From Ski Slopes to Million-Dollar Valuation: Sabrina Hémond on Hot Poc, Dragons' Den, and Dans l’œil du dragon

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Kathleen Qiao: Hello and welcome everyone to an exciting interview with the Canadian Young Investors Society.

I'm Kathleen Qiao, the Editor-in-Chief for CYIS. Joining us today is a special guest, Sabrina Hémond, the founder of Hot Poc, an innovative brand known for its reusable, eco-friendly heating pads that bring warmth and comfort to everyday life.

Hot Poc has been featured on Dragons Den, earning national recognition for its innovation. Before we dive into our questions, Sabrina, why don't you take a moment to introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your journey?

Sabrina Hémond: Yeah, sure. Hi, I'm Sabrina Hémond, and I launched Hot Poc four years ago, but prior to that, I had another company that I launched when I was at university.

It's called Jameo, and we were able to sell it throughout the year and but I'm not in the operation of this company. It's been four years now, now already, five years? and I launched HotPoc four years ago, so I've always been, uh, I don't know, oh, I always wanted to have my own companies; that's what I do now. I love it, and I always want to have a positive impact on the planet and on society with all the projects and companies, um, I will have all my life.

Kathleen Qiao: Awesome. That's really inspiring, but let's move on to the first question, which is what inspired you to create HotPoc, and how did you identify the need for reusable hand warmers?

Sabrina Hémond: Good question. So, as I said, I had another company that I launched with my ex-boyfriend, and when we broke up, it was already planned that he would keep the general direction.

I thought it would not affect me at all, but it did affect me, and I went through a hard period.

It was like my baby, this first company for which I was working 60 hours a week. So I had to take some time for myself.

I went out west skiing, actually in those mountains. And my biggest concern was actually to keep my phone alive because I'm super bad with orientation. So I was keeping it in a wool sock. And then I realized at some point that other people were also doing this. So I was like, okay, I'm not the only one who has this problem. So let's look at all the solutions out there. And then I realized, Burton, we're doing something that was like a hard case. There was another company in US that was trying to do something, but it was kind of awkward.

So I bought everything, made my technical drawings, and made my first, like, sleeping bag for my phone to keep it alive, and then I talked to people. Someone said it's nice, but you should add the pocket inside, and then you could put a disposable hand warmer and it would be awesome. Still, I thought there was no way I would promote something disposable in 2020, so I checked all the heating technology that was not bad for the planet. Then I came across this mix of water and salt that you could do from liquid to solid and reverse it, and I thought, Oh, that's cool; that could be my reusable phone warmer. So I made a super small version of that, and initially, it was to be in my little sleeping bag for my phone, but then someone came into my garage and just saw it and said, “Oh, these are reusable hand warmers." I was like, Yeah, that's a way bigger idea.

There's for sure a need for that, and I didn't do any market research. I just thought I needed to launch this reusable hand warmer.

So in a week, I just switched everything, did a small pivot, and then launched HotPoc as the reusable hand warmers.

And then in the first hour, it was hundreds of orders, and the first month was more than $100,000 in sales, and I had nothing in place.

So that was kind of my market validation with real customers. That's kind of how it all started.

Kathleen Qiao: Wow, that's really inspiring. I love how it just popped off and got successful so fast. I think that's really inspiring.

But moving on to the next question, can you share more about your experience on Dragons Den? What was it like pitching in front of the Dragons?

Sabrina Hémond: Yeah, so. I'm from Quebec; I speak French, so originally I went to Dans l'oeil du dragon, which is the French version.

It's only showcased in Quebec, and there's about 1 million people watching every show. There's half a million people watching because, from what I heard, many people in the English part of the country like to also watch Shark Tank.

So my experience with Dans l'oeil du dragon was awesome. It's my first language, and I have a connection with the dragons because we have the same culture, and the same way of expressing ourselves.

