Dragons fired success of my rubbish idea
Are you one of the thousands of people who climb into your wheelie bin to compress the bags of rubbish inside? When a friend of mine fell out of his bin and broke his ankle, I started thinking about my Bin Trasher.
At my light engineering business in Bunclody, Co Wexford, I came up with a prototype and have since successfully patented the idea. Then last October I did a mad thing. I applied to go on Dragons' Den.
When you face those Dragons you are so nervous you could forget your own name.
Before I went in I had written off Sarah Newman, accepting she would probably bow out early on. When she seemed to be genuinely interested in my product I began to feel really confident and I started to believe I was going to do well.
During the programme last Thursday night we sold 160 Bin Trashers before my web site, BinTrasher.ie, froze because there was so much traffic.
Also that day I got a security check call from PayPal wanting to know why was this account suddenly so busy.
All this confirms our strategy is the correct one. Since the show was recorded, I have gotten great assistance from my investors Sarah and Bobby and they are of the view (and I agree with them) that we will keep this as a web product rather than going into the shops.
By keeping it as a web-based product I can keep it at just €49.95. Isn't the web a fantastic development? Here I am making my Bin Trashers in Bunclody and over the web I get paid for them before they leave the yard.
There's a lot of talk about the recession and how difficult it is to get paid. With the right idea and with the help of Dragons' Den I am enjoying a very different experience.
- Eamonn Treacy
Originally published in
