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Dragons Den S23E07 iP H 264
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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 over five beauty jenna welcome back to the den no thank you for having
00:33me back i'm excited for today when i look into the eyes of an entrepreneur there is literally
00:37one thing i'm looking for it's their belief that their idea is going to succeed i can see in
00:42people's eyes if they're lying to me i know exactly what i can bring to a business so if there's
00:46a fight
00:47for an investment i will be absolutely fighting for it i love disagreeing with the dragons i really
00:52really do 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 ready made oats yeah but they're kind of they exist
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 oatco
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
02:04lifestyle and being a busy mum i found myself seeking nutritious convenient solutions and i was
02:10disappointed as to what was available on shelves this sparked the passion of me to create oatco superfuel
02:16currently in our range we have our just add milk overnight oat pouches our ready to eat overnight oats and
02:23our
02:23small bites with big energy superbytes and at oko we aim to fuel the everyday whether it's a school run
02:31a busy day in the office or a gym workout we are currently delivering to a strong community of
02:37customers through our shopify website nationwide as well as being stocked in over 150 retail stores
02:44and in the past seven months we've did 200k in sales with a 60 gross margin and 28 000 in
02:50net profit
02:52currently the market is more protein focused but we aim to disrupt the food to go market with
02:58natural energy that oats can provide and we've got balls excuse the pun now i've got some samples of
03:06our just add milk pouches for you to try and i'd love for you to try them a range of
03:14oat based food products
03:16is the offering from laura murphy that's what's that one that's a vanilla chocolate chip yeah thank you
03:22she's asking for 50 000 pounds in exchange for a five percent stake in her business how much protein
03:30is in the original so we're around six grams so it's just the natural energy however the other three
03:36we've added plant-based protein laura claims her oats stand out from the crowd you will notice under your
03:44chairs as well there's also some other products but in a sector packed with healthy promises peter jones
03:51is keen to know what makes this offering more than just a mouthful of marketing
04:00laura hi hello um so it's basically oats with bits in it to give you a super fuel is it
04:09so is it
04:10was it just protein or no so give me the so contents we aim to be different so how we
04:18feel
04:18at the moment is everything is protein lead however we want to focus on the natural energy from the oats
04:25okay and in what way is this different is anybody else doing this so i suppose it's difficult to say
04:32because we have three different products so there is three different competitors depending on which
04:38one we look at in particular in terms of the pouch product our point of difference is you actually
04:43prepare that in the pouch you can reseal take it with you and so that is the usp of the
04:51pouch product
04:51alone okay laura yeah your balls are absolutely banging thank you um when something tastes that
05:01good i worry that it's not good for my health yeah and i was looking at the nutritional information on
05:07on this packet but also on the on the balls as well are those the best balls you've ever had
05:13that is so
05:14good 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
05:19got 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 79. okay um and i've seen the overnight oats in tubs but i don't think i've seen the
06:12this one yeah is that yours that's our usp yeah okay so that makes it quite unique and yeah but
06:18if
06:18i was buying a sort of or standard overnight oat 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 the rest of dragons because i'm not super educated around kind of what
07:06i need to put into my body like i look at these packaging the first thing i look at is
07:10calories
07:11because 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 it
07:21every morning and being a busy mom as well like it it keeps me going throughout the day okay and
07:28then
07:28what is it you're looking for in a dragon to help with this business yeah so um like i want
07:34oko to
07:35be a household name in many regions particularly in the uk and ireland and i think with the dragon
07:40on board 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
08:02you've done really well this is like one of the most hotly contested markets if you go in anywhere
08:07there are loads 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 in fact 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 won't
08:54be investing but i'm out laura you are fantastic um but this is just a market that i'm i'm just
09:08not
09:08happy to invest in at the moment i think it's hyper competitive and um you're going to struggle
09:14with this at the moment so i'm going to say that i'm out laura i'll tell you where i'm at
09:22i think
09:23you're amazing you're so investable there's a lot of work to do with actually defining the purpose
09:29and that kind of vision like i know you want to own the natural energy marker but that's not a
09:34brand
