Patent Attorney and Founder
Randall: Hi sharks! I’m Randall and this is my wife, Lisa. We are from Austin, Texas, and we are the founders of VoChill. We are here seeking $300,000 for a 5% stake in our company.
Lisa: Hang on, sharks, I’m a little nervous, so I’m going to need a drink for this.
Randall: What are you doing? That was a really nice bottle of wine, and you’re going to put ice in it?
Lisa: Well, it’s getting kind of warm in here, and who likes warm wine? No one!
Randall: People do all kinds of crazy things to keep their wine chilled—from putting ice in it or other frozen things to using these metal cups where you can’t see the wine or smell it, and they just make your wine taste awful. None of these things work. So, that’s why we created VoChill,
Lisa: The world’s first and only personal wine chiller. It keeps your wine crisp, cool, and refreshing without compromising the wine or the wine experience.
Randall: That’s right. With our innovative design, the detachable chill cradle is freezable. You simply rest your glass in the cradle between sips to keep your wine perfectly chilled from the first sip to the last.
Lisa: It’s incredible for reds too—it’ll bring a room temperature red down to cellar temp in about 10 minutes, bringing out the wine’s best characteristics. It’s genius, and it’ll become your new best friend.
Randall: Sharks, we are here to introduce you to the future of wine enjoyment. So, who here wants to sip, chill, and relax with us?
Lisa: Sharks, you have samples in front of you with some wine to chill. To use it, you don’t have to put the whole unit in the freezer.
Mark: Really? How does it work?
Randall: You just separate the top portion from the stand and keep it in the freezer. It takes up minimal space.
Mark: I have a martini. Does it work with martinis or beers?
Lisa: Yes, it does!
Robert: Can you tell me what you sell it for and what it costs to make?
Lisa: The stemmed version is $49.95, and the stemless version is $44.95. It costs us $9.21 to make the stemmed and $8.62 to make the stemless.
Robert: Do you sell it online?
Lisa: Yes, on our website.
Kevin: How do you modulate the temperature between reds and whites? I like my white super cold and the red not as cold.
Lisa: For white wines, it’s designed to preserve the chill in the glass. For red wine, it’ll bring a room temperature red down to 65°F or cellar temp in about 10 minutes.
Kevin: I’m in the wine business, as you know. Ice in wine—just so we understand how that started—in 1955, Bridget Bardot was shooting a film and asked the server to put some ice in her rosé because she was so hot. He was shocked, but today 50% of rosé is consumed with ice, and as a result, rosés are blended differently. Not everyone needs to chill their wine.
Lisa: We did $820,000 in sales last year, but we had a half-million-dollar loss due to the high cost of acquiring customers on Amazon, which is about $60 per customer.
Matt: It’s expensive out there. I get why you’re trying to charge $50 for this, but it’s not practical for me. My wife and I drink wine, but having that apparatus sitting there seems a little cumbersome and takes up space.
JD: Thieve invested a lot in patents, with two utility patents and one design patent. We used a top law firm to secure them, so we are well-protected.
Matt: From a trademark perspective, we have a word mark for VoChill for beverage ware and a logo in the same class. We don’t have a registration for online retail store services, which I would recommend to protect both the product and the service side of it.
Matt: Class 35 for retail store services is something almost all clients should file in. This prevents others from using similar names for related products and services.
JD: VoChill is still out there selling our products for $40-$50. Though we weren’t backed by the Sharks, we’re continuing to innovate and serve our customers.
JD: For Matt Kulseth and JD Houvener from Bold Patents, wishing you all a wonderful day. Go big, go bold!
from Bold Patents, wishing you all a wonderful day. Go big, go bold!