Derek Pacque found the inspiration for his business, CoatChex, when he lost his coat when he was out one night because there was no coat check. His business originally started as a simple, collapsible coat checking business that operated inside local bars, but he quickly became frustrated with the traditional model of giving customers a ticket when they check their coat, meant to be exchanged at the end of the night for their coat back. Customers constantly lost their tickets and coats were easily confused. So, Derek innovated a new coat checking system. Instead of using tickets, CoatChex uses its own app, pictures, and QR codes, which not only makes the coat checking process much simpler, but has the potential to create even more revenue for the business because the venues that CoatChex works in desire information about their customers that CoatChex can get through their app and provide to the venues.
CoatChex actually worked at the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis and did over $100,000 in sales, incredible!
Derek appeared on the TV show Shark Tank, asking for $200,000 for a 10% share of CoatChex. Mark Cuban offered him $200,000 for 33% equity, but Derek turned him down, unwilling to give up that much of his business. He is now seeking $1 million from angel investors to use his technology in other services and develop brand partnerships.
Derek Pacque is an exemplary entrepreneur, not because he simply found a solution to a problem, but because he developed that solution even further when it had problems of its own. He went beyond the simple solution and innovated to find a better one.
For more information, I encourage you to visit their website, http://www.coatchex.com/, (which, might I say, is very well designed).
This is a great idea. I like how he took an old school business and incorporated new technologies to make it more efficient. Coats take up so much room but many places don’t have coat checks. I have not seen this anywhere yet so I hope it grows.
I think it is awesome to see young entrepreneurs on Shark Tank turn down big money from big investors. I hope he can find his angel investors!
I think this is a great idea and I have even had this problem when they a museum mixed up my coat with someone else’s. Using CoatChex at the SuperBowl was a great idea and I am sure that Derek will find new venues to market his product to. It will be interesting to see where his service will be seen next.