Thursday, March 28, 2024

Comox man lands deal on Dragons’ Den

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In a striking last minute turn of events, a local entrepreneur struck a deal with a dragon on popular television reality show, Dragon’s Den.

James Flawith, from Comox B.C., showed up to the Dragon’s Den platform with a small army of neon-clad children, modelling the outfits made by his company, Lil Worker Safety Gear. 

The goal? To get one of the venture capitalists on the panel to invest $75,000 in his company in return for a 20% share in his company.

Because growing up is tough work

The idea behind the company – manufacturing safety vests and jackets for children – comes from Flawick being a father of 3 who was shocked by the lack of safety gear made for kids.

He identified this gap in the market and decided to do something about it, in order to prevent more kids from getting hurt in traffic accidents.

Some roadblocks before the happy ending

The panelists – Arlene Dickinson, Joe Mimran, Manjit Minhas, Michele Romanow, Jim Treliving, and Michael Wekerle – were initially full of positive comments about the bright outfits and Flawick’s passion for the cause.

However, most of them expressed realistic concerns about the high price of the product, and low barriers to entry in the market – a larger firm could easily get the same idea and sell similar vests at a lower price point.

But in the end, Manjit Minhas (co-owner of Minhas Breweries, Distillery and Wineries) made an offer he couldn’t refuse – $75,000, for 33 and 1/3% of the company – and thus, the deal was struck!

We can’t wait to see what the future holds for Flawith and his lil workers!

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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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