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00:02the doors to the den are open for business the place where fortunes are made and futures are
00:09forged but this time the game has changed a fresh wave of fierce investors are out to shake things
00:18up and steal the deals joining them tonight i'm jenny meek i'm a serial entrepreneur i'm currently
00:27the co-founder and ceo of refi beauty jenna welcome back to the den no thank you for having me
00:33back i'm
00:33excited for today when i look in the eyes of an entrepreneur there is literally one thing i'm
00:38looking for it's their belief that their idea is going to succeed i can see in people's eyes if
00:43they're lying to me i know exactly what i can bring to a business so if there's a fight for
00:47an investment
00:48i will be absolutely fighting for it i love disagreeing with the dragons i really really do
00:52i am not scared of any of the dragons if anything they should be scared of me
01:07my name is laura and i'm from northern ireland my business is all about oats
01:15instant oats
01:17instant oats
01:18instant oats
01:18instant oats
01:18instant oats
01:18instant oats
01:19instant oats
01:19instant oats
01:19yeah but they're kind of they exist
01:22yeah
01:26so the dragons i'm looking for investment from would be stephen bartlett he would be really
01:32helpful with building that community brand which is what we aim to do at oakland
01:50hello dragons my name's laura and i'm the founder of oatco superfuel today i'm here to seek an
01:57investment of 50 000 pounds in return for a five percent share of my business leading an active lifestyle
02:04and being a busy mum i found myself seeking nutritious convenience solutions and i was
02:10disappointed as to what was available on shelves this sparked the passion of me to create oatco
02:15superfuel currently in our range we have our just add milk overnight oat pouches our ready to
02:22eat overnight oats and our small bites with big energy super bites and at oatco we aim to fuel the
02:29every day whether it's a school run a busy day in the office or a gym workout we are currently
02:35delivering to a strong community of customers through our shopify website nationwide as well
02:40as being stocked in over 150 retail stores and in the past seven months we've did 200k in sales with
02:47a 60 gross margin and 28 000 in net profit currently the market is more protein focused but we aim
02:56to
02:56disrupt the food to go market with natural energy that oats can provide and we've got both excuse the
03:03pun now i've got some samples of our just add milk pouches for you to try and i'd love for
03:09you to try them
03:13a range of oat based food products is the offering from laura murphy that's what's that one
03:19vanilla that's a vanilla chocolate chip yeah thank you she's asking for 50 000 pounds in exchange for
03:26a five percent stake in her business how much protein is in your original so we're around six
03:32grams so it's just the natural energy however the other three we've added plant-based protein laura
03:39claims her oats stand out from the crowd you will notice under your chairs as well there's also some other
03:45products but in a sector packed with healthy promises peter jones is keen to know what makes
03:52this offering more than just a mouthful of marketing laura hi hello um so it's basically oats with bits in
04:06it to give you a super fuel is it so is it was it just protein or no so give
04:13me the
04:15so contents we aim to be different so how we feel at the moment is everything is protein lead
04:20however we want to focus on the natural energy from the oats okay and in what way is this different
04:28is anybody else doing this so i suppose it's difficult to say because we have three different
04:33products so there is three different competitors depending on which one we look at in particular
04:39in terms of the pouch product our point of difference is you actually prepare that in
04:45the pouch you can reseal take it with you and so that is the usp of the pouch product alone
04:52okay
04:54laura yeah your balls are absolutely banging thank you um when something tastes that good i worry that
05:02it's not good for my health yeah and i was looking at the nutritional information on on this packet but
05:09also on the on the balls as well are those the best balls you've ever had that is so good
05:14yeah it's really good thank you so much that's got to be like you say that's such a good point
05:19it's got to be bad for you yeah well some of the flavors are slightly more on the indulgent side
05:25but we're mindful of that and we're trying to appeal to that target consumer that still wants
05:30us to taste good but is mindful of their health on the balls it says there's uh 20 grams of
05:37sugar per 100
05:37grams yeah it is something we're definitely mindful about and we've had conversations recently on how
05:43we can improve and in our new product development we are taking that on board and 100 trying to make
05:49them as well-rounded as possible okay laura hi gotta tell you um yes they're high sugar but they're
05:58delicious thank you so much um so how much are they selling for um the pot you're holding retails for
06:05three point seventy nine okay um and i've seen the overnight oats in tubs but i don't think i've
06:12seen the this on top is that yours that's our usp yeah okay so that makes it quite unique and
06:17yeah
06:17but if i was buying a sort of or standard overnight oats yeah what would that cost me um they
06:25would
06:25retail probably around the 2.99 three pound mark okay and what about your retailers you've got 150 stores
06:31who are they so we're mainly direct to store and it's a mix of spars centras apple greens is a
06:38big
06:38customer to us all based in northern ireland and this week we're actually launching into tesco as well
06:44our first tesco northern ireland or tesco northern ireland okay and do you have any um stores in the rest
06:50of
06:50the uk um not as of yet okay thank you laura hi hello um i'm probably your customer here and