09:34purpose that's what just that's i'm like why why like i still need to understand why what is natural
09:39energy why do i need it and i think that needs to be laser focused and i feel like
09:44i could offer so much help in terms of that in terms of the branding in terms of the lifestyle
09:49in terms of the persona i don't know the food market and that's just me being completely transparent
09:54at all so i am going to make you an offer but it's a bit of a wild card because
10:05there isn't any other
10:06offers yet you asked for 50 000 pounds for five percent i will offer you half of the money for
10:14seven and a half percent but i'd want to share with someone else that actually understands the
10:19food market 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 perfect
10:29but i want that help of the other side of the retail side as well perfect thank you very much
10:39laura
10:42i know retail yep yep um
10:48and i do like what you presented today
10:53um so i will also offer you half the money that's 25 000 for seven and a half percent
10:59if 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
11:18this industry um have a brand that came into the den that's making tens of millions now in just
11:23a couple of years from retail and actually one of the most useful things i could do
11:27is to sit you in a room with one of the investments i've made who exploded in the uk
11:34market and really understand how they did that yes um so i'm going to make you an offer because i
11:42think you're fantastic i'll offer you all of the money for um
11:5517.5 percent of the business
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
12:20within 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 well i'd love to accept your office thank you
13:02thank
13:04you so much thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much thank you so much i
13:11can't wait to work
13:12with you thank you see you soon bye victory for laura after tough negotiations she secures steven bartlett's
13:19backing her oat empire is officially expanding
13:28breathe i'm still catching my breath
13:33amazing 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
13:42and it is serendipitous you didn't you did look the same
14:02you didn't have any photographs my car kiss my helmet my name's john o'donnell and i'm joined today
14:09with my son jamie and we created screw caddy
14:15diy okay i'm definitely diy definitely diy i could do with a few more diy things
14:22what have you got peter got a toolkit you've got a toolkit what's the last diy you did peter
14:30i 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
14:40i feel like 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 and we form part of the
15:01family team who created screw caddy today we are looking for a 50 000 pound investment for a 40 stake
15:09in
15:09our business in 2020 during lockdown me and my mum were doing various diy projects in and around our
15:16home one of these projects in particular involved screwing a bracket to a fence for a hanging flower
15:22basket through this we had many deflected screws and it caused several near-miss injuries so we went
15:29out to see if there was a product on the market that could solve our issue but we struggled to
15:34find
15:34anything to solve our solution so as a family we'd go at trying to create up a product of our
15:39own
15:40so dragons the traditional method for uncertain screws is you secure the screw with your fingers
15:46while also trying to handle a power tool which is particularly difficult and can cause possible
15:53injuries however if you look at our product you can see that my fingers are away from the screw
16:00and 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're looking for that dragon or dragons who can ultimately put a
16:36screw caddy in every diy or toolbox thank you if you would like to come up the wood we have
16:42actually
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 this yeah now i've got that i'm just doing that while i okay all the
17:05way 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
17:24gets a nod of approval from the diy doyen of the den deborah meaden but it's tukka suleiman who's the
17:32first to drill down into 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
17:47so um have you shown this to any major retailers yes so the very first people we contacted was jml
17:58and he 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 you turned over anything
18:1980 pounds we saw 80 pounds yes all right so 80 pounds turnover but i can see you want to
18:27give away
18:2740 percent of the business yes so you you really want to entice a dragon yes jamie john
18:38um when i was watching deborah have a go at it it still looked it still looked quite dangerous to
18:44me
18:45i think because this screw when put in the biggest hole here is still really about five millimeters
18:49away from your finger still which means it could still you know hit the edge of the plastic and then
18:54hit your finger so i just wanted to see if you had a response on that point yeah i take
19:02your point
19:04about the apertures at the side of screw caddy you are a couple of millimeters do you agree with that
19:10because i don't sorry do you agree with that i mean it's your product and i'm about to defend it
19:16for you
19:17is there another answer to that
19:21he agrees with it so the danger is the wobble
19:28this stops the wobble okay so it's not the proximity to your thumb it's the fact that if the
19:35screw head wobbles to one side yeah then you're in danger that's holding it solid
