First off, I want to say Thank You. Thanks to all the JobLoft.com supporters. We will use this opportunity to tell our side of the story. All we ask is for you to share our story with your friends, your relatives, your neighbour… anyone you can think of. We also want to hear your feedback, so feel free to add your comments below. If you’re making a blog post on your site, please use the trackback URL at the end of this posting.

As we always tell everyone, “there’s never a dull moment in the world of JobLoft”. In a nutshell, we had the money, the money was taken back, and we’re using this as a valuable learning experience. Please allow me explain in more detail.

From reading our last blog entry, no one could have predicted that we would end up without closing a deal with the dragons. However, the ending remarks from last blog that “‘success is not a destination…but a journey’, so hop on board, it’s going to be a fun ride” takes on a whole new meaning.

What we need to address first is that what was shown on TV was just a glimpse of what happened in that boardroom on a wonderful Halloween morning. Of course, it was edited for TV, and producers have a magical way making things look and feel a certain way for television. So what is being told here and now is the story of JobLoft.com “telling it how it is”.

From the taping of the deal in August and recalling the last thing Kevin said to us, “As soon as we finishing taping this show … I am in your face … I am in your face … Guaranteed! … and looking forward to it”. Trust us, no one was in our face. And that’s not necessarily anyone’s fault, nor are we blaming anyone. The dragons are busy individuals running their own corporations. A little different of a picture than what we originally imagined. 50% of your business to give up for partners who are tied up in their own businesses doesn’t quite bode well for JobLoft’s future. What ended up happening was that we spent a lot of time with lawyers and at the end of it all, left with a huge legal bill as a result.

Regardless of what the CBC portrayed during the show of Dr. Norrie (our advisor and former professor), the JobLoft team holds the utmost respect for Dr. Norrie, who comes from the high-tech industry, was an entrepreneur himself, and has immense credibility as a business person and as an academic. We are fortunate to have him as a mentor and we are willing to stand up for the best interests of the company. Does he have a vested interest in the company? Absolutely not. He has nothing to gain except to see his former students and now alumni, succeed in the business world as he did.

So what was our advisor trying to say that the CBC couldn’t (or wouldn’t?) show in a span of 3 minutes? Well, the dragons were talking about how to spend the $200,000 on marketing to employers ONLY. Dr. Norrie merely highlighted the fact that we should not focus only on employers but market to both job seekers and employers. Our company is unique, such that we need to market to both ends of the spectrum. Our advisor believes that because the dragons’ businesses require them to market to only 1 set of customers, they may not have been aware of this aspect of our company despite having a copy of our business plan. However, as some of you may saw, the whole thing sort of escaladed into something else.

Now it seems that we have a story of us, starting from scratch; getting investment and having the carpet pulled from underneath; all in a short period of time. We have to say that the outcome is for the best, and this was an excellent learning experience for all involved @ JobLoft. We are now able to seek greater investment, with a proper company evaluation that is not a made-for-TV drama, which will take JobLoft to a global playing field. So what did we do the day after that boardroom meeting? Business as usual.

Recently several leading venture capital and private equity funds have approached us indicating a strong interest in JobLoft. We’re open to ideas and we are not closing the doors on future investors. I guess there is sunshine outside the Dragons’ Den.

For the record, Chris Nguyen, CEO of JobLoft says, “I learned a lot about business when I was at Ryerson…but nothing prepared me for the harsh lessons about what can happen when things go so wrong, so fast. The coolest thing about it though, is that in retrospect I wouldn’t change a thing about what happened and learning is always a good thing. As we complete the search for appropriate investment partners in the coming weeks, I think the shareholders have realized that we are better off with this outcome than the alternative of a fractious board fighting about the right strategy for our company. I would never take an investment offer again without making sure everyone was aligned on the company strategy. No regrets, no hard feelings and my partners and I, and even our company advisors, all wish the Dragons well and hope they can say the same about us…”

We are very excited to hear all of your feedback on our involvement in the show and the turn of events. If you have any comments or questions, please leave us a note below.

