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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
00:47investment i will be absolutely fighting for it i love disagreeing with the dragons i really really
00:52do i 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
01:19yeah but they're kind of exist
01:22yeah so the dragons i'm looking for investment from would be steven bartlett he would be really
01:32helpful with building that community brand which is what we aim to do at okul
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 that's a
03:20vanilla chocolate chip yeah thank you she's asking for 50 000 pounds in exchange for a five percent
03:27stake in her business how much protein is in your original so we're around six grams so it's just the
03:33natural energy however the other three we've added plant-based protein laura claims her oats stand out
03:41from the crowd you will notice under your chairs as well there's also some other products but in a
03:47sector packed with healthy promises peter jones is keen to know what makes this offering more than
03:54just a mouthful of marketing laura hi hello um so it's basically oats with bits in it to
04:07give you a super fuel is it so is it was it just protein or no so give me the
04:14so contents we aim to
04:17be different so how we feel at the moment is everything is protein lead however we want to
04:22focus on the natural energy from the oats okay and in what way is this different is anybody else doing
04:29this
04:30so i suppose it's difficult to say because we have three different products so there is three
04:36different competitors depending on which one we look at in particular in terms of the pouch product
04:41our point of difference is you actually prepare that in the pouch you can reseal take it with you
04:48and so that is the usp of the pouch product alone okay laura yeah your balls are absolutely banging thank
04:58you
04:58um when something tastes that good i worry that it's not good for my health yeah and i was looking
05:06at the nutritional information on on this packet but also on the on the balls as well
05:11are those the best balls you've ever had that is so good
05:16it's really good thank you so much that's got to be like you say that's such a good point it's
05:19got
05:19to 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
05:37100 grams yeah it is something we're definitely mindful about and we've had conversations recently
05:42on how we can improve and in our new product development we are taking that on board and 100
05:48trying to make them as well-rounded as possible okay laura hi gotta tell you um yes they're high
05:57sugar but they're delicious thank you so much um so how much are they selling for um the pot you're
06:04holding retails for 3.79 okay um and i've seen the overnight oats in tubs but i don't think i've
06:12seen
06:12the this on top is that yours that's our usp yeah okay so that makes it quite unique and yeah
06:17but if
06:18i was buying a sort of or standard overnight oats yeah what would that cost me um they would retail
06:25probably around the 2.99 three pound mark okay and what about your retailers you've got 150 stores who
06:32are they so we're mainly direct to store and it's a mix of spars centras apple greens is a big
06:38customer
06:38to us all based in northern ireland and this week we're actually launching into tesco as well our
06:44first tesco northern ireland or tesco northern ireland okay and do you have any um stores in the rest of
06:50the
06:50uk um not as of yet okay thank you laura hi hello um i'm probably your customer here and i
07:01think that's
07:01what makes me quite different to the rest of dragons because i'm not super educated around kind of what i
07:06need to put into my body like i look at these packaging the first thing i look at is calories
07:10because 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
07:34okko to be
07:35a household name in many regions particularly in the uk and ireland and i think with the dragon on
07:40board it 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
08:03really 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 absolutely
08:15delicious too delicious scarily delicious exactly but i i meant to have just one little nibble i've been
08:23back in three times um so um so so much to like about this business but there's a problem and
08:34it'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
08:47travel is is against sugar so i'm really sorry i won't be investing no problem and i am really sorry
08:54i won't be investing but i'm out
09:01laura you are fantastic
09:05um but this is just a market that i'm i'm just not happy to invest in at the moment i
09:10think it's
09:10hyper competitive and you're going to struggle with this at the moment so i'm going to say that i'm out
09:20laura i'll tell you where i'm at i think you're amazing you're so investable there's a lot of work to
09:27do with actually defining the purpose and that kind of vision like i know you want to own the natural
09:32energy market but that's not a brand purpose that's what just that's i'm like why why like
09:37i still need to understand why what is natural energy why do i need it and i think that needs