07:01i think
07:01that's what makes me quite different to the rest of dragons because i'm not super educated around kind
07:06of what i need to put into my body like i look at these packaging and the first thing i
07:10look at is
07:10calories because that's the world i've been brought up in i don't understand the rest so as a customer
07:15explain to me why i need your product so it's something substantial that you can eat and i eat
07:21it every morning and being a busy mom as well like it it keeps me going throughout the day okay
07:28and then
07:28what is it you're looking for in a dragon to help with this business yeah so um like i want
07:34ok to be
07:35a household name in many regions particularly in the uk and ireland and i think with the dragon on board
07:41it gives me that platform to help achieve that okay i'm going to tell you where i am
07:49i mean oats are a superfood yeah they're incredibly good for your heart yeah um you know control your
07:56cholesterol levels yeah so so i think the oat story is very very strong and i tell you what you've
08:03done really well this is like one of the most hotly contested markets if you go in anywhere there are
08:08loads of blinking protein balls and energy balls so to actually stand out in that and that is
08:14absolutely delicious too delicious scarily delicious exactly about i i meant to have just one little
08:23nibble i've been back in three times um so um so so much to like about this business
08:32but there's a problem and it's the sugar
08:38okay um i wouldn't eat that because of the high content yeah now i know i'm purist but the direction
08:47of travel is is against sugar so i'm really sorry i won't be investing no problem and i am sorry
08:54i
08:54won't be investing but i'm out
09:01laura you are fantastic um but this is just a market that i'm i'm just not happy to invest in
09:09at
09:09the moment i think it's hyper competitive and um you're gonna struggle with this at the moment so
09:15i'm gonna say that i'm out laura i'll tell you where i'm at i think you're amazing you're so
09:25investable there's a lot of work to do with actually defining the purpose and that kind of vision like
09:30i know you want to own the natural energy market but that's not a brand purpose that's what just
09:35that's i'm like why why like i still need to understand why what is natural energy why do i
09:40need it and i think that needs to be laser focused and i feel like i could offer so much
09:45help in terms
09:46of that in terms of the branding in terms of the lifestyle in terms of the persona i don't know
09:52the
09:52food market and that's just me being completely transparent at all
10:00so i am going to make you an offer but it's a bit of a wild card because there isn't
10:06any other
10:06offers yet you asked for 50 000 pounds for five percent i'll offer you half of the money for seven
10:15and a half percent but i'd want to share with someone else that actually understands the food
10:19market because i know what i can bring it's fantastic yeah and you're a fantastic entrepreneur
10:24once you get the branding spot on we can make it a cool on trend product we can get the
10:28persona
10:28perfect but i want that help of the other side of the retail side as well perfect thank you very
10:34much
10:39laura
10:42i know retail yep yep um
10:47um and i do like what you presented today um so i will also offer you half the money
10:57that's 25 000 for seven and a half percent if jenna wants to share thank you very much
11:07um laura i am i am such a big fan of you thank you um i have uh quite a
11:16lot of experience now in
11:17this industry um have a brand that came into the den that's making tens of millions now just a couple
11:23of years from retail and actually one of the most useful things i could do is to sit you in
11:28a room with
11:29one of the investments i've made who exploded in the uk market and really understand how they did
11:37that yes um so i'm gonna make you an offer because i think you're fantastic i'll offer you all of
11:45the
11:45the money for um 17.5 of the business thank you very much
12:04so thank you so much firstly for all of the offers that it means a lot
12:09um so i suppose just stephen i did have a cap of 15 percent in my head and so i
12:17suppose if you had
12:18the money paid back within sort of a two-year period would you drop to 10 percent to 10 percent
12:32considering i came in for five percent
12:37um i i um i'm not the biggest fan in the world of the deals that that drop because it's
12:43almost like
12:43punishment for success in a weird way i suppose 15 is what i said was was my cap and that's
12:50what
12:50i'm struggling with okay i'll do 15 percent you do 15 i'll do 15 percent well i'd love to accept
13:01your
13:01welcome thank you thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much i
13:11can't
13:11wait to work thank you see you soon bye victory for laura after tough negotiations she secures
13:18stephen bartlett's backing her oat empire is officially expanding
13:28great i'm still catching my breath amazing i couldn't have asked for it to go better really
13:36i'm delighted that's a great entrepreneur to invest in yeah she was so good so god so excellent and it
13:43is serendipitous you didn't you did look the same
14:03intimidating photographs
14:04i think i kissed my helmet my name's john o'donnell and i'm joined today with my son jamie and we
14:11created screw caddy
14:15diy okay definitely diy definitely diy i could do with a few more diy things what have you got peter
14:24got a toolkit you've got a toolkit what's the last diy you did peter i think i've hung a picture
14:31up
14:34i believe deborah would show the most interest in our product just in the sector that it's in i feel
14:40like it would perk her interest the most so i'm definitely confident and ready to go
14:53hi dragons my name's john o'donnell and i'm joined today with my son jamie
14:58and we form part of the family team who created screw caddy today we are looking for a 50 000
