On this day, Ralf Dümmel’s coloring is reminiscent not of a lion, but of a poison dart frog. The Hamburg “trading mogul’s” wardrobe is a strong poison green. Shirt, pocket square, shoe soles, socks – everything is poison green. And mentally, the 57-year-old also seems as if patient, big cat-like waiting is not his strong suit. Dümmel would rather jump off immediately. Before he does, however, someone quickly helps him into a shiny men’s shoe.
Dümmel is sitting in his dressing room and preparing for the show “The Lion’s Den”, which he has been a part of since 2016. This still causes him a certain amount of excitement. “My team wanted to put a heart rate monitor on me and set up an oxygen tent up here,” says Dümmel.
He has big questions. Who will he be presented with next? And above all: what will he go home with at the end? Fans of the show have already coined a term: when Dümmel strikes, it “dümmels” again. But if he loses “a deal,” the investor says contritely, he is “extremely unhappy.”
The 57-year-old lives the concept of “The Lion’s Den”, you could say. In the Vox show, people with a business idea or an invention appear before investors – the “lions”. One of the longest-serving is Dümmel. The “lions” then raise their eyebrows, pull out their notebooks and finally announce whether they want to get involved or not.
Some founders leave bitterly disappointed. Others are so sought after that investors compete for the best “deal”. The show is a kind of business administration seminar with soap opera elements. And quite unique.
The format, which was originally developed in Japan, is currently celebrating its birthday – the first edition aired in this country ten years ago (on August 19, 2014). The anniversary season, which will be broadcast from Monday (September 2, 8:15 p.m., Vox), will therefore be packed with action – among others, former sports commentator Werner Hansch, the “voice of the region”, will appear before investors.
The two “original lions” Jochen Schweizer and Frank Thelen are returning to the show for a one-off. Also back after a break is Judith Williams, beauty expert and “lioness” from the very beginning.
There are many stories that could be told to mark the anniversary: about failed deals and absurd business ideas, about lion fights, about the Germans and their relationship to money, about good ideas and strange products. But you can also wander around the set of the show on a day of filming and ask the lions what they have to say. They open their wardrobes.
A few steps away from Dümmel’s lounge you meet Janna Ensthaler. She has notes in her hand. “I’m trying to work things out,” she says. Notes are important on “The Lion’s Den”. Names, numbers, you can’t mix them up. The broadcaster never tires of emphasizing that the “lions” use their own money and do “real business”. Ensthaler is considered an expert in “sustainable technologies” and “digital innovation”. In general: for the future.
At this moment, however, her thoughts are still on the here and now. The “lions” see five different founders on each day of recording. Beforehand, it feels like climbing a “giant mountain,” says Ensthaler. “We really have to be just as fresh in the morning as we are in the evening, right?” Apparently, around 42,000 cups of coffee were drunk in the ten years of the show.
A few steps further on, Nils Glagau is standing in front of a clothes rack. You secretly think that a technical discussion between the 48-year-old and Ralf Dümmel on the subject of color theory might also be a good concept for a show. Both of them clearly like things bold. “I like to be colorful sometimes,” says Glagau, who still seems extremely relaxed. “A little color.” Music is playing in the background.
Interestingly, he and Dümmel also have a certain rivalry in front of the camera. “On a very fair level – I think – I have the most fights with Ralf,” says Glagau. “The coolest thing,” however, is when all five “lions” are interested in a founder. Those are special moments, says Glagau. Then he says: “Tillman looks good now too. You can go over there too.”
Tillman is Tillman Schulz, 34 years old and the youngest investor to have taken part so far. He recently danced on the RTL show “Let’s Dance”, but that didn’t go so well. You can tell that he feels a little more comfortable on the “lions'” dance floor. He is looking forward to the show. He speaks almost lovingly about the founders: “We lionesses and lions always say: They come into the “lion’s den” with their baby and now want to hand it over so that they can raise it together.”
In Tijen Onaran’s dressing room, however, a few sentences are said that sound more edgy. The investor deals with questions of diversity, visibility and digitalization. She likes discourse. She has just finished a “pitch”, the presentation of a female founder. “The dynamic was definitely great,” she reports.
But then she becomes more fundamental: “We don’t donate our money, we invest it. And I’m not a charity lady who has too much money to spend anywhere.” She thinks very carefully about where she invests.
And she is for clarity. “I don’t think there is any need to spread romance where there is no romance,” says Onaran. An “honest no” is better than a “dishonest yes.”
“I would like to see more things that give me a sense of where we will be in two to five years,” says Onaran of the founders. Being ahead of the times is what innovation is all about.
Whether you like the show or not, it was certainly an innovation in 2014. The most successful season is considered to be the fifth in 2018, which, according to the broadcaster, had an average of 2.96 million viewers – and that on Vox, which has long been considered a so-called feel-good channel with rather soft topics such as cooking and travel.
Presenter Amiaz Habtu, who is sitting in a dressing room with lots of shoes (“I just like collecting shoes – and I like having the right pair for every outfit I’m wearing”), still remembers how many other broadcasters wouldn’t have dared to do such a format at the time. “They said: That can’t work in Germany, because in Germany nobody talks about money. And certainly not how much they have in their account.” The 47-year-old has been there from the first minute of broadcasting.
Habtu studied business administration and therefore knows a bit about the subject matter. At the same time, however, he is in demand as a comforter. He welcomes dejected founders who have been sent home with their supposedly brilliant idea. Habtu is responsible for the warmth in the format.
It remains to be clarified how Ralf Dümmel actually manages to make even the soles of his shoes match his pocket squares perfectly. The answer may be surprising. “When I get a shirt, I always get the matching pocket square made of the same material and in the same color as the shirt,” he reports.
He then gives these pocket squares to a car wrapper who once wrapped a car for him. Dümmel asked him what colors he had. The man said: all of them. Now he wraps the soles of Dümmel’s shoes in matching colors. “It’s not vital, but I like it,” says Dümmel.
He hit the nail on the head on this deal.
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