Castlebar man Eoin Heverin made a successful pitch for investment in his fledgeling business Tellmystory.ie on RTÉ's Dragons Den last Sunday night. The Castlebar man was successful in persuading 'Dragon' Barry O'Sullivan to invest €40,000 into his business. Speaking this week to the Mayo Advertiser, Heverin recalled the experience: "It went on for over an hour, so what we saw was just condensed down to 15 minutes, but I was very happy with how everything went on the day. The ending especially, of course. I was grand, I was well prepared, now about half an hour before I went they did kick in which is normal, but I was confident about my product and I knew my stuff so it was just about going in there and showing that."
As for having Barry O'Sullivan stump up the cash to invest in his business Heverin said: "Delighted that Barry came on board, he's a very good strong online background and that's where I'm aiming to go with this product so he'll be able to give a lot of input into it. Even before that we had sold in 12 countries worldwide, but now with money coming on board with Barry we can really push it out, that's the plan, to go global.
"He's been very hands off overall, he's letting me get on with it, but if I need help he's there, which is great, and I get on with the day to day. The main thing that has blown me away is the reaction from the people around Mayo."
As for the idea itself for the business he said: "It was just a lightbulb moment, I was out with my niece and reading her a standard personalised book and there was a scene in with a princess and I thought it'd be cool if I could pop her head onto that and that's as simple as that and I ran with it. It's always the simplest ideas that are the best."
Looking to the future, the sky is the limit he believes. "We hope to target 4,000 units this year, we're confident that we'd reach that in year one and then grow it from there. We've two working on it and we're in the process of taking on a third one. We've an office on Main Street, but are looking to move into new premises in the coming months. We've loads of new ideas and two new editions coming out before Christmas and are looking to get into the Irish language version out next year and few others like that."