15:06pound investment for a 40 stake in our business in 2020 during lockdown me and my mum were doing
15:14various diy projects in and around our home one of these projects in particular involved screwing a
15:20bracket to a fence for a hanging flower basket through this we had many deflected screws and it caused
15:26several near-miss injuries so we went out to see if there was a product on the market that could
15:31solve our issue but we struggled to find anything to solve our solution so as a family we had a
15:38go at
15:38trying to create up a product of our own so dragging is a traditional method for uncertain screws is you
15:44secure the screw with your fingers while also trying to handle a power tool which is particularly
15:51difficult and can cause possible injuries however if you look at our product you can see that my fingers
15:59are away from the screw and it allows the di wire to focus purely on the power drill
16:07as the screw head comes down it makes contact with the angle top side of the screw caddy screw caddy
16:13pops off
16:18and the job's complete we were introduced to a third party who helped us a lot during the development
16:24stages of the product and we now have a manufacturing site here in the uk screw caddy is patent pending
16:31and we are looking for that dragon or dragons who can ultimately put a screw caddy in every diyers toolbox
16:39thank you if you would like to come up the wood we have actually brought in is very very hard
16:45so just
16:45to make you aware you need to give it some welly to get in
16:51a lockdown invention that takes the pain out of drilling is the offering from john and jamie o'donnell
17:00so your fingers go to the side yeah no i've got that i'm just doing that while i okay all
17:04the way down
17:07the inventive father and son duo are seeking an investment of 50 000 pounds in return for a 40
17:15percent share in their business yeah and then pull it off okay that's good thank you the product gets a
17:24nod of approval from the diy doyen of the den deborah meaden but it's tukka suleiman who's the first to
17:32drill down into the potential of the business john and jamie just so you know i've got no investments
17:43in diy this could be my first so um have you shown this to any major retailers yes so the
17:55very first
17:56people we contacted was gml and he asked for costs and samples for up to 750 000 we have been
18:03to b and q
18:05and they've had samples so we have had a lot of interest but it's converting the interest to sales
18:13so it's been a blocker have you turned over anything
18:17so what do you think 80 pounds we saw 80 pounds yes all right so 80 pounds turnover but i
18:26can see
18:26you want to give away 40 of the business yes so you you really want to entice a dragon yes
18:36jamie john and when i was watching deborah have a go at it it still looked it still looked quite
18:43dangerous to me i think because this screw when put in the biggest hole here is still really about
18:49five millimeters away from your finger still which means it could still you know hit the edge of the
18:53plastic and then hit your finger so i just wanted to see if you had a response on that point
18:59yeah
19:01i take your point um about the apertures at the side of screw caddy you are a couple of millimeters
19:09do you agree with that because i don't sorry do you agree with that i mean it's your product and
19:15i'm about to defend it for you is there another answer to that
19:21he agrees with it so the danger is the wobble this stops the wobble okay so it's not the proximity
19:32to
19:33your thumb it's the fact that if the screw head wobbles to one side yeah then you're in danger that's
19:40holding it solid is that what you meant to say yes that's what he meant to say my other point
19:47was
19:47around the combination of metal and plastic so what i did is i took the screw in and out over
19:55and over
19:55again yeah repeatedly like this yeah and the plastic has has worn off so now it basically doesn't fit
20:01anymore so what we've what the third party who done the development work with us they tried to destroy
20:08it with the roughest screws they could find they worked out if you were using it the same aperture
20:15the same size you'd be talking and you get about 35 screws so one is 35 screws yeah and how
20:22much does
20:23this cost 499. okay the equation is not great there being able to do 30 screws um before it breaks
20:30and
20:30actually i think the consumer will have a bigger expectation of longevity from the product
20:36why the question was about the percentage what's the current shareholding between you guys
20:43there's three shareholders it's me my wife and jamie and it's just a third share each okay which means
20:49that the dragon would be the major shareholder yeah we would strain we would change our structure
20:53obviously to make it a 60 40 spot just keep it simple
21:00guys can i ask you what's your patentable step what's your claim um it's the way it holds the
21:07screw and it's the way it releases the screw it's the angled edge and it's the transfer of that vertical
21:13force to a horizontal force that forces the screw caddy off okay so it is quite specific as to why
21:20this
21:20works and what you're telling me is it wouldn't work if if you didn't have those angles right
21:25you've obviously been through lots of iterations yeah yeah okay thank you
21:32john jamie hi hi
21:34i think it looks really good i think it it does what you said it was supposed to do on
21:41the tin
21:43but i think it's really expensive at five pounds um you know you can get a pack of screws for
21:48five
21:48quid and you're selling your product that holds the screws for for the same price so i just wonder
21:54whether this becomes like a really considered purchase so i i don't really want to buy and spend five
21:59quid on it or is this something that frankly what you should really do is perhaps license this to
22:06the people that put these screw packs together and this could be a product that you see in the pack
