All this talk of Dragon’s Den got me thinking about Job Loft, a map based job website for the retail, food service, and hospitality industries.
For those of you who don’t know… Job Loft made a great pitch on Dragon’s Den, was offered $200,000 for 50% of the company, and had a bad first date with the Dragons, who by the end of the meeting tore up the $200,000 check. The clips are embedded for your viewing pleasure after the jump.
All’s well that ends well… and despite the Dragon’s Den debacle, Job Loft is doing great.
After one year in business they have already sold over 12,000 job postings – targeting industries with 67% turnover was a good idea. Job Loft is expanding across Canada – localizing the site into French to conquer Quebec. And a new hosted / embeddable job site has been added to the product mix. What about funding you ask? Well after the check was torn up on national tv, a number of investors came knocking – with a much higher valuation.
An exception to the Dragon’s Den Curse? Maybe. I would attribute it to their positive attitude. From their blog: “So what did we do the day after that boardroom meeting? Business as usual.” And sure, Job Loft is in a monstrously competitive industry, but a laser focus on being “the #1 destination in Canada for online recruitment within retail, food services, and hospitality” has served them (and their customers) well. My guess is that the dragons are kicking themselves for not investing in Job Loft.
Contact: Chris Nguyen, Director of Business Development
That’s a sad state of affairs. I would have went with the Dragons. One owns Boston Pizza and the other La Senza, those are major brands in Canada and they know other people who would come on broad as paying customers with their reputation at stake. True, $200,000 isn’t much but it’s enough to get them through the transition that the dragons wanted to do and who knows, they might have invested more money in the end.
That’s a sad state of affairs. I would have went with the Dragons. One owns Boston Pizza and the other La Senza, those are major brands in Canada and they know other people who would come on broad as paying customers with their reputation at stake. True, $200,000 isn’t much but it’s enough to get them through the transition that the dragons wanted to do and who knows, they might have invested more money in the end.
You know, “The Dragons” really promoted the fact that they have a lot of connections and that their existing businesses could use JobLoft to promote it, but I think it is pretty short sighted to believe that giving up additional share of your company (to the point of 50%) for those reasons.
Laurence Lewin and Jim Treliving are two very successful canadian retailers. They are more successful than any of us, that is for sure, but they are also only successful (in their flagship businesses) here in Canada, and their businesses only have a relatively small market share. In North America, their market share is tiny.
Why would you give up your company at a premium so that you can get a couple of mid-size niche businesses as clients? Wouldn’t JobLoft be better off trying to earn their own clients (rather than buy them, with JobLoft shares). Being the Boston Pizza and La Senza exclusive recruiting site would, quite simply, alienate other potential clients. That is a huge issue in fast food, especially here in Canada where the market is very fragmented.
Would you pay $200,000 in order to get a handful of clients paying you a couple hundred dollars each? It just makes no sense at all.
Also, you are right, after having 50% of the company, the dragons most likely would have wanted to invest more. In fact, they probably would have issued a new controlling share class, and then would have promptly bought up vast majorities of it, diluting the founders out of the company (don’t let the door hit you on the way out).
You know, “The Dragons” really promoted the fact that they have a lot of connections and that their existing businesses could use JobLoft to promote it, but I think it is pretty short sighted to believe that giving up additional share of your company (to the point of 50%) for those reasons.
Laurence Lewin and Jim Treliving are two very successful canadian retailers. They are more successful than any of us, that is for sure, but they are also only successful (in their flagship businesses) here in Canada, and their businesses only have a relatively small market share. In North America, their market share is tiny.
Why would you give up your company at a premium so that you can get a couple of mid-size niche businesses as clients? Wouldn’t JobLoft be better off trying to earn their own clients (rather than buy them, with JobLoft shares). Being the Boston Pizza and La Senza exclusive recruiting site would, quite simply, alienate other potential clients. That is a huge issue in fast food, especially here in Canada where the market is very fragmented.
Would you pay $200,000 in order to get a handful of clients paying you a couple hundred dollars each? It just makes no sense at all.
Also, you are right, after having 50% of the company, the dragons most likely would have wanted to invest more. In fact, they probably would have issued a new controlling share class, and then would have promptly bought up vast majorities of it, diluting the founders out of the company (don’t let the door hit you on the way out).
Jevon, great point. You have to wonder what JobLoft’s valuation is now (with the founders still in place)!
Jevon, great point. You have to wonder what JobLoft’s valuation is now (with the founders still in place)!
I find the arguments around the actual AMOUNT of investment to be quite naive. So what if the Dragons offered 200 k for that split- 200 k was just the START of the journey– and they would have been in position to either place more money within the company OR RAISE it…
and can raise capital a heck of a lot more easily then their four orange tie-d partners. It’s also laughable that the prof wouldn’t have recognized and invested in the concept. So far, and i’ve only made a few enquiries, but I haven’t been able to track down any guideline or policy that says profs can’t invest in school projects. Also– they were graduates– not students– had BEEN students a few years ago. So what’s stopping him from coming onboard now?
I find the arguments around the actual AMOUNT of investment to be quite naive. So what if the Dragons offered 200 k for that split- 200 k was just the START of the journey– and they would have been in position to either place more money within the company OR RAISE it…
and can raise capital a heck of a lot more easily then their four orange tie-d partners. It’s also laughable that the prof wouldn’t have recognized and invested in the concept. So far, and i’ve only made a few enquiries, but I haven’t been able to track down any guideline or policy that says profs can’t invest in school projects. Also– they were graduates– not students– had BEEN students a few years ago. So what’s stopping him from coming onboard now?