09:42to
09:42be laser focused and i feel like i could offer so much help in terms of that in terms of
09:47the branding
09:48in terms of the lifestyle in terms of the persona i don't know the food market and that's
09:53just 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 i'd want to share with someone else that actually understands the food market because
10:20i know what i can bring it's fantastic yeah and you're a fantastic entrepreneur once you can get
10:24the branding spot on we can make it a cool on trend product we can get the persona perfect
10:29but i want that help at the other side of the retail side as well perfect thank you very much
11:00thank 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 that
11:37yes um so i'm going to make you an offer because i think you're fantastic
11:44i'll offer you all of the money for um
11:5517.5 of the business
12:00thank you very much
12:04so thank you so much firstly for all of the offers that it means a lot um so i suppose
12:11just
12:11stephen i did have a cap of 15 percent in my head and so i suppose if you had the
12:18money paid back
12:19within 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 percent is what i said was was my cap and
12:50that's what i'm struggling with okay
12:55i'll do 15 percent you do 15 i'll do 15 percent
13:00well i'd love to accept your offer thank you thank you so much well done thank you so much
13:07i can't wait to work thank you victory for laura after tough negotiations she secures stephen bartlett's
13:19backing her oat empire is officially expanding
13:28breathe i'm still catching my breath
13:32amazing i couldn't have asked for it to go better really i'm delighted
13:37that's a great entrepreneur to invest in yeah she was so good so good so so excellent and it is
13:43serendipitous you didn't you did look the same
13:47that's the reason i was so good so i got a smile
14:05so i got a smile on my name's john o'donnell and i'm joined today with my son jamie and we
14:11created
14:12a huge screw caddy
14:15diy
14:15okay definitely diy
14:18definitely diy
14:20i could do with a few more diy things
14:22what have you got peter
14:24i've got a toolkit
14:25you've got a toolkit what's the last diy you did peter i think i've hung a picture up
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 our 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 and we
14:59form part of the family team who created screw caddy
15:04today we are looking for a 50 000 pound investment for a 40 stake in our business
15:10in 2020 during lockdown me and my mum were doing various diy projects in and around our home
15:17one of these projects in particular involved screwing a bracket to a fence for a hanging
15:22flower basket through this we had many deflected screws and it caused several near-miss injuries
15:28so we went out to see if there was a product on the market that could solve our issue but
15:33we
15:33struggled to find anything to solve our solution so as a family we had a go at trying to create
15:38up
15:38a product of our own so dragging is a traditional method for uncertain screws is you secure the screw
15:45with your fingers while also trying to handle a power tool um which is particularly difficult and
15:51can cause possible injuries however if you look at our product you can see that my fingers are
15:59away 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
16:12screw caddy pops off
16:18and the job's complete we were introduced to a third party who helped us a lot during the
16:24development stages of the product and we now have a manufacturing site here in the uk
16:29screw caddy is patent pending and we are looking for that dragon or dragons who can ultimately put a
16:36screw caddy in every diyers toolbox thank you if you would like to come up the wood we have actually
16:43brought in is very very hard so just to make you aware you need to give it some welly to
16:48get 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
17:15share in their business yeah and then pull it off okay that's good thank you the product gets a nod
17:24of
17:25approval from the diy doyen of the den deborah meaden but it's tukar sulliman who's the first to drill down
17:33into the potential of the business
17:38john and jamie just so you know i've got no investments in diy this could be my first
17:46so um have you shown this to any major retailers yes so the very first people we contacted was gml
17:58and they asked for costs and samples for up to 750 000 we have been to b and q and
18:05they've had samples
18:07so we have had a lot of interest but it's converting the interest to sales so it's been a blocker
18:15have
18:16you turned over anything 80 pounds we sold sounds yes all right so 80 pounds turnover but i can see
18:26you want to give away 40 of the business yes so you you really want to entice a dragon yes
18:36jimmy 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 your thumb it's the fact that if the screw head wobbles to one side yeah then you're in danger
19:39that's holding it solid is that what you meant to say yes sorry that's what he meant to say
19:46my other point was around the combination of metal and plastic so what i did is i took