22:11as a giveaway yeah adding it on to buying a bag of screws was something that we considered right at
22:18the very start um it's interesting though because i don't think it's attached to the screw i think it's
22:22attached to the drill the dangerous bit in this whole process is the drill and and the trouble is this
22:28product feels very expensive against a pack of screws it doesn't feel at all expensive against a drill
22:38john jamie um i i do think the price is probably an issue and it to me it feels um
22:47like you would
22:48like a dragon to to come in and run the business for you and i say that because you've not
22:54had any luck
22:54yet with sales and you're willing to offer the dragon the opportunity to be the single biggest
22:58shareholder in the business effectively and that comes with an obligation that i don't feel comfortable
23:06meeting so i'm going to say that i'm out but i wish you the very best thank you thanks
23:12um john and jamie hi hi and i'll just tell you where i am because i think where i'm stuck
23:18with this is
23:19giving the 40 percent away it's no one is going to drive this business more than you two standing
23:25there and like i got 50 no's from a retailer and i think they even blocked my email address at
23:31one
23:31point because they were like this girl is so annoying but i was delusional and you have to be
23:37so delusional in your product that like a no is like a right i'll try another way i'll try another
23:44way
23:45and i'm just not feeling that so that's kind of where i'm at and i can only get behind something
23:50that you're more you need to be more delusional than me on this and right now there's no delusional
23:55here so well done but i am out thank you guys um to try and sell this product on its
24:07own
24:08will cost you a lot of money yeah you could make it into a set
24:13somebody comes in they want to buy that screw it's already in the packet and that's peter's
24:19idea i won't take it away from him but i would i would say this i'm not your right dragon
24:24for this
24:25so i'm going to say that i'm out but i wish you all the best thanks to you thank you
24:32john jamie i really think it's genius that you came in and offered 40 percent
24:40because you want to make it attractive for a dragon yeah so as a dragon that really likes
24:46opportunity and never likes to miss out um and bear in mind there is one dragon here that's had quite
24:51good little bit of success with diy i'm just going to pause for a moment and reflect
25:09so somebody stood in here about
25:12about 10 years ago a couple stood in here jenny and martin and they had a genius diy product
25:20and martin said i'm an inventor um i haven't got a clue about business but i'm an inventor and i
25:25know
25:25it works and it's brilliant that was marksman pens they didn't know the numbers they haven't talked
25:32to the right people um but there was something about them and there was something about their
25:37product and apart from anything else i wanted to find out whether or not they really had something
25:44um and that product now we sell millions of um so i'm gonna make you an offer thank you very
25:59much thank you
26:03we haven't heard it yet
26:07so you asked for 50 000 pounds for 40 of the business i'm gonna offer you all of the money
26:17and i want 30 of the business whoa
26:24wow because it's your business and i don't want to be the majority shareholder
26:34so
26:38i think you guys are you're really great i think you've got a really good idea it's really neat um
26:46and i think that you've got the perfect dragon for this
26:51so i'm not going to make you an offer and say that i'm out but it'll be interesting when you
26:56reflect
26:56over there what your decision is
27:01do we need to reflect don't think so
27:05we would love to accept your offer excellent well done guys well done you guys great success for the
27:14father and son team thank you very much thank you very much thank you well done can you be a
27:19little
27:19bit more excited seriously i'm more excited than you at the moment come on a little bit of a
27:26yeah thank you thank you very much the diy duo have secured their dream dragon and managed to achieve
27:35that rare feat of leaving the den having given away less equity than they offered
27:43i'm all over the moon that i've got deborah and the team i can't believe it it's absolutely amazing
27:48they seemed in shock
27:52that was like yeah thanks
27:57can't wait to film on i'm so proud of my dad because to see the whole journey come together like
28:02that's just unbelievable
28:16well here we are right then the den my name is fred parry and i'm from london look at this
28:22thing
28:23i can't imagine many people have been dressed as a chicken in in the den i am wearing a chicken
28:29costume because i built a game where someone hides in a chicken costume and i thought it was
28:34only right to put me in it today the dragons are probably going to guess for a birthday party fancy
28:42dress thing they're going to think someone's obsessed with chickens probably children's entertainer
28:50uh honestly is a really good chicken do you know what it's good to know you have a plan b
28:58sometimes
28:59in life in life you should always have a plan b
29:04i'm nervous this chicken costume seals in all the heat i'm going to be roasted in that den roasted chicken
29:17one two three four five six seven eight nine ten
29:50i don't know what to do now i was about to abroad and then i thought maybe not
29:55oh please please wow scary please
30:06hello dragons my name is fred and i'm asking for 50 000 pounds in exchange for 10 of my business
30:11this is chicken rush we are a real world gps powered game of hide and seek teams race to find
30:18someone hiding in a pub or bar dressed as a chicken and use our app as a live radar along
30:24the way they
30:25complete silly challenges compete for points and submit photos and videos as proof it's team-based
30:32tech driven and utterly ridiculous in year one we turned over 55 000 pounds in year two we forecast
