The pitch
What walked into the Den
Nicole Duff, from Kamloops, British Columbia, pitched Slypod, a portable caddy for carrying pet waste on a walk.
After the show
What happened next
She got the investment, though on tougher terms than she pitched. Wes Hall offered the entire $50,000 but for a 49 percent stake, close to half the business, and Nicole Duff accepted. Getting funded meant surrendering far more of the company than the plan called for.
Our read
The Hub verdict
Read the equity, not the headline. Nicole Duff asked for $50,000 at 15 percent and got the cash, but Wes Hall's price was 49 percent, so she handed over nearly half the company to close a fairly small raise. That is a founder-unfriendly split by any reading, and it is the whole story of this deal.
Forty-nine percent for fifty thousand dollars only makes sense if the founder believes the Dragon brings something the money cannot. A single-purpose outdoor product has a narrow ceiling on its own, so what a partner is really selling at that point is retail access and manufacturing contacts, and Duff traded almost half the business to get them.
A tiny raise bought at nearly half the company
Worth knowing: The deal figures are reported from the episode.
