Mayo firm snatches beast of a bounty from Dragons' Den

A TV ‘dragon’ has breathed financial fire into a fledgling Mayo enterprise.

Entrepreneur Barry O’Sullivan has pledged €40,000 on Dragons’ Den to Eoin Heverin, founder of Tellmystorybook.ie.

Mr. O’Sullivan was mightily impressed by the potential of the Castlebar man’s personalised children’s book business.

On the show he enthused: “I think this could be one of the biggest success stories ever in the Den and a great Irish entrepreneur story.”

Eoin Heverin, son of Paul and Joy, greatly impressed the Dragons with his presentation and business acumen when he appeared on the show with his six-year old niece, Toni Pia.

Eoin was reading a story to Toni when he had what he describes as ‘a lightbulb moment’.

He explained: “I asked myself, why not superimpose a photograph of Toni’s head onto the princess, the main character in the book she was reading?”

Business has been good for the company, which was launched last November, but dizzy new business heights are expected once Barry O’Sullivan puts the full weight of his mentoring and business skills behind the company.

“We now have a three-year plan,” Eoin explained.

“We will be moving to a new office in Castlebar and plan to increase the payroll to 12 by 2019.”

Eoin revealed that - apart of course from the priceless Toni - his parents and other family members played an important role in ‘prepping’ them for their successful presentation.

“The family brought us in before the weekend and made us give a mock presentation. They tore strips off us.

“Doing a show was a doddle, a walk in the park, after the roasting the clan gave us!” he added.