30:39164 000 pounds we've had over 7 000 players across 50 countries with no full-time staff we've had over
30:475 million views on social media with barely any marketing spend i built the platform myself the
30:53tracking the booking system the scoring the lot it's scalable tech that can pop up in any city tomorrow
31:01i've proven it works now i want it to grow with your help we can achieve global chicken domination
31:09a real world game of hide and seek with a tech twist using gps and a custom built app fred
31:17parry is
31:17reinventing outdoor play for the digital age thank you thank you see you
31:24the entrepreneur is seeking an investment of 50 000 pounds terrifying in exchange for a 10
31:32percent share in his feathered venture but will the dragons flock to the opportunity or cross the road
31:40to avoid it fred i can't work out whether you're looking for an investment you're or you're looking
31:50for a dragon to dress up as a chicken um very much looking investment to grow the game uh most
31:56of our
31:56games at the moment are team building games so someone dresses up as a chicken often the boss of
32:02a company perhaps um and hides okay so i'm trying to work out yeah what this business is um it's
32:12it's
32:12hide and seek for adults so one person hides a circle appears on a map that gradually shrinks around
32:17their location and then there's also challenges teams do while they're playing the game so it's not
32:23just about finding the chicken but you get 100 points for finding the chicken first okay so i want
32:31to know about you what's your background yeah you know you built this yourself i just want to know
32:36what who am i invested in which chicken am i gonna invest in yeah from the beginning um i was
32:41building online learning games for kids but over time as and i think a lot of people now who are
32:48software developers find this they're not meeting people on the other side they're not seeing how
32:52their tech is used so i had a bit of a disillusionment with that so i i wanted to prove
32:58that i can
32:58build one bit of tech where i know that people were enjoying using it meeting the people playing
33:04the game this was like the perfect example and perfect case study for me being able to do it and
33:09then we hosted a public dating event for 40 singles to get it off the ground which is a bit
33:14strange like there's one thing a chicken chasing game and then there's also a date involved with it
33:19well people want to be distracted by the fact they're on a first date so turns out our dating
33:24events became really popular and we had a wait list of over 2 000 singles in london oh the single
33:30people yeah wanted to come and play this game to meet somebody else people have found love while
33:36hunting chickens yeah right so let's look at the serious part of this situation the business part
33:44so how how do you monetize this how do you organize it yeah just want to know yeah um so
33:53there's two
33:54types you uh you get the tech and you play with your friends for 15 pounds per person in a
33:59team
34:00building setting or just for fun or sometimes with large companies they've got a big budget they just
34:06want to hassle-free someone to come here hand over a chicken costume explain the rules and then you play
34:10the
34:10same game fred um how does this how does this get big what does big mean to you um
34:23big is getting into definitely at least every city in the uk as well as any city which has enough
34:31hiding spots in them and what does in terms of quantifying big what does that look like uh the the
34:37number i've had in my head is 100 games a day and if you did 100 a day what does
34:41that look like in
34:42terms of revenue um it's 30 grand revenue a day yeah okay fred hi hello have you forgotten by now
34:55that
34:56you're dressed as a chicken uh you do start to if you wear it enough times okay so so what
35:04next
35:04i i mean i you know it's it's a cool funny eye-catching idea um and i can imagine my
35:14corporates
35:14would who were desperate to find the next thing and not do the old paintballing thing for corporate
35:20events so i can imagine them thinking oh that looks new and different um but if you're really going to
35:25leverage this business you need to become the place to look to the innovative ways of building teams don't
35:32you know um so what what next what's your plans um at the moment my core focus has just grow
35:38outside
35:39of london with your investment though it's about scaling the casual games so birthdays stags and
35:45hen do's easter easter turkey hunt for christmas um all of these things but at the moment it's just
35:52been me working on this so i just have to focus on one small thing at a time okay so
35:57you're on your
35:58own at the moment yeah are you just going to keep moving yourself around the country for the next
36:03year with that would be our main focus it's you uh yeah but we'd have part-time help um brought
36:09in for
36:10each event fred hi hi i love adding the crazy into business but then on the flip side i hate
36:19organized fun
36:20yeah um i love the dating idea i think that's genius but i think where you're almost missing
36:26that trick is actually making this a thing before you pigeonhole it into the corporate world into the
36:33dating world and it's like if that wasn't on invent bright in london yeah and you got everyone in
36:38london like hey do you want to go to pilates today do you want to go get coffee or do
36:42you want to go and
36:42do this crazy thing i just saw called chicken rush like you get everyone doing it and then you
36:47pigeonhole it into corporate dating whatever you want and it's like yeah how do we make this bigger
36:55and how many people come back so once they've done chicken rush do they then delete the app or do
37:00they
37:00stay on do they do another one like yeah what so um as far as numbers are concerned five percent
37:06in
