10 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Many business ideas are born in a roast beef . From a product to light the fire to a beer holder. Rafael Pérez , “the cousin”, identified one more need of the guests at this type of meal. No one could find a way to maintain the temperature of their “loggerheads” or their family-size drinks.
“In a roasted carnita we saw that people began to drink, and it became fashionable, beer in a family-size container, but they had a problem, it heated up very quickly and as they were people who were not used to it, we saw the opportunity and we wanted to solve it, ”Pérez says in an interview with Entrepreneur in Spanish .
In this way, Rafa and his team developed Master Holder , the portacaguamon. “We are going to do it, we are going to quote the mold, we are going to see who can do it for us and we are going to move forward,” he says.
It is a double-layer thermal glass that has a copper coating on the inside, “this is done to maintain the temperature more”, between these two layers, which are made of stainless steel, there is a vacuum, which is “Very important” so that the temperature of what is inside does not escape.
After the launch, which happened fortunately or “thank God” as Rafa tells us, 15 days before Father’s Day , they managed to sell 27 thousand pieces in five weeks. “I think it was the first Father’s Day in which parents did not receive ties and socks and received their Master Holder, the caguamon holder.” In addition, with this idea he took 7 million pesos from two sharks from Shark Tank Mexico .
Rafael Pérez / Image: courtesy of Shark Tank México.
The importance of listening to your community
Later, and listening to their customers or “community of cousins”, the thermal glass evolved. “As time went by and listening to people we realized that the container for which we made Master Holder was only one and there were more on the market, so we already made the adapters, which give it the versatility for different heights of containers enter it ”, explains the entrepreneur.
Likewise, and as he expressed it during his pitch in front of the sharks of Shark Tank México , which airs every Friday at 10:00 p.m. on Canal Sony, paying attention to his community, they decided to create a lid for the glass.
“People told me: ‘It’s not that I drink beer, but prepared in a michelada or a clamato or a whiskey with mineral water or I drink piña colada, whatever. So, as our glass is unique in its size, we sent to make a mold for its lid, that is why I say that it was something that was made little by little together with the community of cousins and cousins ”, he says.
The pandemic and its setbacks Or fortunes?
The idea of creating this product was born in August 2019. However, its launch would be until 2020. What no one knew is that that year we would begin to deal with a pandemic that would delay some processes.
The health emergency due to COVID-19 began in December 2019 in China, the country where the portacaguamon would be produced. However, there were delays, because although the virus had not yet reached Mexico, the Asian country was already battling it.
“We thank God all because due to the pandemic there were delays in the project … And we sent the money (in December) and well it arrived, but they couldn’t work and then the dollar went up a lot, and we paid a little expensive for the first containers But then we couldn’t receive them because we were in a pandemic and the ports were somewhat saturated, so God makes us or gives us the fortune that we launched 15 days before Father’s Day ”, says Rafa.
In addition to the above problem, all the other processes such as trademark and design registration took a little longer than normal.
“Those kinds of things did hinder us a bit from the start of the project, but at the end of the day we arrived in time and form at the date we needed to be as successful as we had. Because if it hadn’t been for all those delays, we arrived earlier and the boom might not have been the same … I see it as more than a delay as God set the perfect times for it to happen on that day, ”says the entrepreneur.
A pitch of 7 million pesos
Rafa Pérez, conquered the sharks of Shark Tank México , and although in the end only two of them invested in the project, it was a great bet. The entrepreneur came to the program asking for 6 million pesos (approximately $ 300,000) for a 15% stake in his company.
Image: courtesy of Shark Tank México.
After receiving three resounding “nos”, the negotiation between Pérez, Arturo Elías Ayub and Rodrigo Herrera was 6 million pesos for a 20% stake. Where 3 million are in debt with the option of 18 months to capitalize it and add another million pesos for another 20% participation. In other words, in the end all this would be summed up in 7 million pesos for a 40% stake in the brand if the conditions are met.
In this context, the entrepreneur, who worked at 3M in the areas of product development, logistics and sales manager, shares some tips for you to achieve an excellent pitch:
1. Be 100% you. You must believe in both yourself and your product
“You have to be in love and identified with the product you are selling, so if you arrive trying to sell a product like you are not or with which you are not identified, you will struggle a lot to do it, maybe you won’t even buy yourself . When it is you and you are present there, you walk like a fish in water and that is your essence and that is point number one ”.
2. You must be aligned with your faith
If you believe in something and follow what your faith says, you will receive all the benefits of that faith, regardless of the faith you practice.
“So in my case, I am a Catholic, it is very simple, if I decide to be close to God, he will give me what I want, need and what I ask of him.
There is a video out there in which a child asks the father: ‘Dad, how big is God’ and the father makes his son turn to the sky and asks him: ‘how big is that plane’ and the boy tells him He says ‘well he’s little’, and I was looking at him far away.
He takes him to the airport, shows him a plane and asks him: ‘son, how big is that plane’ and the boy answers: ‘it’s big’. So if you are close to God, it is the size of what you are going to see, if you are far from God or far from your faith, well it will be small and it is impressive that if you are close to him or your faith what You ask him, he fulfills it. Obviously, you are not going to ask him for impossible things like getting a million dollars to your account out of nowhere, but if it is in his hands and he believes that it is in your hands, he will fulfill it, that is, it is not the same, help me have this million dollars help me close this sale.
If you are close to your faith, there is no reason not to give it to you. Now if he doesn’t give it to you and you say ‘I don’t want such a person to die and pass away, well look on the good side because if he gave you that it was for something because otherwise you were never going to be strong enough or because you had to learn something, because something better is coming. So don’t be disappointed in your faith when your faith doesn’t reward you the way you want it to. You have to understand that kind of thing so that your faith does not weaken ”.
3. Wait with confidence and not with expectation
“This is something very important that I realized after I saw the video, I first received three very resounding nos and my face never changed, when later I receive both yes or that I am negotiating, my face never changes because I do not center the focus of my mind on the amount of money, I wanted to carry a message and if the money was better and if it did not happen, nothing happened, then that is when you wait with hope and not with expectation ”.
4. You already have the “NO”
If they receive you with a “no”, you must keep in mind that nothing happens, it is the same as if you had not gone. According to Rafa, a “no” does not have to “lay you down.”
“I insist, he is no longer there, then nothing happens, and I do not have to be discouraged, I continue with my next sale. Let’s remember that sales are not a matter of begging the client, but you have to resist the NOS, so the more quiet you have for those NOS, the more beautiful you are going to receive the SIS ”.