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!

Thanks to the team at Call for Help, we were lucky to be on 2 different segments with host Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte. I presented JobLoft.com from the job seeker’s aspect and on the flip side, Lee presented JobLoft.com from the HR recruiter’s point of view. The show is on G4 TechTV. We will give an update when this show goes on air, so stay tuned!

Some interesting moments. 20 minutes before entering the studio I took a sip of my coffee and then SPLAT! coffee stain on my shirt (just my luck). Thanks to quick thinking from Lee, we were able to remove the stain using a bottle of water and elbow grease. Just imagine two guys pouring and rubbing water on the same shirt on the side of the street!

Shoutouts go to Mohit Rajhans for arranging our appearance and Mike Lazazzera for coordinating us backstage. I actually felt like a celebrity for that window of 2 hours (make up, coffee/snack table, waiting area.. the works )

Enjoy the pictures.

pic 1. Lee, Mohit, Me

pic 2. in front of the studios

pic 3. picture with Amber Mac on set

pic 4. lee, mike, me