37:06year one of our corporates came back um and then ten percent of the people that came to one of
37:12our
37:12events came back some have played over five times i'm like i'm really um i'm really into businesses
37:31that are able to bring people into the real world yeah and find ways for them to to connect and
37:37especially businesses that are a platform to scale that globally so what am i investing in here am i
37:43investing in a platform that has scale that's that's really the pitch that i think really would have
37:48swung me is something like that we have built that events platform in the background so a huge part of
37:54it is for all our dating events the thing you pitched to me today was a chicken game where people
37:59hide in pubs
38:01so true if it sounded different if it started with the the big picture of the macro loneliness
38:07epidemic people despairing at dating apps letting them down so we're building the platform for social
38:13competitive up in real life games i would have been like oh here we go i rewrote that on sunday
38:19but
38:19then i got worried that you wouldn't understand what the game was so the whole pitch was uh
38:25all around us pubs are closing there is a loneliness epidemic that was the pitch that was
38:30the pitch the whole thing that was the pitch the the key to the the key to pitching for me
38:34is
38:34you start with the why pubs have closed loneliness i would have been nodding like a dog
38:38yes yeah yeah and then you build it up and say that was our whole story made this and i
38:42go oh
38:43interesting but what you did is you started with the what you started with the chickens hiding pubs
38:47and i'm like the my my original pitch was just that exact story it might be the story but it's
38:54not the business either that you have that's the difference is it well it's not this is one
38:59this is a this is a chicken game with a gps tracking device yeah we get hundreds of people
39:05outside interacting um the whole aim and ethos of this is just try and get people outside and
39:13playing and meeting new people that's why i set it up anyway yeah fred look i think you've it's great
39:19i think that it it's a tough one to invest in it really is um and sadly i'm going to
39:28say that i'm out
39:29but but good luck to you thank you peter
39:36um i do think you need an investor but i think um i think it's going to be tough for
39:41you to get an
39:42investor based on what your pitch was today okay the chicken thing because it is it's really really fun
39:46and but it's also quite distracting uh in a way where an investor is trying to understand the
39:52potential and the scale of this business the coming in the way that you came in with the
39:57the chickens and that deborah meaden and uh peter jones's face i mean that was distracting but
40:02the whole thing kind of diverted me from the real problem you're trying to solve here which i've
40:05managed to tease out of you which is loneliness connection bringing people together in real life
40:10in an increasingly digital world that is it um that's a that's an inspiring proposition but the
40:17proposition i saw today wasn't was it wasn't wasn't that so um i'm going to say that i'm out but
40:24i wish
40:25you the very best fred um i think you need investment because you need people around you
40:36my issue is that i can't personally see how i can spend the time that you need in this business
40:46so i won't be investing i'm out thank you deborah
40:53fred i'm gonna say where i am hi i'm not interested in chicken games at my age
41:00um i'm gonna say i'm gonna go back to my little cage yeah not invest and i'm out thank you
41:08then
41:12hi fred hello um i just panicked that i got your name wrong i was like
41:18um no i i just think you're great i think you're great and i think you're amazing and for me
41:24i feel
41:24like there is something in this chicken play but i think this needs to be blown up stronger make it
41:32massive and then you cash in with corporates with dating once you've made this chicken game a bigger
41:39thing i do generally feel that if i came on board i would just be giving you the same advice
41:44i've kind
41:44of given but i would love to help you and however i can so i'm not going to be your
41:49business partner
41:50but i can be that person to call and this is going to be huge and you're going to be
41:53huge i think
41:54you need to keep going um but i am out but i wish you all the best but i will
41:57definitely help you
41:58thank you good luck fred cheers thank you thank you cheers sadly for fred he's failed to land any of
42:07the dragons though he has managed to secure a wing woman in jenna meek i love the idea of getting
42:15everyone out together and creating something that just wasn't something enough jenna was really
42:24helpful she gave me some advice about how to have mainstream appeal so expect to see more chickens
42:30popping up in other cities tomorrow maybe
42:45i'm rachel williams i'm from a small town in lancashire in the north of england and my business
42:51was born on the top of of a mountain in the french alps nice bright packaging lip creams it's a
43:00lip
43:00brand definitely a lip brand it's been a long journey and many many people said you'll never
43:08make it in this industry and being a northern girl i kind of thought well i will i'll show them
43:14that's how i did so um so yeah i feel quite proud i've got here
43:29hello dragons i'm rachel i'm a physiologist and i'm the founder of albus and flora
43:35a specialist award-winning skincare brand that provides targeted support for the lips and skin
43:43around the mouth i'm here today to ask for 50 000 pounds in return for 15 equity in my business
43:53lines and wrinkles around the mouth thinning lips chronic dryness cold sores sunburn and lip cancer
44:02affect the confidence and comfort of millions of men and women every day uv exposure and sun damage
44:10are known to impact on these concerns however uv lip protection is not always used on a daily basis in
44:19people's skin care routines we've launched two products so far lip shield which is an spf lip balm