19:53the screw in and out over and over again yeah repeatedly like this yeah and the plastic has
19:59has worn off so now it basically doesn't fit anymore so what we've what the third party who
20:04done the development work with is they tried to destroy it with the roughest screws they could find
20:11they worked out if you were using it the same aperture the same size you'll be talking and
20:16you get about 35 screws so one is 35 screws yeah and how much does this cost 499. okay the
20:26equation
20:27is not great there being able to do 30 screws um before it breaks and actually i think the consumer
20:32will have a bigger expectation of longevity from the product
20:39what's the current shareholding between you guys there's three shareholders it's me my wife
20:45and jamie and it's just it's a third share each okay which means that the dragon would be the major
20:50shareholder yeah we would strain we would change our structure obviously to make it a 60 40 spot
20:56let's keep it simple guys can i ask you what's your patentable step what's your claim um it's the
21:07way it holds the screw and it's the way it releases the screw it's the angled edge and it's the
21:11transfer
21:12of that vertical force to a horizontal force that forces the screw caddy off okay so it is quite
21:19specific as to why this works and what you're telling me is it wouldn't work if if you didn't
21:24have those angles right you've obviously been through lots of iterations yeah yeah okay thank you
21:32john jamie hi hi uh i think it looks really good i think it it does what you said it
21:40was supposed to
21:41do on the tin but i think it's really expensive at five pounds um you know you can get a
21:47pack of screws
21:47for five quid and you're selling your product that holds the screws for for the same price so i just
21:54wonder whether this becomes like a really considered purchase so i don't really want to buy and spend
21:58five quid 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
22:12a giveaway yeah adding it on to buying a bag of screws was something that we considered right at the
22:18very
22:18start it's interesting though because i don't think it's attached to the screw i think it's attached to
22:23the drill the dangerous bit in this whole process is the drill and and the trouble is this product
22:29feels very expensive against a pack of screws yeah it doesn't feel at all expensive against a drill
22:38john jamie um i i do think the price is probably an issue
22:45and it to me it feels um like you would like a dragon to to come in and run the
22:51business for you
22:52and i say that because you've not had any luck yet with sales and you're willing to offer the dragon
22:57the opportunity to be the single biggest shareholder in the business effectively
23:01and that comes with an obligation that i don't feel comfortable meeting so i'm going to say that i'm out
23:07but i wish you the very best thank you thank you um john and jamie hi hi um i'll just
23:15tell you where
23:15i am because i think where i'm stuck with this is given the 40 away it's no one is going
23:22to drive
23:23this business more than you two standing there and like i got 50 no's from a retailer and i think
23:30they
23:30even blocked my email address at one point because they were like this girl is so annoying but i was
23:35delusional and you have to be so delusional in your product that like a noise like a
23:43i'll try another way i'll try another way and i'm just not feeling that so that's kind of where
23:48i'm at and i can only get behind something that you're more you need to be more delusional than me
23:53on this and right now there's no delusional here so well done but i am out thank you
24:03guys um to try and sell this product on its own will cost you a lot of money yeah you
24:11could make it
24:12into a set somebody 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 gonna say that i'm out but i wish you all the best thanks 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 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
24:50quite good little bit of success with diy i'm just going to pause for a moment and reflect
25:09so somebody stood in here about 10 years ago a couple stood in here jenny and martin and they had
25:17a
25:18genius diy product and martin said i'm an inventor um i haven't got a clue about business but i'm an
25:25inventor and i know it works and it's brilliant that was marksman pence they didn't know the numbers
25:31they haven't talked to the right people um but there was something about them and there was
25:37something about their product and apart from anything else i wanted to find out whether or
25:41not they really had something um and that product now we sell millions of um
25:55so i'm gonna make you an offer thank you very much thank you
26:03we haven't heard it yet
26:07so you asked for 50 000 pounds for 40 of the business i'm going to offer you all of the
26:14money
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
26:37i think you guys are you're really great i think you've got a really good idea it's really neat
26:44um and i think that you've got the perfect dragon for this so i'm not going to make you an
