The pitch
What walked into the Den
Paul Therien, a mortgage broker in Vancouver, British Columbia, brought Haystax Mortgage to Dragons' Den Canada.
The pitch landed in Season 14, episode 2, which aired in 2019. Therien asked for $500,000 for a 20% stake, a request that valued the brokerage at $2,500,000.
After the show
What happened next
Michele Romanow backed the brokerage, putting in $500,000 for 30 percent, ten points more equity than Therien walked in offering.
The brand has since grown into a broader financial-services umbrella. The old Haystax Mortgage address now forwards to haystax.ca, a live operation with news dated through July 2026, several locations, and working appointment tools connected to more than 100 lenders. Read that as a rebrand and expansion, not a closure.
Our read
The Hub verdict
A $500,000 request for 20 percent values the brokerage at $2.5 million, a reasonable frame for a lending business whose worth rides on volume and lender relationships rather than a single product. Michele Romanow paid the full amount but priced it lower, taking 30 percent, and the founders accepted rather than hold out for their own number. Ten extra points is what a services business pays when its growth depends on a partner's reach. The brand has since folded into a wider Haystax financial-services umbrella, which reads as a rebrand and expansion rather than a retreat.
Romanow paid $500,000 but took 30 percent, not 20