44:26and lip facial which is an exfoliating and plumping treatment mask we currently provide products to 370
44:36aesthetic clinics spas and beauty salons we also supply direct to our customers via our website
44:43today we have delivered 695 000 pounds worth of accumulated turnover and we want to develop
44:51a clinic and consumer brand that can be accessed globally thank you oh i can breathe now breathe
45:01i can breathe
45:05products which both prettify and protect the lips are the offering from rachel williams in the large
45:12square box you've got a part of the lip facial and then in the smaller boxes you've got the spf
45:18lip shield
45:20she's looking for a 50 000 pound investment in return for a 15 share in her business
45:28can i just tell you when you do your lipstick you only have to put it out about that much
45:32even not even that much just to fill the end that's it rachel believes her targeted approach fills a gap
45:40in
45:40the ever-growing skin care market how do i how does it look that's good but will the dragons be
45:47convinced
45:48by her pout focused pitch
45:54so so have i got this straight that this is essentially the unique selling point of this
45:58business is that it protects my lips from sun damage yes and people don't realize how how much
46:06damage you can get from from daily uv and the lip is so thin and delicate and that means it
46:12dehydrates
46:13quite quickly and so so is this the health product versus a a beauty product per se the svf is
46:20is a
46:20lifestyle product you know everybody's got a pair of lips and we need to look after them and how is
46:26this
46:26different from a lip balm because it's a broad spectrum uva uvb protector so it is what does that
46:32mean for a muggle like me that there's nothing about uv anything so it's going to protect you against
46:37the damage that uv rays can do because uv would come into the skin and it can impact on the
46:42cells
46:43physiology and function and sometimes that uv damage is is accumulated through your lifetime
46:50so it is like a lip sun cream then yes the the lip balm is yes because i put some
46:55of this lip balm on
46:56but what's weird this lip balm i've got a bit tingly and it feels that feels like my bottom lip's
47:01going
47:01thicker so so that that isn't a lip balm so that's the advanced treatment it's not a lip balm no
47:08so the
47:08lip balms are in the in the sticks so what does this what's that supposed to do so the lip
47:12facial is
47:13an exfoliating and plumping treatment mask it's plumber so that is a product that we use so that's
47:22why that feels it's getting thicker it's swollen up could i ask you a question while you're playing with
47:28each other no we're not playing i'm just asking some very important questions just tell us about your
47:33qualifications in this sector well qualifications um i've been a physiologist for many years and
47:39supported british teams in three olympic cycles really looking at the impacts of environment on
47:46health and you know physiology so my interest is so you know i own the trademark lipstick okay and i'm
47:55about to go retail with it later in the year cool so this is of interest yes just want to
48:01make sure
48:01you've done 695 000 turnover in total yeah so can you break that down so we could get an idea
48:09so the last three years in um 2022 we did 139 000 with a net of 41 which obviously gave
48:18us a 29 net profit
48:20and then in 2023 we did 143 turnover and 27 000 net um and then in last year we did
48:32again 140
48:33and a 15 000 net profit profits profits profits have been going down yes is that because of marketing no
48:44it's a strategic decision by me because when we had like 20 29 net profit i knew that the decision
48:52to
48:52become a really specialised focus brand you know really supporting the professional retailers was
48:59working but i'm you know a single entrepreneur um with not a huge amount of working capital yeah and i
49:06needed therefore to prepare the business to scale so i wanted to put in foundations in the last two
49:13years to help me do that so i've got a new office i'm a part-time member of staff we
49:18launched the
49:19new product we did a rebrand and a refresh because i wanted to make sure the image was right for
49:24both
49:25clinic market as well as retail look you've done you've done quite well i mean the product looks
49:32really great thank you we we do have it just so happens an experienced expert in the den today
49:43with jenna my question is actually not just to you because i don't know a lot about this market
49:48but it would be to jenna is are these sort of types of products widely available is this already out
49:54there yes i guess that was hi rachel and i think that's what i'm trying to struggle with is
50:00i can probably already find something similar yeah because it's a very crowded market i think
50:06one of the things that's um confused me a little bit is that kind of vision of where you see
50:11the
50:11brand going so like is this going to be spf everything will be focused around spf or will it be
50:18more
50:18focused around lips like how does the product range build from here so we've got a few collections
50:24plans so the spf products are all part of the daily care range the lip facial is also in the
50:30daily
50:30care range there's then the targeted care range this range will focus on supporting clients who've
50:36got inflammation you know when they're on acne medication solution-based you can yeah daily for
50:42everyone a solution-based yeah range and then and then third one would be targeting sort of 40 and upwards
50:50okay so if you had a magic wand what beauty retailers do you see this branding just i understand
50:54the vision yeah so i think the the more premium end definitely sort of liberties selfridges space nk
51:03sephora but i think for you know sephora we would need to increase you know our kind of digital footprint
51:09first
