Appearing in the Den has a tendency to change lives - increased sales, new distributors, and emails from across the country. We like to call it "The Dragons' Den Effect." Each week, Dragons' Den producers will follow the successes and track the big news, and give you the inside scoop on what happened to these entrepreneurs after their big debut. This week we checked in some of our hardworking pitchers from Episode 17.
The update special was a huge hit this week - and the team effort resulted in our top-rated show of the season so far! So what happened to the businesses featured?
Holy Crap
The now-famous couple from the beautiful Sunshine Coast of BC watched their update with 80 friends at the local Country Club - and Brian and Corin said they were absolutely thrilled to see their story on Dragons' Den again. Simply since announcing their segment would air in February - sales for February rose above $500,000 - compared to a report of more than $320,000 in sales in January. Holy Crap!
And, true to the "Dragons' Den Effect" they described on TV - simply being on the show literally crashed their website (again). Despite the technical difficulties, on February 29 alone, they had almost 10,000 new hits to their website. One store chain in BC reported they sell approximately 600 bags of Holy Crap per day. By March 1, 40 new small stores and an Atlantic Canadian chain placed orders.
7 Virtues
It was an exciting night for Honorary Colonel Barb Stegemann, who watched the show with her new military family at 14 Wing Greenwood Canadian Forces Base in Nova Scotia. Since Wednesday, online orders have come from across the US and the UK thanks to the power of the Internet. But the most unique news Barb had to report? A request came in for 7 Virtues to be presented at the London 2012 Olympic Games as a portion of the economic development presentation on behalf of Canada. The Bay stores were excited by all of the new customers and the phones were ringing with many men calling for the fragrances.
Caplanskys
Zane Caplansky says he couldn't be happier with his decision to go it alone - just this week, he says business increased by 40-50%. After Wednesday's show - Thursday and Friday proved record days at his restaurant and everywhere the truck went, and it was "crazy busy all weekend." Zane says he's constantly recognized from being on the show- and he's been flattered by all the public support. More than a dozen franchise inquiries poured in - and calls to book the truck at big events. Zane's hoping to have a second truck on the road in June or July. As for the franchise requests? Caplansky said he hopes in about a year he may explore the idea, but not quite yet. And while he's been hoping to serve up a sandwich to the Dragons - none have stopped by the restaurant...yet.
Easy Daysies
Elaine Comeau reports that "it just gets crazier here at the Easy Daysies HQ!" In a busy week leading up to the update special, Elaine traveled to the Canadian Toy Fair in Toronto and the American Toy Fair in New York where she was overwhelmed with offers of distribution and licensing deals. On the night of the airing, the Easy Daysies website had 12 new visitors per second and Elaine was thrilled to see orders flow in province by province. She received phone calls and emails from companies offering distribution and retailers asking to carry Easy Daysies - since the original airing in September, Elaine has tripled the number of retailers carrying the product! In addition, Easy Daysies has been nominated for two Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards. "We're blown away by the response," says Elaine. "I was absolutely humbled by what everyone had to say about Easy Daysies!"
Frogbox
Doug Burgoyne of Frogbox has had another busy week --- "We've had three times the amount of people go to our website in the past 5 days as the previous 5 days." And he's thrilled to report "1,800 people have went to our Franchise information page and 110 people fill out an application." Not bad!
Posted on Mar 6, 2012 9:42:04 AM
