The “cave of the lions” is increasingly becoming a “cave of the lionesses”. In any case, female investors are strongly represented in the new season of the start-up show. Show veteran Judith Williams is missing. In addition to Dagmar Wöhrl, Janna Ensthaler will be there again, who will not let her pregnancy stop her from fighting for new deals. There is also a newcomer, Tijen Onaran, who has explicitly committed himself to female empowerment (read an interview with Tijen Onaran here).
Female What?, some might ask. Carsten Maschmeyer also needs clarification at the beginning with regard to the investment strategy of his new seat neighbor: “Which sectors are you most interested in,” the old lion wants to know. The answer pops, as does Onaran’s red studio outfit. “Everything that makes life nicer and more enjoyable, above and below.” So: “Desire, passion, sex, beauty, lifestyle.” All right, let’s go.
Onaran can also throw her downstairs competence into the balance. Because the first thing pharmacist Dr. Vivien Karl with her co-founder Julia Huhnholz the lion’s den. The two founders have brought along a skin care cream against dry intimate parts in women. In order to loosen up on this taboo subject, the founders were asked by the founders to first pronounce the term “intimate dryness” out loud in unison. That works fine. After that, however, the harmony is over – and the battle between the sexes between the lions has flared up.
First Nils Glagau throws himself in the chest. “I’m your man,” sounds the boss of the pill empire Orthomol, whose dietary supplements are sold in thousands of pharmacies across the country. But Onaran, who already has investments in a company that makes lubes and tampons and sees herself as the “intimate and sex officer of the show,” also wants to win over the founders. “I speak the language of women. I stand for the topic of female empowerment. Nils definitely doesn’t do that,” she fires a self-confident broadside against the competitor.
Together with Dagmar Wöhrl, Onaran forms a team of women’s power, which even wants to add 100,000 euros to the required 200,000, which in turn leads Glagau to point out that the “ladies” besides money “is not much in terms of content”. In fact, in the end, the doctor and partner decide in favor of pharmacy expertise and against the women’s team and make the deal with Glagau. He is to receive 12.5 percent of the company shares for 200,000 euros.
Happy became Dr. Vivien Karl – that’s not only the name of the founder, but also of the start-up – but not with the Glagau deal. Because the investment did not materialize after the show, as both sides confirmed when asked by stern. “Dr. Vivien Karl really convinced me and I would have liked to have established a long-term partnership,” explained Glagau. During an “intensive exchange” after the show, however, it turned out “that we can’t find each other”. The investor does not reveal a more detailed reason for the failure of the deal.
The Vivien Karl team is also not specific in the joint statement. “We would have been really happy to work together,” emphasize the founders. “Nils would have been the ideal fit in our eyes and was therefore our favorite lion.” All the more one regrets “not having found a common strategic path”. Nevertheless, the aim is to become the number one in intimate care products.