51:12um do your customers love the product yes they do do they tell people about the product
51:17they do um i'm not very good at sharing so they they love the product and they tell people about
51:22the product so why for the last three years has the revenue been stagnant i've almost never seen
51:30numbers like this where it's almost exactly the same for three years at 140k in revenue yeah three years
51:35in a row super consistent and the reason being that i've invested in the infrastructure and the
51:40operations to get ready and i've not been able to do that at the same time as put money into
51:47the sales and marketing okay so one of the things investors look for in businesses when they're
51:52trying to invest is this thing called the growth profile and the growth profile is essentially the
51:56history of the business and how the how it looks from a revenue or profit growth perspective yeah if
52:03it's flat it kind of suggests that the future could be flat um and i like businesses that have a
52:09good
52:09growth profile which is a challenge a lot of entrepreneurs faces when you're a solopreneur on
52:13your own you have decisions you have to make it's trade-offs and the trade-off that you you made
52:19was to
52:20focus on infrastructure and those things first versus the growth profile of business i think it's quite
52:26important to make a different decision which is to focus on that growth profile because that will give an
52:30investor the confidence that they have enough growth to get a return from the business in future
52:36but the growth profile of the business is an amber flag for me and i find it hard to see
52:41based on the
52:42last three years in the current year how an investor would get their 50k out and a multiple on the
52:46money
52:47so for that reason i'm going to say that i'm out but i wish you the very best thank you
52:51and rachel
52:51i'm going to be the same um you've created a great product um i'm struggling to see the size of
52:59the
53:01opportunity so sadly i'm going to say that i'm out um but yeah congratulations on creating a great
53:07product thank you rachel i think you've hit a market and you really really know your stuff and
53:16you explain it really well um but the truth of the matter is you are in a highly contested space
53:22this is
53:22readily available for me and i i buy it so i'm afraid it's not an investment for me i'm out
53:29thank you
53:34rachel hi hi um i think i mean obviously i know what it's like to develop a beauty product so
53:40just
53:40please well done thank you the packaging is lovely the branding is lovely um it's it's really really
53:47to stand out i think in terms of investment where i'm at is it's not something i feel like i
53:55want to
53:55invest in many because it is probably too close to my current business um but more because i can't
54:00necessarily see the the bigger vision in terms of everything you want to do yeah um but i would like
54:06to throw you a lifeline because i do think this is a good product i will help you get this
54:10product in
54:11front of selfridges space and care sephora in the uk so that you've got that step to entry because
54:18you can tell how passionate you are i'm not going to invest i am out say i'm sorry but yeah
54:24i will
54:24help you do that step and you'll be able to take it from the rest okay that's a great offer
54:29yeah it's
54:29an amazing offer thank you so much rachel um you are investable but that's not okay and that's where
54:38i'm torn and i'll tell you why i'm torn um i am launching a lipstick retail concept later in the
54:47year okay um lip care is definitely a sector that could be included um what i'm interested in is your
54:59knowledge and trying to think how i can kill two birds with one stone here how you can help me
55:05with
55:05knowledge and help you your business yeah yeah that would be exciting so your offer was 50 000 15
55:13percent yes i'm willing to give you the 50 000 pounds
55:22but i would want 35 percent
55:2935 obviously is is quite high for me as a brand and i know that as most likely going to
55:35be multiple
55:36rounds to move forward to take the brand to where i want it to go so that's quite challenging would
55:42you
55:43be prepared to reduce that offer if you got your money back well if i got my money back within
55:4812 to 18 months down to 25 percent okay um would you be prepared to drop to um 20 no
56:0625
56:0930 percent i'll go down to 25 when i get my money back
56:16okay that's a fantastic offer um i would be happy to work with you excited to work with you
56:23and definitely happy to accept your great great great great great we're going to be we're going to be
56:30it's a win for rachel thanks for all your time well done thank you she walks away with
56:37an offer of support from skin care savant jenna meek but it's tuka sulliman who's put his money where
56:44his mouth is securing a stake in the business really excited
56:52just fabulous to get investment from tuka and yeah also absolutely lovely you know offer from jenna
57:00so i'm super grateful and humbled how exciting it was her that i really loved i'm investing in her
57:12as an entrepreneur well you've got an expert
57:27and i think this is the first time in the den there's been more females than men
57:34i think this is what i've been looking for for a long time i just came out of being your
57:39worst nightmare
57:39i'm about to go back in again you're sassy i'm like oh go on go sell more is that the
57:44way you
57:44work is that what you guys do as investors i think this is a wonderful opportunity and that's
57:49why i'd like to talk to tony hello peter i was hoping you'd say that am i happy to share
57:55with peter
57:55my business is you tell me i should not invest but my heart tells me i should
58:02you're setting us all off come here mates i'm so proud of you wow gary you teed that up as
58:07if we were
58:08teammates and then that's the most guilty i've ever felt in my life yeah no it's great to have you
58:13back gary
58:20you
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