19:42is that what you meant to say yes so that's what he meant to say my other point was around
19:48the
19:48combination of metal and plastic so what i did is i took the screw in and out over and over
19:55again
19:55yeah repeatedly like this yeah and the plastic has has worn off so now it basically doesn't fit anymore
20:02so what we've what the third party who done the development work with is 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'd get about 35 screws so when it's 35 screws yeah
20:22and how much does this cost 499. okay
20:26the equation is not great there being able to do 30 screws um before it breaks and actually i think
20:31the consumer will have a bigger expectation of longevity from the product
20:36why the question was about the the percentage yeah what's the the current shareholding between you
20:41guys there's three shareholders it's me my wife and jamie and it's just a it's a third share each
20:48okay which means that the dragon would be the major shareholder yeah we would strain we would
20:53change our structure obviously 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 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 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 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 um 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
23:32point 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 i know 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
24:14somebody 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
24:26so 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 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
25:12what 10 years ago 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
25:26it works and it's brilliant that was marksman pence they didn't know the numbers they haven't talked to
25:32the right people um but there was something about them and there was something about their product and
25:38apart 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
25:59thank you very much thank you
26:03i 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 report i 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
27:19a little bit more excited seriously i'm more excited than you at the moment come on a little bit
27:25yeah thank you thank you 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 in the team i can't believe it it's absolutely amazing
27:48they seemed in shock
27:52that was like yeah thanks
27:57i can't wait to tell mom i'm so proud of my dad because to see the whole journey come together
28:02like
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
28:24i 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
28:43dress 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 in 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 afford 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 percent of my
30:11business
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
30:41over 7 000 players across 50 countries with no full-time staff we've had over 5 million views on social
30:48media with barely any marketing spend i built the platform myself the tracking the booking system the
30:55scoring the lot it's scalable tech that can pop up in any city tomorrow i've proven it works now i
31:03want
31:03to grow with your help we can achieve global chicken domination a real world game of hide and seek with
31:12a tech twist using gps and a custom built app fred parry is reinventing outdoor play for the digital age
31:20thank you thank you thank you see you the entrepreneur is seeking an investment of 50 000 pounds
31:29terrifying in exchange for a 10 percent share in his feathered venture
31:35but will the dragons flock to the opportunity or cross the road to avoid it
31:45fred i can't work out whether you're looking for an investment or you're looking for a dragon to dress
31:51up as a chicken um very much looking investment to grow the game uh most of our games at the
31:57moment are
31:58team building games so someone dresses up as a chicken often the boss of a company perhaps um and
32:04hides okay so i'm trying to work out yeah what this business is um it's it's hide and seek for
32:13adults
32:13so 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 us 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
32:53so i had a bit of a disillusionment with that so i i wanted to prove that i could build
32:59one bit of
32:59tech where 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 single people yeah wanted to come
33:32and play this
33:32game 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
33:55you uh you get the tech and you play with your friends for 15 pounds per person
33:59in a team building setting or just for fun or sometimes with large companies they've got a big
34:05budget they just want to hassle free someone to come here hand over a chicken costume explain the
34:10rules and then you play the same game fred um how does this how does this get big what does
34:17big mean to
34:18you um big is getting into definitely at least every city in the uk as well as any city which
34:30has
34:30enough hiding spots in them and what does in terms of quantifying big what does that look like uh the
34:37the number i've had in my head is 100 games a day and if you did 100 a day what
34:41does that 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 i i mean
35:06i you know it's it's a cool funny eye-catching idea um and i can imagine my corporates would who
