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"Dragon Says Takker is a Cracker"

One of the most frequently asked questions about the Dragons' Den show is what happens after the handshake in the studio? Or, when do the Dragons actually make the investment? I can assure you that an awful lot happens -- very quickly.

I can hardly believe the pace at which things have happened for me and the idea I brought to the Den only last January. One of the Dragons, Gavin Duffy, invested in my product and his investment was in place only a couple of weeks after some hectic and frantic business negotiations.

We immediately set in train the manufacture of our product and planned our ambitious launch. It all happened just seven weeks after walking up the stairs into the Den to launching the product here at the Ideal Homes Show at Earl's Court in London, from where I write.

My product is called Takker. It is a gadget for hanging pictures. Instead of a hammer and nails, this staple gun fires, in one shot, a tiny but remarkably strong tack into wood, plaster or aerated concrete. The tack is strong enough to hold a picture weighing a whopping 10kg.

The physics are interesting. When you hammer a nail in it takes a certain number of bangs from the hammer. But each subsequent bang from your hammer, if it is not 100 per cent true to the previous bang, more often than not makes the hole a little wider and the shock wave is actually loosening the wall's grip on that nail.

With Takker, and its one shot, the tack is fired into the wall and your wall's grip on it is almost twice as strong as an ordinary nail banged in by a hammer. So with Takker, to hang a picture or a clock or whatever, you don't need hammers and nails and don't get throbbing, banged thumbs or cracked walls and plaster. Also, if you want to remove a picture, the Takker takes the tack out and leaves hardly any mark except a tiny, 1mm hole, whereas the traditional picture nail, holder or hook leaves your wall damaged -- an eyesore in need of repair.

At Earl's Court, 80 per cent of our sales have been to women. Frequently I was told by women on the stand, "I have been asking my man to hang pictures at home for ages, now I'll be able to do it myself." We had a team of demonstrators on the stand showing people that it only takes three seconds to hang a picture with Takker.

Despite my appearance on last Thursday's Dragons' Den, I didn't get to see the show over here in London. In fact, I haven't seen the TV and have hardly read a newspaper in three weeks. This Ideal Homes Show is the biggest of its kind in the world. The show is a marathon. It runs for over three weeks, so I can't wait for the doors to close tomorrow night.

We launched Takker on March 20. Sales have been brilliant. A quarter of a million people have come to the show and thousands have handed over £12 and gone home with their new Takkers. On the Ideal Homes website show visitors have voted Takker into the "Top Product at Show" category.

At the DIY seminars that run here at the exhibition, TV DIY celebrities like Tommy Walsh have been kind enough to strongly endorse our product and tell people to buy one before they go home.
The exciting news for me here on the stand is that various agents and reps from the UK's big DIY multiples have been making serious enquiries about stocking Takker.

Our product looks like it is going to be a big success. When we get back to Ireland this week, we will be talking to a DIY store near you to stock Takker. Of course, not only were we manufacturing the product in those seven weeks and designing and building our exhibition stand with the help of Frances Studios in Co Louth, but also since our recording of Dragons' Den we have been developing and launching our website www.Takker.com.

There has been so much progress in such a short space of time I fear I am going to wake up in my bed and realise it has all been dream.

The reality is I have been trying to get Takker launched for a few years now. I didn't invent it. As a product engineer I came across the idea in Germany.

I liked it so much I gathered every cent I had as well as money from my brother and bought the concept. I never envisaged it would take so long to develop such a good idea but I had no money left and when you don't have the money, your opportunities are restricted. But I persevered and saved up enough money for the next phase of development. Eventually I had a prototype, and had a ready-to-go product. Then I was told that RTE was about to do Dragons' Den.

A life-changing experience is inadequate to describe what has happened as a result of my visit to the Den.
- Damien McGrane