If you would like to keep up with JobLoft, please feel free to sign up to either our press release distribution list or our periodic newsletter. Also, if you’re a member of the press and you’d like to know more about our side of the story, please email us at press@jobloft.com.

Finally, we are able to let the cat out-of-the-bag. It has been killing us @ the Loft not to talk about Dragons’ Den in great detail as we signed an NDA. Most people didn’t believe us when we told them that we didn’t know the outcome. They were right! Imagine trying to keep this a secret from everyone you know, including your own parents. However, not even we could have predicted what was going to happen once we’ve entered the Den.

JobLoft’s journey started early July. We actually heard about the Dragons’ Den auditions one day before they were wrapping up in Toronto. We figured… what’s the worst that could happen and started working on a presentation. Oh and of course, we went shopping for our famous Orange Ties!!!

The morning of, we went through our presentation and in all honesty, we were impressed with ourselves. So we get downtown to meet Sean Wise, who only heard about 30 seconds of our presentation before he started grilling us for information. We delivered the right answers and were invited to pitch to the Dragons. Thanks Sean!

Still living off the adrenaline rush from our audition, we took the advice we gained from the presentation and updated our pitch to the dragons. However, just days prior to entering the Dragons’ Den, we were advised that only 2 people were allowed to deliver the pitch. We didn’t let this phase us and the team tweaked the presentation accordingly.

Even though only 2 of us were going to face the Dragons, we all came out for support. Continuing our tradition of loyalty & team dynamics, our orange ties were again in effect. We arrived on set early morning and watched as people enter the Den. Some left crying, others with a sneaking smile.

As one half (Chris & Lee) enter the Den, the other half (Andy & I) was escorted to the waiting area. Let me tell you that was one of the longest moments in my life. I even tried to listen in on some of the stage crews’ headsets. Just before I made another attempt at trying to eavesdrop onto what was going on, we rushed onto the set as an offer had been put forth.

Now, being rushed into a serious and life changing situation, without being a part of the discussion and having to make a discussion is one thing, however, having cameras on you and recording every word you say is another.

Andy and I entered the room as Chris and Lee approached. Right off the bat, Chris says “we got the amount we want, but the catch is we have to give up 50% of our company to four of the dragons”. We tried to counter for 30% for $200,000.

It was a no go, but the fifth dragon (Jennifer) decided that she wanted a piece of the action too. It was a tough decision to make, do we take their offer and lose 50% of our company, or do we try to tough it out and operate JobLoft.com on our own. When we first decided to give up 15% of our company for $200,000, we only banked on landing 2 of the dragons. However, after seeing as how ALL 5 were interested, we’ve decided that even 50% would be well worth the tradeoff. After all, like Chris says, “would you rather have 100% of a small pie, or 50% of a much larger pie?”

Everything happened so fast, and before we knew it, the deal with the dragons was done.

The $200,000 will be a definite asset to the company, but the most important part is the intangible value that each dragon brings to the company.
We’ve watched the old BBC shows of Dragons’ Den in the past, and it’s usually 1-2 dragons who invest in a company. But to have ALL 5 Dragons believing in your company is truly something else.

To have the founder of La Senza, Boston Pizza and Mr. Lube on our side is truly priceless. Here are two successful gentlemen who understand the pain in recruitment and know our industry like the back of their hands. Not only did we get support from Retail & Food services gurus but, the other dragons understand technology & marketing and are gurus in their own respect.

The power of network, experience and business acumen is worth its weight in gold, far surpassing any monetary value. Not many 23-24 year olds out of university can say that their partners are Laurence Lewin, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O’Leary, Jim Treliving and Jennifer Wood in one sentence.

We definitely couldn’t have done this without the continued support from our family and friends. I still remember just a little under 3 months ago, we made our first major public presentation at DemoCamp with the help of David Crow. As the saying goes … “success is not a destination…but a journey”, so hop on board, it’s going to be a fun ride and this is just the beginning!