Gitti has succeeded in doing what no start-up on the TV show "Die Hohle der Lowen" has ever done before: Founder Jennifer Baum-Minkus not only convinced all five "lions" of her water-based and odorless nail colors, all five were also willing to accept the 35-year-old’s offer of an eight percent stake in her company for 300.000 euros without hesitation. The deal it looked like at the end of the show, however, did not materialize.
Jennifer Baum-Minkus had a free choice on "Die Hohle der Lowen" (The Lion’s Den). And this rarely happens in the founder’s show. The investors Judith Williams, Dagmar Wohrl, Carsten Maschmeyer, Dr. Georg Kofler and Ralf Dummel were all ready to invest in their company Gitti to invest. On the show, the founder decided to take an eight percent stake in her startup for 300.000 euros to Judith Williams. In addition, she made another offer – also a first: one of the "lions" was to be kept for another 50.000 euros with around 1.3 percent in Gitti can participate. This offer was accepted by Dagmar Wohrl.
However, talks following the show failed to produce an agreement among the three entrepreneurs, according to several media outlets, with neither the deal with Williams nor with Wohrl coming to fruition.
Just under 12.000 Instagram followers more
Nevertheless, the opening episode of the fall season could not have ended more successfully for Jennifer Baum-Minkus: The fact that all five "lions" immediately approve an offer without negotiating – especially one with comparatively low participation – has never happened before. Also, not to be sneezed at is the reach that the format gives the brand Gitti within a short period of time: The Vox show won on Monday night’s broadcast date, 31. August, the market leader with a share of 14.1 and 17.8 percent in both target groups of 14- to 59-year-olds and 14- to 49-year-olds respectively. In total, up to 3.09 million viewers watched the show.
On Instagram, the subscriber count of Gitti overnight from 28.300 to about 41.000 skyrocketed, and the trend is upward.
"Our goal is to fundamentally change the beauty industry – with innovative, vegan and sustainable products."
– Jennifer Baum-Minkus
In the run-up had Beauty Independent asked Jennifer Baum-Minkus about her reasons for participating in the show. "Our goal is to fundamentally change the beauty industry. With innovative, vegan and sustainable products. It starts with better ingredients: for the customers and our planet, goes through packaging to production. We are taking on the entire value chain and improving it bit by bit. To do this, we need strong partners to accompany and support us along the way," explained the founder.
Decorative cosmetics are also conceivable
The brand has managed to create hype with its nail colors: The store opened only once a month in the first fiscal year of 2019 with a limited number of nail colors. The first drop was sold out in less than two hours. In total, the store opened on nine days last year, with sales of around 310.000 euros was achieved.
During the show, Jennifer Baum-Minkus let slip which areas of color cosmetics she could also imagine working on in the future with Gitti get involved. When asked by Judith Williams, the 35-year-old explained that she would also target products for lips and eyes, if necessary.