26:52offer and
26:52say that i'm out but it'll be interesting when you reflect over there what your decision is
27:01do we need to reflect don't think so
27:05we would love to accept you well done excellent well done guys well done you guys great success for
27:14the father and son team thank you very much thank you very much thank you well done can you be
27:19a
27:19little bit more excited seriously i'm more excited than you at the moment
27:26yeah thank you thanks very much the diy duo have secured their dream dragon
27:33and managed to achieve that 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 i'm so proud of my dad because to see the whole journey come together like this
28:02is
28:15just unbelievable
28:15well 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
28:29because i built a game where someone hides in a chicken costume and i thought it was only right to
28:35put me in it today the dragons are probably going to guess for a birthday party fancy dress thing
28:44they're going to think someone's obsessed with chickens probably children's entertainer
28:54honestly is a really good chicken do you know what it's good to know you have a plan b
28:58sometimes in life in life you should always have a plan b
29:04uh i'm nervous this chicken costume seals in all the heat
29:09i'm gonna 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 back to a board 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
30:11chicken rush we are a real world gps powered game of hide and seek teams race to find someone hiding
30:18in
30:18a pub or bar dressed as a chicken and use our app as a live radar along the way they
30:25complete silly
30:25challenges compete for points and submit photos and videos as proof it's team-based tech-driven and
30:33utterly ridiculous in year one we turned over 55 000 pounds in year two we forecast 164 000 pounds we've
30:41had over 7 000 players across 50 countries with no full-time staff we've had over 5 million views on
30:48social media with barely any marketing spend i built the platform myself the tracking the booking
30:55system 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
31:13using gps and a custom-built app fred parry is reinventing outdoor play for the digital age thank you thank
31:21you see you the 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
31:39or cross the road to avoid it
31:45fred i can't work out whether you're looking for an investment you're or you're looking for a dragon
31:51to dress up as a chicken um very much looking investment to grow the game uh most of our games
31:57at the moment are team building games so someone dresses up as a chicken often the boss of a company
32:02perhaps um and hides okay so i'm trying to work out yeah what this business is um it's it's hide
32:12and
32:12seek for adults so one person hides a circle appears on a map that gradually shrinks around their location
32:19and then there's also challenges teams do while they're playing the game so it's not just about
32:24finding the chicken but you get 100 points for finding the chicken first okay so i want to know
32:31about you what's your background yeah you know you built this yourself i just want to know who am i
32:37invested in which chicken am i going to invest in yeah from the beginning um i was building online
32:42learning games for kids but over time as and i think a lot of people now who are software developers
32:48find this they're not meeting people on the other side they're not seeing how their tech is used so
32:54i had a bit of a disillusionment with that so i i wanted to prove that i can build one
32:59bit of tech
32:59where i know that people were enjoying using it meeting the people playing the game this was like
33:05the perfect example and perfect case study for me being able to do it and then we hosted a public
33:10dating event for 40 singles to get it off the ground which is a bit strange like there's one thing
33:15a chicken chasing game and then there's also a date involved with it well people want to be
33:21distracted by the fact that on the first date so turns out our dating events became really popular
33:25and we had a wait list of over 2 000 singles in london oh the single people yeah wanted to
33:31come
33:31and play this game to meet somebody else people have found love while hunting chickens yeah
33:39right so let's look at the serious part of this situation the business part so how how do you
33:47monetize this how do you organize it yeah just want to know yeah um so there's two types you uh
33:55you
33:56get the tech and you play with your friends for 15 pounds per person in a team building setting or
34:01just
34:01for fun or sometimes with large companies they've got a big budget they just want to hassle free
34:07someone to come here hand over a chicken costume explain the rules and then you play the same game
34:13fred 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
34:31enough hiding spots in them and what does in terms of quantifying big what does that look like
34:36uh the the number i've had in my head is 100 games a day and if you did 100 a
34:41day what does
