A local entrepreneur’s proclamation of bringing a “revolution” to meat flavours has landed him a deal on CBC’s Dragons’ Den.
Troy Biever, creator of the Flavor Fork and owner of Panago Pizza on Bellerose Drive, visited the CBC’s Dragons’ Den last April to ask for a $200,000 investment for his invention. The barbecue utensil helps flavour meat by infusing marinade or sauce into it, rather than spreading it on top.
Last Wednesday, the show aired and revealed that Biever had struck a partnership with venture capitalist Arlene Dickinson.
“We do an infomercial around it, we make it a direct response TV spot,” she said on the show. “We pay for the spot so you don’t have to do anything and I pay you a five per cent royalty on what I sell until you have your $200,000.”
In a previous interview with the Gazette, Biever said he came up with the idea of injecting meat with a sauce before it’s cooked in 2011. Thanks to help from St. Albert’s Northern Alberta Business Incubator (NABI) and Nova NAIT, he launched the product in the summer of 2012.
The fork is now being sold across Canada and locally in select Home Hardware and Canadian Tire stores, as well as at D’Arcy’s Meat Market. It costs between $20 and $25.
On the show, Biever admitted that there are other injector needles on the market but they are not everyday items, and don’t have as many functions as his fork. The fork’s prongs can be detached and be replaced with a brush or spatula, or it can be used as a bottle opener.
“What I’ve done, I’ve taken the commercial idea of it and brought it to the consumer level,” he said.
Biever also declined a deal with investor Bruce Croxon who wanted a 50 per cent partnership and offered to get him in touch with a major barbecue utensils distributor. The other dragons did not make any offers.
