This has never happened before at DHDL: two young founders pitch against each other – and in the end both get a deal, including an emotional dad moment.
In the youngest battle ever, two underage young entrepreneurs competed against each other on Monday in “The Lions’ Den” – and not only because of their age, it was a novelty at DHDL.
In the so-called battle, two founders pitch in quick succession and each only has a minute to convince the lions. The investors then decide who will move forward. He or she can then continue pitching – and has the chance of an investment. Normally. But everything went differently that day – at least for Team Maschmeyer and founder Philipp Hammerer.
Young Battle: The Pitches
He first pitched his startup “Jimmy Training”, which aims to bring students to the right companies through chat interviews and AI matching. The 16-year-old founder, who is said to have taught himself programming at the age of twelve, wants to end the shortage of skilled workers in the trainee industry. His demand: 80,000 euros for 20 percent of his shares.
After the first pitch comes founder number two: Christopher Czellary with “Peak Protect”. The 17-year-old, who always wanted to be an entrepreneur “like dad,” wants to protect smartphones from falling and being stolen. To do this, he designed a rubber band that attaches to the pants. Christopher Czellary is demanding 75,000 euros for 25 percent of his shares.
Crisp 3:2 for Peak Protect
After these pitches there will be the first showdown. While everyone is enthusiastic about the age and commitment of the young founders, two camps are forming. Maschmeyer emphasizes that “companies and trainees find it difficult to find each other” and sees great potential in Jimmy training. However, he can only convince one more lioness.
The remaining lions are enthusiastic about Peak Protect – also because of their own experience. While Dagmar Wöhrl reports that her cell phone was stolen in Ecuador, Janna Ensthaler’s daughter lost hers on the ski slopes. Those are enough arguments for the lions. So it becomes a close 3:2 decision for Peak Protect. Ralf Dümmel has to deliver the difficult message.
But as much as Peak Protect founder Christopher Czellary is obviously happy, his opponent Philipp Hammerer is just as obviously upset. Until Carsten Maschmeyer intervenes and addresses the young founder again: “Don’t run away from the studio completely.” Optimistic that he will still get a deal, he says goodbye to the stage, which now belongs to Christopher Czellary.
The lions then even try out his two product variants themselves. Excited about the product and sales, which according to the founder amounted to 90,000 euros in 90 days, they asked him about his everyday life between school and starting a business. His program is: teaching in the morning and sending orders in the afternoon. Czellary makes phone calls to Chinese suppliers himself, he says.
An emotional moment
It’s clear that this doesn’t work without dad. Father Rainer Czellary comes on stage and father and son praise each other – it gets emotional in the cave. After a tearful embrace between the two, the lions are so overwhelmed by the product and emotions that both Ensthaler and Dümmel want to invest. Dümmel, Christopher and Rainer Czellary’s favorite lion, then gets the contract.
Happy Ending: Deals for both teens
But that’s not the end of the story. After this successful first deal, a successful second deal followed: Maschmeyer goes backstage during the show and declares himself to be a big fan of young founder Philipp Hammerer. And: he wants to invest. The deal comes about despite Hammerer’s elimination in the battle – something that has never happened before at DHDL.
After the broadcast, Maschmeyer said to Gründerszene: “The greatest shortage of skilled workers is in training occupations. Jimmy training ensures that applicants and training companies find each other quickly: Instead of pages of cover letters, a short interview in the app is enough and the companies apply to the right trainees of tomorrow. When Philipp presented his solution, it was immediately clear to me: This is not only technically clever, but will ensure that training positions are filled faster and more appropriately. Even if the other lions outvote me and Philipp lost the battle, he convinced me.”
And the deal with Christopher Czellary? According to Dümmel’s spokeswoman, this also remained in place after the broadcast.