34:41that look like in terms of revenue um it's 30 grand revenue a day yeah okay
34:52fred hi hello have you forgotten by now that you're dressed as a chicken
34:56uh you do start to if you wear it enough times okay so so what next i i mean i
35:06you know it's it's a
35:08cool funny eye-catching idea um and i can imagine my corporates would who were desperate to find the
35:16next thing and not do the old paintballing thing for corporate events so i can imagine them thinking
35:22oh that looks new and different um but if you're really going to leverage this business
35:26you need to become the place to look to the innovative ways of building teams don't you you
35:32know um so what what next what's your plans um at the moment my core focus is just grow outside
35:39of
35:39london with your investment though it's about scaling the casual games so birthdays stags and hen
35:45do's easter easter turkey hunt for christmas um all of these things but at the moment it was just
35:52been me working on this so i just had 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 year
36:04that would be our main focus it's you uh yeah but we'd have part-time help um brought in for
36:10each event
36:12um fred hi hi i love adding the crazy into business but then on the flip side i hate organized
36:19fun yeah um i love the dating idea i think that's genius but i think where you're almost missing that
36:26trick 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 in bentbrite in london yeah and you've 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
36:42and do this crazy thing i just saw got 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 stay on do they do another one like yeah what so um as far as numbers are concerned five
37:06percent
37:06in year one of our corporates came back um and then 10 of the people that came to one of
37:12our events
37:12came back some have played over five times
37:28i'm like i'm really um i'm really into businesses that are able to bring people into the real world
37:33yeah and find ways for them to to connect and especially businesses that are a platform to
37:39scale that globally so what am i investing in here am i investing in a platform that has scale that's
37:47that's really the pitch that i think really would have swung me is something like that we have built
37:52that events platform in the background so a huge part of it is for all our dating events the thing
37:57you
37:57pitched to me today was a chicken game where people hide in pubs so true if it sounded different if
38:05it
38:05had started with the the big picture of the macro loneliness epidemic people despairing at dating apps
38:10letting them down so we're building the platform for social competitive up in real life games i would
38:16have been like oh here we go i rewrote that on sunday but then i got worried that you wouldn't
38:20understand what the game was so the whole pitch was uh all around us pubs are closing there is
38:27a loneliness epidemic that was the pitch that was the pitch the whole thing that was the pitch the
38:32the key to the the key to pitching for me is you start with the why pubs have closed loneliness
38:37epidemic i would have been nodding like a dog yes yes yes and then you build it up and say
38:40that was
38:41our whole story made this and i go oh interesting but what you did is you started with the what
38:45you
38:45started with the chickens hide in pubs and i'm like the my my original pitch was just that exact
38:51story it might be the story but it's not the business either that you have that's the difference
38:57is it well this is one this is a this is a chicken game with a gps tracking device yeah
39:03we get hundreds
39:04of people outside 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
39:46fun and 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 chickens and
39:57that deborah meaden and uh peter jones's face i mean that was distracting but the whole thing kind
40:03of diverted me from the real problem you're trying to solve here which i've managed to tease out of you
40:06which is loneliness connection bringing people together in real life in an increasingly digital
40:12world that is it um that's a that's an inspiring proposition but the proposition i saw today wasn't
40:19was it wasn't wasn't that
40:23so um i'm going to say that i'm out but i wish you the very best
40:29fred 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
40:44in this business so i won't be investing i'm out thank you deborah
40:56i'm not interested in chicken games at my age um i'm going to say i'm going to go back to
41:03my little
41:04cage yeah not invest and i'm out thank you then
41:12i'm going to say hi fred hello um sorry i just panicked there i got your name wrong i was
41:16like
41:17no no i just think you're great i think you're great and i think you're amazing
41:22and for me i feel like there is something in this chicken play but i think this needs to be
41:29blown up
41:31stronger make it massive and then you cash in with corporates with dating once you've made
41:37this chicken game a bigger thing i do genuinely feel that if i came on board i would just be
41:43giving you the same advice i've kind of given but i would love to help you and however i can
