For the interview we reach founder Jenny Rathgeber in her home office! Your small child is playing in the background, corporate management is in a state of emergency. We talk to her about emotional balance in this difficult year, what has changed through working with Judith and how she experienced her performance in the “lion enclosure”.

Of course these are hard times for everyone. Like so many families, we are currently sitting at home with a toddler who would otherwise be in daycare and “on the side” we are keeping our startup running.

Luckily not, quite the opposite: I have the feeling that people want to treat themselves to something nice right now - for the inside and outside. Of course, if a major recession comes, it will affect us too. Of course everyone then spends less money. But it seems to me that our products are made for difficult times. Health, emotional balance, that's exactly what you want right now.

We started with a mouth oil that you can use to do so-called oil pulling. This is an Ayurvedic tradition of oral care. By adding selected essential oils, we have taken the whole thing to a new level, because we bring aromatherapy into it - and this has an effect on our psyche. Every oil triggers something in us, which happens via the limbic system in the brain. Orange oil, for example, is cold-pressed from orange peel and stimulates our mood. Other oils provide better focus or relaxation. We have now expanded our product range and also offer soaps for the body and hands.

Yes, that was our guiding principle: to create a product that not only affects the outside, but also the inside. Essential oils are the perfect helpers, especially in times of crisis, because they have incredible power: they support us mentally and physically. By the way: We will be releasing a disinfectant in the fall. We had already planned this before Corona, but it will definitely come at the right time.

Sure, of course! Even though we had practiced the pitch 100 times beforehand, I was so nervous that I actually forgot my lines for a moment. A production employee was kind enough to get the piece of paper with my notes again in a matter of seconds. I took a quick look at it and then thank God the text was there again and everything went like clockwork.

The pitch went pretty quickly. The biggest part was the question and answer session afterwards. But this one also went over quite quickly compared to other pitches: there were only questions for an hour. Of course, for television it was mercilessly shortened to a small but very fine excerpt.

It went down like oil – literally! (laughs) The great thing was that we were allowed to choose between several offers and the lions bid each other up. That was really a good feeling. After so much work, we were rewarded for the fact that we seemed to have hit the nerve of the times with our start-up.

We suspected it a little bit. We really couldn't foresee the extent of it.

It's completely crazy how everything turned out. We now have 3,000 sales points in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and have been able to achieve listings with important trading partners such as dm. Before the show we had a turnover of 40,000 euros within two years. After Judith joined, we were able to increase our sales fifty-fold in just eight weeks of trading: to two million euros!

Actually, we were just about to hire people. We recently moved back to Munich from Freiburg and rented an office here. But then Corona came...

Audiobooks, audiobooks, audiobooks! Our little one loves these! And once he's busy, we can get started... (laughs)