the 38-year-old Thomas Keller Carstensen and 20-year-old Jonas Kjemtrup impressed the lions, as the Thursday evening presented their invention MuteBox in the 'Lion's den' on DR. Here sought 300,000 dollars in return for 10% ownership.
Their pitch went clean into the minds of the lions, and all three of them wanted to go ahead with the project.
The two men selected, however, in the last end to go with the entrepreneur Jesper Buch, and they ended up on an agreement of 400,000 for 20 percent of the company.
since then gone from strength to strength ahead of the duo behind the MuteBox, which is a soundproof telephone booth, which with advantage can be used in open office environments to mitigate noise.
- There have been many things since the 'Lion's den'. On virksomhedsfronten we've got optimized a lot. We have used Jesper very much - especially in relation to the production, our product is a complex product that must be assembled from many parts and run through a large plant. So many of our forces have gone on to optimize it and upgrade our online profile, says Thomas Keller Carstensen to Ekstra Bladet.
Film, tv & radio - 2. jan. 2020 - pm. 20:59 Rejected the game rekordbud in the 'Lion's den': - It was very simple
And so we come in the house with a very good agreement with a Danish møbelforhandler called Scanoffice. You can say that they are a kind of running vendors, which helps us to get the sold product, and it has given us so much, he says further.
According to the founders of the MuteBox is it also only gone forward with the sale, since they starred in 'Lion's den'.
Sales have gone really well. This, despite the fact that it was one of the places where the lions were a little critical, for when we were with, we had only sold a little. But it's gone really well since. When you have a product that is in the price range, as the boxes are, then there is not much to, before it is well, " says Thomas Keller Carstensen on MuteBox, which costs in the neighborhood of 29.000 dollars for a standard model.
- How much have you sold since?
- We have sold 35, and it seems we are really very, when we also at the same time, has been focusing on product development. From our perspective, it has been a great success, and we have had really good help from Jesper and his team - both with branding, sales, and other things.
Jonas and Thomas during the presentation of the MuteBox. Photo: Carsten Andersen/DR
the 38-year-old Thomas Keller Carstensen and 20-year-old Jonas Kjemtrup know each other from the school Campus Vejle, where Jonas was previously a pupil, at the same time that Thomas was a teacher.
It was here that the idea for the MuteBox started. After Jonas had been working for some time on the idea, chose Thomas to say his or her full-time job as a teacher up to wager 100 percent on the MuteBox. A decision he does not regret today.
- I have a closet-entrepreneur in me, which has been allowed to break out now. I've had it safe and sound in a real work, but I have dreamed to make it in life. At one point I had to make a choice. I would continue to dream or do something about it?, says Thomas Keller Carstensen Extra Magazine and continues:
I had gone and brewed on the idea for some time, and so I gave it at a time on to Jonas, who at the time had started a few companies. I had him as a student in two different subjects, and we sparrede much with each other, but I had no time to even run with the idea, because I just had a wife and children, and steady work.
Film, tv & radio - 3. jan. 2020 - pm. 05:49 - It was simply scary
But, as Jonas Kjemtrup began the work of MuteBox for real, was Thomas Keller Carstensen also more and more absorbed in the project.
- the Jonas took on and began to make prototypes. It was just pissefedt. We sparrede about it, and suddenly we spent more time on it. I became more and more hooked, and I got more and more the desire to seize the idea. It is one of those forks you are experiencing, and I then chose to jump out in deep water. I have been a tryghedsnarkoman, but in this case I thought that I would regret it if I did it, he says and stresses that it was a tough decision:
- It was anxiety-provoking. At the time I did it, we were still in the process of product development. So it was not a real business, I jumped out in. There was a cash flow, but it was in the wrong direction, so it was very uncertain, he says with a laugh, and stresses that he does not have regretted his decision once.
Here are the five lions. Photo: Per Arnesen/DR
- I got great support from home, and since I have not regretted a single second, says Thomas, while Jonas adds:
- For me it was a big pat on the shoulders, that he had the confidence that we could get really far with it. But there are also a responsibility with it, and something I need to live up to, he says, and continues:
- We have fun together, and we run off. There is a good dynamic between us. Aldersspændet is only something that comes to us, even though it was a concern in the beginning, says Jonas Kjemtrup about Thomas' decision.
- How it looks so out with the economy in the day - can In the living of it?
- We get a fixed salary, we can say, and we are sure that it will get to be even better in the future, says Thomas.