But when I went to dragons then, it was hard for me to connect with the dragons that are more about numbers and more solid and in Quebec more friendly. We like stories. I'm the young entrepreneur who wants to change the world, but in Toronto, I was more like a crazy person who thinks she's going to change the world, so I didn't enjoy it as much as Dans l'oeil du dragon but I believe for someone that speaks English and is from Ontario or somewhere else in the country, it could be such a nice experience like I had with Dans l'oeil du dragon.

Kathleen Qiao: Okay, cool. I definitely might have the wild episode that you were on for Dans l'oeil du dragon, is it that?

Sabrina Hémond: Yeah, and just to give you an idea, I went there with an evaluation of $700,000 for the company, and all the five dragons in French went did an offer and went with an evaluation of a million, and were saying the companies work more than what you're seeing, and we all want to work with you. And I was like the best, like not the best, but I had a really good appreciation. But then I went to Dragons Den, and I ended up negotiating with only one dragon who was interested, and he made an offer with an evaluation of $400,000, and a couple weeks before, I had shaken hands with like a million-dollar valuation.

So all of this is because like I was not able to express myself properly, I guess.

Kathleen Qiao: Wow, that's that's interesting very interesting. I'm definitely gonna have to watch that after the meeting. Um, I definitely need that's very interesting. Yeah, I guess that really goes to show like how important like that connection is, like that personal connection that you can make to different people. I guess that's really important, but this is question seven, but I don't know if we’ll actually make it to question seven. So I just want to ask this right now, but like, were you nervous? And like, how did you get over your nervousness?

Sabrina Hémond: For the French one, I was not that nervous. But five seconds before the shoot started, I became so nervous. my heart was like, but I had no choice but to perform and just give you an idea.

Yeah, I said, like, my name is Sabrina, I'm here asking for, instead of like, saying evaluation of $700,000, I said like $700.

And then everybody started laughing and I couldn't understand. So they said, we'll redo it. So like, yeah, we'll redo it.

So I was nervous. But in English, I was more nervous because there were some words I still don't know.

And sometimes more technical questions. Can be hard to answer when it's not your first language.

Kathleen Qiao: No, I remember watching the show and I was like, how did you not stutter? I would have been stuttering so much if I was on there in front of five successful dragons and trying to promote my company.

Especially because English is the second language. English is my first and I still stutter whenever I do small presentations for school.

I think you did a great, amazing in Dragons Den.

Sabrina Hémond: But I think that's normal. I was always nervous in school and even at university when I had to say my name and why I was studying marketing, I was nervous with the years and all the practice, it becomes more natural. And when it's your story and you're honest and you love it, it just makes sense to tell it.

I can't think of anything or it's just true and I believe in my projects so.

Kathleen Qiao: Okay awesome sounds great. Next we're going to move on to the question three, which is what was the most surprising or challenging part on your Dragon Den journey?

Sabrina Hémond: I would say the fact that not all the dragons were interested in our company, because a couple of weeks ago we had the interest of all of them.

So I had like compared to when I went to the Dragon for Dragon’s Den. I had expectations that they would all be interested and that it would be like a nice experience.

So when they first started to ask questions, and some of them were against it, they were saying, who do you think will really take five minutes to boil their hand warmers to react with them if they can buy some new ones at the store?

I was really surprised, and I was not expecting this at all, so I was not planned to answer like, well, I believe everyone should be ready to take five minutes so their response that they were not all into like our movement and what we're trying to do because everyone so far was supporting us.

Kathleen Qiao: Yeah, I actually remember watching that part where they asking like like basically saying that like people wouldn't want to take five minutes out of their day to like boil hand warmers, and I was I was like whoa that would have been that I feel like that would have been such a hard like you're just put on the spot so I it was actually great how your handle is I think it was really cool.

Um but moving on to question four is what were the biggest challenges you faced in early stages of starting Hot Poc and how did you overcome them?

Sabrina Hémond: I had a lot of challenges first. We had no operations at all and we had hundreds of orders. So I accepted the help like a good friend of mine and someone else that I didn't know before just offered his help to put in place a website that makes sense and connect like delivery software and different softwares to be able to manage how to print labels and just be able to ship orders properly. So that was something really hard, and it was COVID, so we were not allowed to have many people. And I launched in my garage.

