitiveness and also dropped out. Jürg Schwarzenbach found the company valuation "too sporty" at the current time and refrained from investing. Roland Brack remained: he made an offer of 250,000 Swiss francs, but in exchange for a 15 percent stake. That "matched", the three accepted the offer.

Good product - but not yet fully developed

"Two in One" is the name of the sanitary product with which Emin Behramaj ventured into the lion's den. His solution for the quiet room includes toilet paper, wet wipes and disinfectant from a single dispenser. The developer wants to use the product in hospitals, doctors' offices, office buildings, schools and the hotel industry. There is a moving story behind it, because Emin Behramaj, now 53, was diagnosed with Wilson's disease, a metabolic disorder, a few years ago that required a liver transplant. During his long hospital stay, he had enough time to develop his idea, for whose marketing and further development he now needs a strategic partner. 150,000 Swiss francs against 20 percent company shares was his capital requirement. Tobias Reichmuth was impressed by the product, although Emin Behramaj has not yet been able to sell any of it, as development has only just been completed. But with the asking price of just under 70 Swiss francs with production costs of just over 15 Swiss francs, he triggered an appreciative "Hm" from the lion. Jürg Schwarzenbach was impressed that the inventor had used just 150,000 francs for the entire product development and also the filing of the patent. "Where there's a will, there's a way," Emin Behramaj cleared up further critical inquiries about standardization and scaling of the product. Tobias Reichmuth conceded that marketing is also likely to swallow up another large sum. Even though he found the product exciting, he dropped out of the bidding race. Anja Graf saw the need for such a product. For her, however, the problem lay in the design and practicality - "too many corners for cleaning" - and she therefore also did not want to invest. Jürg Schwarzenbach and Lukas Speiser also refrained. Roland Brack, on the other hand, thought the product was not yet fully developed, but offered to include the solution in the range after it had been optimized. Emin Behramaj will therefore have to fight a little longer - but he is sure to win sympathy.

More information on upcoming shows: https://www.oneplus.ch/detail/1000604