Posted online: Mar 3rd, 2010

One of Ardara’s most popular residents has successfully charmed his way to a €25,000 investment on RTE’s Dragon’s Den.

“What a week, my life has been transformed!,” Herbie Porche enthused after his success.

Having first visited Ireland twenty six years ago Herbie immediately fell in love. And since then his infectious warmth and humour has seen the area unofficially adopt the German as one of their own.

On Thursday night last Herbie – a former German airforce Luftwaffe pilot – faced a tired and frustrated panel to pitch his product, in the hope he would receive the investment needed to make his venture a success. The Dragons can be ruthless and rightly so – after all it is their own personal money that’s on the line.

But moments after entering the room the former pilot, hotel manager and chef immediately put them at ease as he reminisced about his initial journey to these shores and with a catchphrase that immediately gripped the imagination, “Money for Herbie”.

Herbie is now currently working as a tiler which is where he originally got the idea for the product he was pitching.

“Through many years of tiling I came across a reoccurring problem time and time again- what is happening behind the toilet! “It’s not nice and it looks a mess and after a while it becomes a very unsightly feature.

“So I searched the internet and went to wholesalers to source a solution to this problem but it did not exist. So I developed the toilet pipe cover.”

After his initial pitch Herbie got down to business; looking for a €25,000 investment in return for twenty per cent equity in his company. But despite his charming demure Dragons’ Sarah Newman, Bobby Kerr, Sean Gallagher and Niall O’Farrell all opted out- citing that there’s no sentiment in business.

But just when it looked like Herbie was on his own Gavin Duffy threw him a life line but there was a catch. Duffy wanted a forty per cent stake before parting with his cash.

After a few minutes of intense reality TV deliberation Herbie accepted Gavin’s offer stating that: “I don’t have to think very long about that and I gratefully accept you offer.”

Since last week Herbie has become somewhat of a local celebrity with Ryan Tubridy and other media personalities inviting the bubbly German on to their shows.