Pieter Boekhoff

Post-pitch story

Pieter Boekhoff's iMirror — an interactive smart mirror — had one of Season 1's bumpier pitches, with investors telling him to drop hotels and focus on retail fitting rooms. He listened. The company, Nobal Technologies of Calgary, leaned into retail and made the mirror real: by 2021 iMirrors were installed in Puma's New York flagship, Selfridges in London and Brands for Less in Dubai, while hospitality deployments included the Four Seasons Whistler and a Caesars Entertainment innovation lab in Las Vegas. Shoppers could request sizes, see recommendations and check out from the mirror, and the company reported sales lifts of 15 to 20 percent for retail clients. It also worked with Visa and the fashion label Monse at New York Fashion Week in 2020. Nobal has raised more than $5.5 million, with backing from BDC Capital, Canada's business development bank. Along the way Boekhoff brought in Bill Roberts as CEO and moved into the chief technology role himself. Nobal is still active, now listing an office in Belgium alongside Calgary and a team of roughly 80. It's a good example of a founder taking hard feedback from the show and turning it into a sharper business — the mirror that investors doubted ended up hanging in some of the best-known stores in the world.