entrepreneur Jaydon Manders, who along with his brother Brendon secrured a £90,000 investment from guest dragon Emma Grede, 42, for 20% of their company Lumberjaxe, has opened up about the “surreal’ experience of standing in front of the captains of industry on the show.
Speaking exclusively to he said: “I think we were just surprised about how warm the dragons were to us, because… everyone knows the dragons and how brutal they can be.
“And then we set our pitch, and all the dragons just kept saying good things and good things and good things. And every time there was a slight criticism, it was like, ‘well, actually, well done for this, but you could do this better’.
“So it was just surreal. Everything was just surreal the fact that they were saying all these positive things about us,” he said.
The duo appeared on the show seeking investment for their Lumberjaxe all-natural barbeque sauces and seasonings business, which they began with just £100 each and have turned into and successful enterprise with upwards of 70 stockists, including Selfridges, and a £150,000 turnover.
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Brothers Brendon and Jaydon Mander received investment from guest dragon Emma Grede (Image: Lumberjaxe)
Although they have already made a huge success of their business Jaydon admits he didn’t expect the dragons to invest saying: “We just went on the show not expecting to get anything, and then somehow walked away with investment.
“We put the application form in, and to be completely honest I just put one sentence answer to the questions, because I never thought that we were going to get on. But you’ve got to fill it in.
“And then a few months after that, I was getting the phone calls with the producer of the show,” he said.
Peter Jones appears an obvious choice for the brand given he famously helped make Reggae, Reggae sauce such a huge success but Jaydon says Emma was actually the perfect investor for them.
“Although we never thought this at the time, out of those six dragons that sat there genuinely, she was the best dragon that we could have ever had.
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Emma Grede was welcomed as a guest dragon on BBC Dragons’ Den (Image: BBC)
“We finished filming [the episode] in June, and by October, all the paperwork was signed…Since that point, we’ve met her in London God knows that many times.
“I’ve got a WhatsApp group, so we’re instant messaging to her, and…she’s always posting ideas in there. She’s really, really, really hands on… just planning things.”
Still unable to believe their luck, he continued: “To be completely honest with you, that’s probably something that we don’t deserve. So we’re completely over the moon that she’s able to spend all this time with us and give us loads of advice, considering the businesses that she’s worked with [before].
“Although people might not see it, and we’ve most certainly didn’t see it when were there on the show, she is quite experienced when it comes to food [products].”