The pitch
What walked into the Den
Elliot Kimelman, a Winnipeg factory worker, brought C-Spray, a wearable insect-deterrent spray, to season 14, episode 8.
He opened with $100,000 for 10 percent, pricing his young product at $1 million.
After the show
What happened next
He left with a deal that cost more than the sticker. Michele Romanow gave the full $100,000 but for 40 percent of the company, and she layered a 10 percent royalty on all future retail sales on top, per CBC's own reporting at the time. Funding came with both a bigger stake and an ongoing cut.
Our read
The Hub verdict
The royalty is what makes this deal expensive. Elliot Kimelman got his full $100,000, but Michele Romanow took 40 percent instead of the 10 he offered and attached a 10 percent cut of all future retail sales on top. A royalty layered over a large equity stake is about as founder-heavy as Den terms get, and it is the real cost of the raise.
What Romanow bought is a seasonal, weather-dependent consumable whose fortunes ride entirely on retail placement, which explains why she wanted an outsized stake and a cut of every sale rather than one or the other. For a Winnipeg factory worker with a single product and no shelf space, handing over 40 percent to get into stores is a rational trade. It also means he works for a minority of his own upside from the day the deal closes.
Full raise, 40 percent, plus a royalty on every sale: a heavy price to close.
