Reprise: Home Depot:

We was a giddy as school children leaving BlueWater media. We tore down the barbecue, collapsed the CharBQ, packed up the PT Cruiser and drove away. Back to Home Depot to attempt to return the BBQ. In the car, we could not believe our luck, could it be, could our luck have finally turned? Within fifteen minutes we arrive at the Home Depot store, with receipt in hand and a back story that my friend already owned a BBQ and that he did not need this unit. True to their return policy, they accepted the unit without delay and on our way out, we took the charcoal bag (we did not return this) and placed it next to the carts for whom ever finds it.

Kevin Harrington-Part 2:

During our time with Kevin, he brought in his secretary, a TV personality named Mark and one more to get a feeling for the CharBQ and its appeal. We performed our demonstration on the table, its ease of scalability and then outside, on the BBQ we had setup. It is during our indoor meeting that Kevin makes some strong recommendations regarding the CharBQ. His philosophy on product must contain these three line items, 1. Magically transformational, 2. Highly demonstrable, 3. he can sell it to anyone. He is not a fan of selling niche products. And so with those statements, he would like to have the unit be a stand alone, adjustable, portable BBQ and have the "but wait, there's more" it also converts your existing gas BBQ to a charcoal BBQ. Naturally, at the meeting, John and I both agree on this new development and by the time we arrive at home we have two methods of accomplishing this.
In the end, he turns to Kenny and informs him to get us set up with an NDA, asks us to leave a prototype behind and to get in touch with Charles, from Sparks Lab. After which, Kevin stands up, extends his hand as states "let's do some business together". And with that, for the next thirty minutes. we wrap things up with Kenny, sign an NDA with BlueWater Media and prepared an NDA with Charles. The meeting went better than we could have hoped!

Kevin Harrington-Part 1:

Kevin walks into the space and by this time, John and I have already pitched the CharBQ to Kenny, the intern and another colleague of Kenny's. Kenny passes his chair to Kevin, who was dressed in a collared shirt and jeans. He wasted no time introducing himself to us and extending his hand. We shake hands and introduce ourselves, he then takes a seat, opposite us and to the right of Kenny. Having done his homework on us, he begins by stating how much he adores stone crabs, knowledgeable of their season and how they compare to the blue crabs in MD.
Kevin spent an hour and a half with us, discussing his philosophies of the business, some of his current projects that he is working on and the CharBQ project. Here is a man, worth millions of dollars, working on multiple project, including projects from the TV show, Shark Tank and he takes 90 minutes of his life to meet with two goof ball inventors from MD.

BlueWater Media-The Tour:

Kenny takes us on a tour of the facility, he walks past pre and post productions and discusses the multiple projects and experience that BlueWater Media has in this field. He states the connection with the big TV shows and personalities, like HSN and QVC. How they have many years of experience in producing infomercials, managing call centers and the customer experience. We walk past a few offices, one in particular, where Disney Audio was being recorded, caught my eye. He informed us of the importance of having such collaboration between the two companies and the benefits of the integration.


We continue along a pre determined path, on our way to the main lot where most of the infomercials are filmed. During the walk, I begin to have a fear of the meeting that I orchestrated. Here we are, in Florida, after spending $300 on air fare and $90 on a car rental only to have someone pitch me the facilities and capabilities of BlueWater Media. While I was ware of what BlueWater Media had to offer, did, somehow, my intentions get lost in the translation?

A fear that ran down the back of my spine, of what might have occurred? Was I clear on what this meeting was going to accomplish? I thought I was clear with Kenny when I informed him that we were looking for funding or a partnership for our product. That we did not have the cash flow to fund the project or the fact that we did not know anyone in the manufacturing. It was only later did I understand that the tour was intended to display the possibilities of what BlueWater Media had to offer to its clients and that we could be their client.

Pre-Meeting Setup:

We arrive at the one story non discrete looking building (we had used Google streets and examined pictures online to get an idea of the building size and layout) about 45 minutes before 2 pm. We quickly opened the hatchback, removed the BBQ and begin to assemble the barbecue. We walked over to the sidewalk and placed the barbecue under a shady tree, assembled the CharBQ added the charcoals and placed the unit inside the barbecue. Once we were happy with the location and look, we got back into to the car, and turned the AC up high to cool off. In the car we went over our game plan, once again, we discussed what the likely scenario of the meeting and what where the possible outcomes. We were certain that a deal would not be presented today and that the likely hood of leaving a unit behind was a possibility. Should the need to leave behind the unit was presented, we would have to ask for an NDA. We also anticipated that Kevin would join the meeting for a few minutes to hear the pitch and leave it to Kenny and Bobby to finish the meeting.
At 1:40, we got out of the car, I proceed to remove my shirt, open my carryon and take out a freshly pressed shirt. All clean and pressed for the meeting. We promptly walk in the door at 1:45 pm and announce our arrival to the receptionist who informs us that Kenny will be with us in a moment. Fifteen minutes go by at 2 pm, Kenny walks up and introduces himself to us. I take the lead and introduce my partner John and myself. We inform him that we have a demo BBQ outside the building ready for the meeting. He responded enthusiastically, the proceeded to give us a tour of the facility, prior to us sit down and discussing any of the particulars.

Home Depot:

We arrive at the Clear Water Home Depot around a quarter past noon and we immediately walked to the BBQ section. As expected, in Florida, they have not taken down their BBQ section or scaled back the offerings in the least bit. We examine each demo unit and in less than 10 minutes we had narrowed down our selection based on price and size. I then turn and find a helpful Home Depot woman and I politely ask her if they have this particular BBQ in stock? She replies positively. I then inform her that we just flew in from DC to see our friend who we have not seen in some time and we wanted to buy it for him as a house warming gift. We then ask her if they had any units pre built? To our surprise she states that we can take this unit - the demo unit.
Merrily we wheel the BBQ along with a bag of charcoal to the cash register and out the door. We practically skip down the parking lot to the PT Cruiser discussing how we have just saved ourselves at least an hour of build time! We get to the hatchback and realize that we should have rented a larger car.

For the next 15 minutes we analyze and discuss the best way to jab a 5 lb turkey into a 4.5 lb pan! We decide to remove the back seats out and take down some loose barbecue parts. We then gently and strategically proceed to jamb the BBQ into the small opening. After about 5 minutes of inserting the unit, we strategically replace the folded back seats into the back along with some loose BBQ parts. Thankfully the meeting place is only 15 minutes away, and that means that the unit will not experience too much movement.

The Meeting:

The day of the meeting, we caught a 9 am flight into Tampa Florida that brought us there by 11 am. Being betting men, we figured that should we lose one baggage, we would have the other on hand. And so, we each brought along one carry on luggage and each carry on contained one complete set of the CharBQ grill. The reason was simple, if the TSA denied us the ability to carry the stainless steel product onto the Southwest airplane, our backup plan was to check the luggage. With checking luggage there came uncertainly, would the bags would arrive on time and in one piece? In the end, no one questioned the CharBQ and both were carry-on bags were allowed on the plane.
After a non descriptive flight, discussing, yet again, the game plan, we arrived at our Florida airport destination. We went to the car rental area and retrieved our small PT Cruiser. We then drove to the local Home Depot for the remaining props.