35:14were desperate to find the next thing and not do the old paintballing thing for corporate events so i
35:21can imagine them thinking oh that looks new and different um but if you're really going to leverage
35:25this business you need to become the place to look to the innovative ways of building teams don't you
35:32you know um so what what next what's your plans um at the moment my core focus is just grow
35:38outside
35:39of london 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 have to focus on one small thing at a time okay so
35:58you'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
36:10for each event fred hi i love adding the crazy into business but then on the flip side i hate
36:19organized
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 got everyone in
36:38london like hey do you want to go to pilates today you want to go get coffee or do you
36:42want to go and do
36:42this crazy thing i just saw got chicken rush like you get everyone doing it and then you pigeonhole it
36:48into corporate dating whatever you want and it's like yeah how do we make this bigger and
36:56how many people come back so once they've done chicken rush do they then delete the app or do they
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
37:43am i investing in a platform that has scale that's that's really the pitch that i think really would
37:48have swung me is something like that we have built that events platform in the background so a huge part
37:54of it is for all our dating events the thing you pitched to me today was a chicken game where
37:59people
37:59hide in pubs so true if it sounded different if it started with the the big picture of the macro
38:07loneliness epidemic people despairing at dating apps letting them down so we're building the
38:12platform for social competitive in real life games i would have been like oh here we go i rewrote that
38:18on sunday but then i got worried that you wouldn't understand what the game was so the whole pitch was
38:25all around us pubs are closing there is a loneliness epidemic that was the pitch that was the pitch the
38:31whole thing was the pitch the the key to the the key to pitching for me is you start with
38:35the why
38:35pubs have closed loneliness i would have been nodding like a dog yes yes and then you build it up
38:40and
38:40say that was our whole story made this and i go oh interesting but what you did is you started
38:45with
38:45the what you started with the chickens hiding pubs and i'm like the my my original pitch was just
38:51that exact story it might be the story but it's not the business either that you have
38:56that's the difference is it well it's not this is one this is a this is a chicken game with
39:02a gps
39:02tracking device yeah we get hundreds of people outside interacting um the whole aim and ethos of
39:10this is just try and get people outside and playing and meeting new people that's why i set it up
39:16anyway
39:16yeah fred look i think you've it's great i think that it it's a tough one to invest in
39:24it really is um and sadly i'm going to say that i'm out but but good luck to you thank
39:32you peter
39:37and i do think you need an investor but i think um i think it's going to be tough for
39:41you to get
39:41an investor based on what your pitch was today okay the chicken thing because it is it's really
39:46really fun and but it's also quite distracting uh in a way where an investor is trying to understand
39:52the potential and the scale of this business the coming in the way that you came in with the the
39:57chickens and that debra meaden and uh peter jones's face i mean that was distracting but the whole
40:02thing kind of diverted me from the real problem you're trying to solve here which i've managed to
40:06tease out of you which is loneliness connection bringing people together in real life in an
40:11increasingly digital world that's it um that's a that's an inspiring proposition but the proposition
40:17i saw today wasn't wasn't wasn't that so um i'm gonna say that i'm out but i wish you the
40:25very 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 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 i'm not interested in chicken chicken games at my age um i'm gonna
41:01say
41:02i'm gonna go back to my little cage yeah not invest and i'm out thank you then
41:14so i just panicked there i got your name wrong i was like no no it is um no i
41:19i just think you're
41:20great i think you're great and i think you're amazing and for me i feel like there is something
41:25in this chicken play but i think this needs to be blown up stronger make it massive and then you
41:33cash in with corporates with dating once you've made this chicken game a bigger thing i do generally
41:41feel that if i came on board i would just be giving you the same advice i've kind of given
41:46but i would love to help you and however i can so i'm not going to be your business partner
41:50but i can
41:50be that person to call and this is going to be huge and you're going to be huge i think
41:54you need
41:54to keep going um but i am out but i wish you all the best but i will definitely help
41:58you thank you
41:59good luck fred cheers thank you very much 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 i just wasn't something enough jenna was really helpful
42:24she gave me some advice about how to have mainstream appeal so expect to see more chickens popping up in
42:30other cities tomorrow maybe
42:45i'm rachel williams i'm from a small town in lancashire in the north of england
