Two young entrepreneurs who grew up on the Sunshine Coast slayed the Dragons during their recent appearance on CBC’s Dragons’ Den.
Meghan Conyers and Quincey Samycia own Strongbody Apparel and were given three offers on Dragons’ Den when they appeared on the show that aired Oct. 12. They accepted an offer from Joe Mimran, the founder of Club Monaco and the man behind the successful Joe Fresh.
They were surprised to receive an offer from Mimran, and had been told that he had never made an offer to an apparel company before.
“The producers were shocked after we got our deal,” Conyers said. “It was the highest compliment and validation to what we are doing when he made an offer. In the Den he told us that the design, quality and differentiation of the brand was excellent, which has really given me the confidence to keep pushing for growth.”
Conyers started the company in 2012 and after two years of research and development she launched it in 2014. Samycia joined the company full-time last summer. Together the pair works from an office in Gastown.
Initially she focused on men’s active wear because there was a “huge gap in the market,” and more recently the company has expanded with women’s active wear as well. The active wear is quick drying, moisture wicking and odour fighting and made using “eco-friendly technology, which is harnessed from the shells of crustaceans.” The garments are sold mostly in the U.S. and in Canada and everything is made in Canada.
The Dragons’ Den offer they accepted was $200,000 for 20 per cent of the company; they also had offers from Arlene Dickinson and Manjit Minhas. They chose Mimran, Conyers said, because “Joe has first-hand knowledge on how difficult the industry is, and he knows how to scale a clothing company and everything that entails.”
The pair gave about a 45-minute pitch to the Dragons, which was edited to a five-minute piece for TV, “and it is edited for drama and excitement,” Conyers said.
Conyers said the pair were “surprisingly not nervous” going into the taping of the show. “I think it all came down to the fact that we went into it with the attitude of just having fun and having it be a life experience. We didn’t have any expectations, so we were not worried about getting a deal.
“With that said, you only get one pitch. They don’t do multiple takes so you need to know what you are going to say,” she said.
“I thought I might get nervous but the Den is quite small so it’s just like having a regular conversation and the cameras are in the dark; I didn’t notice them at all.”
Leading up to the pitch, the pair went through what they were going to say “probably 100 times and practised answering different questions we thought they might ask,” Conyers said. The pair watched the show for years and knew the type of questions they could expect. “We had everything on lock down, from our numbers to value proposition… Overall we were just super excited to have our episode air, as not every taping makes it to TV,” she said.
“After the taping, Joe’s people reached out to us, and we just met with him in Toronto last month. We mentioned on the show that we were in talks with an investor from the U.S. and we ended up closing that deal a few days after taping. Because Joe’s offer was a convertible note with a million-dollar cap, we had exceeded that and are now discussing a new deal with him.”
Conyers said coming off the Dragons’ Den pitch the pair are launching a full women’s line for next season and expanding the men’s line.
“We are introducing some lower price point items, which will be available online only. We are focused on growing our e-commerce business as well as wholesale,” she added.
Conyers grew up in Roberts Creek and Samycia grew up in Gibsons. The pair were married last year and were on their honeymoon when news came in that they had been selected to appear on Dragons’ Den. They filmed the episode in Toronto in April.
