The pitch
What walked into the Den
From the tiny community of Grates Cove, Courtney and Terrence Howell brought 7 Fathoms and its coastal seaweed skincare to the season 20 panel in episode 4.
Wanted $100,000 in return for 12 percent, pricing the business at roughly $833,333.
After the show
What happened next
Business coverage of the episode has Manjit Minhas countering at $100,000 for 20 percent, which the couple accepted. The money stayed the same while the ownership stake they parted with grew by two-thirds, a common Den trade of control for a believer at the table.
Our read
The Hub verdict
This is a textbook Den equity squeeze. The Howells opened wanting a tenth of the company for their raise, and Manjit Minhas kept the cheque identical while lifting the stake she took to a fifth, which quietly repriced the business down to half a million. Same money, two-thirds more ownership gone.
For a coastal skincare brand that harvests its own raw material off the Newfoundland shore, absorbing that haircut in exchange for an operator like Minhas is a reasonable trade, and the aftermath backs the decision, with a live storefront running products from roughly twenty-five to sixty dollars. Seaweed skincare has a supply story most beauty brands cannot tell, which is worth more in a buyer's meeting than a few points of equity.
Minhas held the cash and nearly doubled the equity taken.
Worth knowing: The accepted terms come from a business-news writeup of the aired segment.
