Lyette Skrilec has been selling her high-end reusable shopping bags since last summer and is ready to enter the Dragons’ Den to expand her product line.
Her company Delight features reusable bags that not only bear fun, trendy designs but can also hold 100 lbs of steel. The bags have been bought and used for events like the Miss Hawaii pageant and even the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and are being sold not only across Canada but in France and in New York and California.
The next step for Skrilec is introducing a new line of bags after she received a demand for different sizes, which is where the CBC reality show Dragons’ Den comes in.
"If we can get on Dragons’ Den, we can get the exposure that we need and we would also like to get more bags into production so we’ll have more styles to offer," she said.
The show has Canadian entrepreneurs face a panel of investors known as dragons and pitch their ideas and businesses in hopes of one or more of the dragons offering to invest in their product. Auditions for the show were held Thursday at the Prince Arthur Waterfront Hotel and Suites.
"It’s pretty much a win-win situation to come on Dragons’ Den," said producer Molly Duignan. "If you make it on the show, that’s two million Canadians that will see your product that might not otherwise know about it. Even if you don’t get a deal from the dragons, it’s really awesome to see what the exposure of the show has done for people."
Producers have heard stories time and time again of how their appearance on the show has landed them investments despite not receiving anything from the dragons.
"It’s hard to find money in today’s economy, but it’s a unique opportunity to be on television and show off what you’ve got," Duignan said.
Last year, Duignan said they saw about 4,000 people across Canada during auditions. That number gets whittled down to about 300 who face the dragons and that doesn’t guarantee their pitch will make it to air. And just because the auditions come to a city, doesn’t mean anybody from that city will make it to the Dragons’ Den.
"We have no expectations; we pick the best and brightest," said Duignan. "If we hit a city and nothing is good enough, then nobody comes from that city."
And after five seasons, Duignan said the bar has been raised and they’re looking for people who can face the dragons and that need capital investment whether it be a start-up or an existing businesses, but just an idea isn’t going to cut it.
"I’ve never seen anyone write a cheque for a blue sky idea," she said. "If it doesn’t exist already, it needs to be in a really good idea stage. You’ve got have a prototype made. There’s got to be something tangible to represent what your idea is."
The sixth season of Dragons’ Den starts filming in late April with it airing in the fall. If anyone missed the auditions in their city, they can still apply online.
