Our Dragons' Den Experience

In August 2020 we traveled to downtown Toronto to pitch to the Dragons. It’s difficult to describe the nerves you experience in the weeks leading up, but I’ll give it a try in this blog post. For about a month before filming we worked with our Dragons Den producer to finalize our introductions, the set, and overall plans. 

During the first call, our producer said something along the lines of… “I’m here to help you with your introduction elevator pitch, then after that, you are on your own in the den.” At first, we thought the show was more like tv, but it became clear it’s a natural fluid conversation with the Dragons.  

After this realization, we wanted to get a few simple points across to the Dragons. No scripts. No canned lines. Simply talking points to show them the opportunity. 

Key Points 

• It may sound niche, but we’re actually in the $billion+ shaving and hair removal industry.  
• We’re focused on natural products when the industry is generally full of acid or alcohol-based products for ingrown hairs. 
• Our sales and customer base is strong, and we want to grow it out further with our wholesale accounts (waxing salons, etc).  
• We have a strong team with systems in place to scale fast! 

Questions to Help Other Business Owners 

Q: What advice would you give another business owner trying to go on Dragons Den? 

We’d highly recommend practicing. The Bushbalm™ Team practiced answering questions and talking about our business strategy for months before. These conversations are generally easy to have with just your team, but when others ask they have follow up questions. We even made a ‘pitch-deck’ to talk through our strategy and pitch it to potential investors. This process helped us understand our business and the numbers behind it. 

Q: How nerve wracking is it in the Den? 

When you arrive at the filming studio you are greeted and given a room to essentially relax and wait your turn to pitch. As time goes on you get more nervous, but the producers at CBC do an excellent job to come around and hype you up. We had an amazing experience with the entire CBC team, as they are true professionals when it comes to the production of Dragons Den! We even got a sneak peek at some of the sets for Family Feud while on set. 

Q: Did you prepare set lines for the show? 

Not really. You prepare a lot for the first 30 seconds of the show with your elevator pitch, but after that, you are on your own. For us, we prepared by simply diving into every question we’d seen on previous episodes. This helped us prepare at a high level for what questions might come, so we could ensure we hit our main points! Our goal was simply to showcase the opportunity, our product-market fit, and our future ambitions with wholesale. We didn’t have any fabricated lines, as that felt too fake to us and we wanted to have a genuine conversation. 

Q: Is there an NDA process? 

Of course! This is a TV show and you don’t want to spoil anything. Signing an NDA was actually excellent for us, as it was the ultimate excuse to never tell anyone what happened! This just made watching the show that much more special. 

Wrapping Up

This entire experience was one we will never forget! We highly recommend any of the entrepreneurial readers looking at this right now to consider applying for Dragons’ Den. If you have any questions, drop them in the comments section below.

Be sure to tune in on Thursday, December 10th @ 9PM EST on CBC to watch our pitch.

Interested in trying our products? Shop our Dragons' Den Kit here.