41:48so i'm
41:49not going to be your business partner but i can be that person to call and this is going to
41:52be huge
41:53and you're going to be huge i think you need to keep going um but i am out but i
41:56wish you all the
41:57best but i will definitely help you thank you good luck fred cheers thank you thank you cheers
42:04sadly for fred he's failed to land any of the dragons though he has managed to secure a wing
42:12woman in jenna meek i love the idea of getting everyone out together and creating something
42:20it just wasn't something enough jenna was really helpful she gave me some advice about how to have
42:26mainstream appeal so expect to see more chickens popping 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 was
42:51born on the top of of a mountain in the french alps a nice bright packaging lip creams it's a
43:00lip
43:00brown definitely a lip brown 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'll show them so i
43:15did so i
43:17so yeah i feel quite proud i've got here hello dragons i'm rachel i'm a physiologist and i'm the
43:33founder of albus and flora a specialist award-winning skincare brand that provides targeted support for
43:41the lips and skin around the mouth i'm here today to ask for 50 000 pounds in return for 15
43:50equity in
43:51my business lines and wrinkles around the mouth thinning lips chronic dryness cold sores sunburn
44:01and lip cancer affect the confidence and comfort of millions of men and women every day uv exposure
44:09and sun damage are known to impact on these concerns however uv lip protection is not always
44:17used on a daily basis in people's skincare routines we've launched two products so far lip shield which
44:25is an spf lip balm and lip facial which is an exfoliating and plumping treatment mask we currently
44:32provide products to 370 aesthetic clinics spas and beauty salons we also supply direct to our customers
44:42via our website today 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 a bit of the end that's it rachel believes her targeted approach
45:39fills a gap in the ever-growing skincare market how do i how does it look that looks good
45:46but will the dragons be convinced by 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 so is this the health product versus a beauty product per se the spf is is a lifestyle
46:21product you know everybody's got a pair of lips and we need to look after them and how is this
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's like a lip sun cream then yes the the lip balm is yes because i put some of
46:56this 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 lips
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
47:08the lip balms are in the in the sticks so what is this what's that supposed to do so the
47:12lip facial
47:12is an exfoliating and plumping treatment mask so that is a product that we use so that's why that
47:22feels it's getting thicker it's swollen up could i ask you a question while at least you're playing with
47:28each other no we're not playing i'm just asking some quick very important questions just tell us
47:33about your qualifications in this sector well qualifications um i've been a physiologist for
47:38many years and supported british teams in three olympic cycles really looking at the impact of
47:45environment on health and you know physiology so my interest is so you know i own the trademark
47:52lipstick okay and i'm about to go retail with it later in the year cool so this is of interest
48:00yes
48:00cool just want to make sure you've done 695 000 turnover in total yeah so can you break that down
48:07so we could get an idea so the last three years in um 2022 we did 139 000 with a
48:16net of 41 which
48:17obviously gave us a 29 net profit and then in 2023 we did 143 turnover and 27 000 net um
48:30and then in
48:31last year we did again 140 and a 15 000 net profit profits have been going down yes is that
48:42because of
48:43marketing no it's a strategic decision by me because when we had that 20 29 net profit i knew that
48:51the
48:51decision to become a really specialized focused brand you know really supporting the professional
48:57retailers was working but i'm you know a single entrepreneur um with not a huge amount of working
49:05capital yeah and i needed therefore to prepare the business to scale so i wanted to put in foundations in
49:12the last two years to help me do that so i've got a new office um a part-time member
49:17of staff we
49:18launched the new product we did a rebrand and a refresh because i wanted to make sure the image was
49:24right for both um clinic market as well as retail look you've done you've done quite well i mean the
49:32product looks really great thank you we we do have it just so happens an experienced expert
49:41in the den today with jenna my question is actually not just to you because i don't know a lot
49:47about
49:48this market but it would be to jenna is are these sort of types of products widely available is this
49:53already out there yes i guess that was hi rachel and i think that's what i'm trying to struggle with
49:58is
50:00i can probably already find something similar yeah because it's a very crowded market