42:50and my business was born on the top of of a mountain in the french helps
42:57nice bright packaging lip creams it's a lip brand definitely a lip brand
43:03it's been a long journey and many many people said you'll never make it in this industry and being
43:10a northern girl i kind of thought well i'll show them so i did so um so yeah i feel
43:18quite proud i've got here
43:29hello dragons i'm rachel i'm a physiologist and i'm the founder of albus and flora a specialist award-winning
43:38skin care brand that provides targeted support for the lips and skin around the mouth i'm here today
43:45to ask for 50 000 pounds in return for 15 equity in my business
43:54lines 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
44:18in people's skin care routines we've launched two products so far lip shield which is an spf lip balm and
44:27lip 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
44:44today we have delivered 695 000 pounds worth of accumulated turnover and we want to develop a clinic
44:51and consumer brand that can be accessed globally thank you i can breathe now breathe i 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 feel the end that's it rachel believes her targeted approach fills a gap in
45:40the ever-growing skin care market how do i how does it look no that's good but will the dragons
45:47be convinced
45:48by her pout focused pitch so so have i got this straight that this is essentially the unique
45:58selling point of this business is that it protects my lips from sun damage yes and people don't realize
46:04how how much damage you can get from from daily uv and the lip is so thin and delicate and
46:12that means
46:12it dehydrates quite quickly and so is this the health product versus a a beauty product per se
46:19the spf is is a lifestyle product you know everybody's got a pair of lips and we need to
46:24look after them and how is this different from a lip balm because it's a broad spectrum uva uvb
46:30protector so it is what does that mean for a muggle like me that there's nothing about uv anything so
46:35it's
46:35going to protect you against the damage that uv rays can do because uv would come into the skin
46:41and it can impact on the cells physiology and function and sometimes that uv damage is is
46:47accumulated through your lifetime so it is like a lip sun cream then yes the the lip balm is yes
46:55because i put some of this lip balm on but what's weird this lip balm i've got a bit tingly
46:59and it
46:59feels that feels like my bottom lip's going thicker so so that that isn't a lip balm so that's
47:05the advanced treatment it's not a lip balm no so the lip balms are in the in the sticks so
47:10what is
47:11this what's that supposed to do so the lip facial is an exfoliating and plumping treatment mask
47:17it's plumping so that is a product that we use so that's why that feels it's getting thicker
47:23boiling up could i ask you a question yeah while you're playing with each other no we're not
47:29playing i'm just asking some very important questions just tell us about your qualifications
47:33in this sector well qualifications um i've been a physiologist for many years and supported british
47:41teams in three olympic cycles really looking at the impacts of environment on health and you know
47:48physiology so my interest is so you know i own the trademark lipstick okay and i'm about to go retail
47:56with it later in the year cool so this is of interest yes cool just want to make sure you've
48:02done 695 000 turnover in total yeah so can you break that down so we could get an idea so
48:09the last
48:10three years in um 2022 we did 139 000 with a net of 41 which obviously gave us a 29
48:18net profit and then in
48:212023 we did 143 turnover and 27 000 net um and then in last year we did again 140 and
48:35a 15 000 net profit
48:40these profits have been going down yes is that because of marketing no it's a strategic decision
48:45by me because when we had that 20 29 net profit i knew that the decision to become a really
48:53specialised
48:54focused brand you know really supporting the professional retailers was working but i'm you
49:01know a single entrepreneur um with not a huge amount of working capital yeah and i needed therefore to
49:08prepare the business to scale so i wanted to put in foundations in the last two years to help me
49:14do
49:14that so i've got a new office a part-time member of staff we launched the new product we did
49:20a rebrand
49:21and a refresh because i wanted to make sure the image was right for both um clinic market as well
49:27as
49:27retail look you've done you've done quite well i mean the product looks really great thank you we
49:34we we do have it just so happens an experienced expert in the den today with jenna my question is
49:46actually not just to you because i don't know a lot about this market but it'll be to jenner is
49:50are these sort of types of products widely available is this already out there yes i guess that was hi
49:56rachel and i think that's what i'm trying to struggle with is i can probably already find something similar
50:03yeah because it's a very crowded market i think one of the things that's um confusing me a little bit
50:09is that kind of vision of where you see the brand going so like is this going to be spf
50:15everything
50:15will be focused around spf or will it be more focused around lips like how does the range build from
50:22here so we've got a few collections planned so the spf products are all part of the daily care range