So we were like four people or five in my small garage packing orders. So that's something and the other thing is also Money like it's really hard. You know, I remember I had 16 thousand dollars in my bank and then quickly it became like zero and I had to buy more products.

I had to take all my margin that I had on my house to buy more inventory. And it goes fast.

When you're a startup, banks just don't trust you. And you don't have three months to wait to open like an account.

So I just had to risk it and take everything I had available in my house. And that was kind of a good challenge.

Kathleen Qiao: I think money is a lot of a lot of like business owners, like first problems.

And I think it's really cool how you became so you went on to the Quebec show, and I was really successful.

So I guess that risk was really worth taking. But moving on to question five, what advice would you give to young entrepreneurs looking to turn their ideas into successful businesses? This question is mainly for me. But yeah.

Sabrina Hémond: Yeah. So one thing that I like to say is just don't keep your idea for yourself.

Sometimes you're aware, you're afraid that if you say it, someone else would do it. But I think it's pretty easy to have ideas.

It's really hard to make them come true. And if you're not 100% passionate about the problem you're solving.

It's so hard to start a business like you won't succeed. So just don't be afraid to share it, get feedback, and get people's responses and suggestions.

And you'll adapt your solution to the problem. So that's always something I do. Even with HotPoc, I would have launched a sleeping bag for my phone.

I ended up launching reusable hand warmers. This idea doesn't come from me. But I was trying to solve a problem, and I was sharing this problem with different people, and then the solution evolved. And I think you also need to keep doing this once you start selling your MVP, like you're like the first product that will not be perfect that you're launching. You still need to keep your first customers close to you to get their feedback on how to improve it.

Kathleen Qiao: Yeah, feedback and passion. Yeah, that's great. That's really important. I agree with that as well, but moving on to question six.

What has been your proudest moment as CEO?

Sabrina Hémond: That's a funny question because I'm rarely proud. I always want more, and I always have objectives that are way too high.

But lately, now I'm a mother, and I'm able to work, delegate with my team, and also be a mother and be present for my kid and my family.

So I would say that was actually such a big challenge for me, a bigger challenge than working hard, because I feel like my DNA is just made to work hard on my startup.

But yeah, to adapt to my new reality, I think that's something I'm pretty proud of.

Kathleen Qiao: Oh, that's a great moment. I'm really happy that you're able to balance both. A lot of people do prioritize their work life, so that's really amazing.

I think I did already. Oh, sorry, this is the last question. How has your appearance on Dragons Den impacted the growth of your company?

Sabrina Hémond: It didn't impact it that much. I would say Dans l'oeil du dragon impacts it a lot. So the French version, when I received calls from, like, Canadian Tire and big corporations asking if they could get our product in all their stores, so this is awesome.

For Dragon's Den, I would say we didn't get that many sales, like directly during the show and the day after, but it's still a good credibility like stamp.

So when we're looking for sales representatives or even retailers outside of Quebec, where we're not as known it's good to be able to say we went on Dragon's Den, we signed a deal, but it didn't bring in like hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales and big partnerships, but it's still good for the image we have.

So I would recommend everyone that's thinking and dreaming to go there one day.

Kathleen Qiao: Okay. Awesome sounds great. Um, okay, then that's the last question. Thank you so much for um joining us today; it was truly amazing and inspiring. Um, you know, it's amazing that you're able to share your journey, your insights, and your experiences. I definitely will have to take a look at the Quebec version of Dragons Den because I think it's amazing how you got all five dragons to invest with. That's really amazing, but, um, to everyone watching, I hope this interview has inspired you to chase your own dreams and think creatively about the impact you want to make on behalf of the Canadian Young Investors Society. Thank you so much for tuning in. Don't forget to stay connected with us for more inspiring interviews and resources, and until next time, keep learning, keep going, and keep investing in your future.