"Who wants to be my partner?" (M6): what happens to Sarah who had upset investors in season 1?

In January 2020, in "Who wants to be my partner?", Sarah Da Silva Gomes presents Constant & Zoé, her line of clothing adapted for people with disabilities. Her little brother Constant, 26 years old, being multiple handicapped since birth, Sarah witnessed the difficulties encountered in carrying out simple daily gestures. “Often when we talk about disability, we are talking about accessibility in general. But before going to the museum or the cinema, we start the day by getting dressed”, underlines the young woman at the time. His presentation moves and convinces the five investors to join him in this venture. “I find you stunning because you give a life lesson. You have chosen something super difficult. You talk about it with a lot of energy and conviction,” commented Delphine André, leader of GCA, unable to hold back her tears. Two years after her passage on M6, Sarah gives us her news.

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TV MAGAZINE. - What has become of the Constant & Zoé brand since your appearance in “Who wants to be my partner?”?

Sarah DA SILVA GOMES. - There have been quite a few upheavals over the past two years. On the one hand, we had a great effect related to “Who wants to be my partner?”. We really gained notoriety, visibility, it generated a lot of traffic on the website. Unfortunately, we had the backlash with the Covid, like a lot of companies. This had a big impact on us and led us to rethink our economic model. Until February 2020, we made 90% of our turnover by selling to individuals, either in hospitals or on the internet, and today we sell to professionals, to medical equipment stores. We are distributed in 200 stores in France and Belgium. So we found a new economic model that allowed us to get through this period, to continue to develop, to create new products and we extended the range to build customer loyalty.

In terms of figures, how does this impact translate?

On internet visits, for example. Before “Who wants to be my partner?”, we could have 150 to 300 visits per day. And the day of the TV broadcast, we had a peak of 22,000 unique visitors to our site. In January 2020, we had almost 60,000 visitors in total. In terms of notoriety, it really brought something to the brand. When we decided to change our distribution model, quite a few healthcare stores and distributors spotted us on this show. It really made things easier for us. When we went to see these resellers with whom we did not work at all before the Covid, they had already heard about us very often thanks to "Who wants to be my partner?".

Did you imagine such an impact?

Nope! I remember, there were four of us in the company, including a trainee at the time of the broadcast. We were prepared to answer the phone, talk about the products, etc. In reality, we took an avalanche of requests, and with four, it was impossible. It took several weeks, even several months, to respond to everyone.

Investors were really moved when you were on the show. Did that surprise you?

Completely! In my presentation, I didn't necessarily show more emotion than that, perhaps because it's a subject that I wanted to deal with in a positive way, by sending back a dynamic image. It was finally the emotion of the investors that got me on board. During filming, there is a fairly high level of stress. The broadcast sequence lasts twenty minutes but in reality, I had still spent an hour and a half in front of the investors. At the end, when people say rather positive things to me, encouraging words, it's sure that I, too, shed my little tear.

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Today, how do investors support you?

During the issue, the five investors pledged 50,000 euros. Delphine André called me afterwards to tell me that she was ready to invest 150,000 euros in all. Finally, we went to find two other investors and we did the fundraising that was planned. Our strategic committee has seven people and Delphine André is one of them. So we see each other once a quarter during the meeting of this committee. Here I explain my issues at the moment. As I am the only director of my company, it is good to be able to confront the subjects that drive me, to have feedback. Afterwards, I warn investors when I go to Paris and we take the time to discuss and update ourselves. During the Covid, they were very attentive, they wanted to know how we were doing, how things were going. In general, when I send an email to one of them for information, they always answer me. They are present and encouraging.

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