50:06i think one of the things that's um confused me a little bit is that kind of vision of where
50:10you
50:11see the brand going so like is this going to be spf everything will be focused around spf or will
50:17it
50:17be more focused around lips like how does the product range build from here so we've got a few collections
50:24planned 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
50:49upwards okay 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
51:02sephora but i think for you know sephora we would need to increase you know our kind of digital footprint
51:09first um 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 products 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 in
51:35a row super consistent and the reason being that i've invested in the infrastructure and the operations
51:41to get ready and i've not been able to do that at the same time as put money into um
51:47the sales and
51:48marketing okay so one of the things investors look for in businesses when they're trying to invest is this
51:53thing called the growth profile and the growth profile is essentially the history of the business
51:58and how the how it looks from a revenue or profit growth perspective yeah if it's flat it kind of
52:05suggests
52:05that the future could be flat um and i like businesses that have a good growth profile which
52:10is a challenge a lot of entrepreneurs faces when you're a solopreneur on your own you have decisions
52:15you have to make it's trade-offs and the trade-off that you you made was to focus on infrastructure
52:21and those things first versus the growth profile of the business i think it's quite important to make
52:27a different decision which is to focus on that growth profile because that will give an investor
52:31the 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 i'm
52:52going to be the same um you've created a great product um i'm struggling to see the size of the
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 readily available for me and i i buy it so i'm afraid it's not an investment for me
53:28i'm out
53:30thank 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 just
53:47stand out i think in terms of investment where i'm at is it's not something i feel like i want
53:55to
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
54:06like to throw you a lifeline because i do think this is a good product i will help you get
54:10this product
54:10in front of selfridges space and care sephora in the uk so that you've got that step to entry
54:18because you can tell how passionate you are i'm not going to invest i am out say i'm sorry but
54:23yeah
54:24i will help you do that step and you'll be able to take it from the rest okay that's a
54:28great offer
54:29yeah it's amazing offer thank you so much rachel um you are investable but that's not okay and that's
54:38where i'm torn and i'll tell you why i'm torn um i am launching a lipstick retail concept later in
54:47the
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
55:16yes i'm willing to give you the 50 000 pounds
55:22but i would want 35 percent
55:28um 35 obviously is is quite high for me as a brand and i know that i've most likely going
55:35to be
55:35multiple rounds to move forward to take the brand to where i want it to go so that's quite challenging
55:42would you be prepared to reduce that offer if you got your money back well if i got my money
55:48back within
55:4812 to 18 months down to 25 percent okay um would you be prepared to drop to um 20
56:0630 percent i'll go down to 25 when i get my money back
56:17okay that's a fantastic offer um i would be happy to work with you excited to work with you and
56:24definitely have great great great great great great we're going to be choosing yeah we can do
56:30it's a win for rachel thanks for all your time well done thank you she walks away with an offer
56:37of
56:37support from skin care savant jenna meek but it's touca sulliman who's put his money where his mouth is
56:45securing a stake in the business really excited
56:52just fabulous to get investment from tuca and yeah also absolutely lovely you know offer from jenna
57:00so i'm super grateful and humbled
57:05how exciting it was her that i really loved i'm investing in her as an entrepreneur well you've got an
57:14expert
57:19performance
57:25dragon's den will return later in the year perfect i think this is the first time in the den there's
57:32been more females than men i think this is what i've been looking for for a long time i just
57:38came out
57:38of being your worst nightmare i'm about to go back in again you're sassy i'm like go on go sell
57:43more is
57:44the way you work? Is that what you guys do as investors? I think this is a wonderful opportunity
57:49and that's why I'd like to talk to Tony. Hello Peter, I was hoping you'd say that. Am I happy
57:54to share with Peter? My business is to tell me I should not invest but my heart tells me I
57:59should.
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
58:13you back Gary.
58:43Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
58:44Yeah
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