50:27the lip facial is also in the daily care range there's then the targeted care range this range
50:34will focus on supporting clients who've got inflammation you know when they're on acne medication
50:39solution-based you can yeah daily for everyone a solution-based yeah range and then and then
50:45third one would be targeting sort of 40 and upwards okay so if you had a magic wand what beauty
50:52retailers
50:53do you do you see this branding just i understand the vision yeah so i think the the more premium
50:58end definitely sort of liberties selfridges space nk sephora but i think for you know sephora we would
51:05need to increase you know our kind of digital footprint first um do your customers love the product yes
51:15they do do they tell people about the product they do um i'm not very good at sharing but they
51:21so they
51:21they love the product and they tell people about the products so why for the last three years has
51:26the revenue been stagnant i've almost never seen numbers like this where it's almost exactly the
51:32same for three years 140k in revenue yeah three years in a row super consistent and the reason being
51:38that i've invested in the infrastructure and the operations to get ready and i've not been able to do
51:43that at the same time as put money into um the sales and marketing okay so one of the things
51:51investors
51:51look for in businesses when they're trying to invest is this thing called the growth profile and the growth
51:55profile is essentially the history of the business and how the how it looks from a revenue or profit
52:01growth perspective yeah if it's flat it kind of suggests that the future could be flat um and i like
52:08businesses that have a good growth profile which is a challenge a lot of entrepreneurs faces when you're a
52:12solopreneur on your own you have decisions you have to make it's trade-offs um and the trade-off that
52:19you you made was to focus on infrastructure and those things first versus the growth profile of
52:24business i think it's quite important to make a different decision which is to focus on that growth
52:29profile because that will give an investor the confidence that they have enough growth to get a
52:34return from the business in future but the growth profile of the business is an amber flag for me
52:39and it i find it hard to see based on the last three years in the current year how an
52:44investor
52:44would get their 50k out and a multiple on the money so for that reason i'm going to say that
52:49i'm out
52:49but i wish you the very best thank you and rachel i'm going to be the same um you've created
52:54a great
52:55product um i'm struggling to see the size of the opportunity so sadly i'm going to say that i'm out
53:03um but yeah congratulations on creating a great product thank you
53:11rachel i think you've hit a market and you really really know your stuff and you explain it really
53:17well um but the truth of the matter is you are in a highly contested space this is readily available
53:23for
53:24me and i i buy it so i'm afraid it's not an investment for me i'm out thank 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 matters it's not something i feel like i want 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
54:06throw you a lifeline because i do think this is a good product i will help you get this product
54:10in front
54:11of selfridges space and care sephora in the uk so that you've got that step to entry because you can
54:19tell how passionate you are i'm not going to invest i am out say i'm sorry but yeah i will
54:24help you do
54:25that step and you'll be able to take it from the rest okay thank you that's a great offer yeah
54:29it's
54:30amazing offer thank you so much rachel um you are investable but that's not okay and that's where i'm
54:39torn 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
55:16yes 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 as 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 no
56:0625
56:0930 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
56:23and definitely happy to accept your great great great great great we're gonna be yeah yeah we can do
56:29work yeah i think so it's a win for rachel thanks for all your time well done thank you
56:35she walks away with an offer of support from skin care savant jenna meek but it's tuka sulliman
56:43who's put his money where his 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 so
57:00i'm super grateful and humbled how exciting it was her that i really loved i'm investing in her as an
57:12entrepreneur well you've got an expert
57:26dragon's den will return later in the year perfect i think this is the first time in the den
57:31there's been more females than men i think this is what i've been looking for for a long time
57:37i just came out of being your worst nightmare i'm about to go back in again you're sassy i'm like
57:42oh go on go sell more is that the way you work is that what you guys do as investors
57:47i think this is
57:48a wonderful opportunity and that's why i'd like to talk to tiny hello peter i was hoping you'd say
57:53that am i happy to share with peter my business you should tell me i should not invest but my
57:59heart
57:59tells me i should you sent us all off come here mates i'm so proud of you wow gary you
58:07teed that up as if
58:08we were teammates and then that's the most guilty i've ever felt in my life yeah no it's great to
58:13have
58:13you back gary
58:20you
58:24you
58:31you
58:35you
58:38you
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