The taste of wild mushroom recently convinced some dragons to hold their breath and hand over their gold to a local company. Untamed Feast, owned by St. Albert-based Michelle and Eric Whitehead, appeared on CBC's Dragons' Den on Wednesday evening.
The taste of wild mushroom recently convinced some dragons to hold their breath and hand over their gold to a local company.
Untamed Feast, owned by St. Albert-based Michelle and Eric Whitehead, appeared on CBC's Dragons' Den on Wednesday evening.
The couple sells wild Canadian mushrooms and ready-made meals distributed at specialty stores across the country and online.
The company buys the mushrooms from a group of about 14 people that hunt for wild fungi anywhere from the Northern Territories to Vancouver Island and into Manitoba. All the mushrooms are handpicked and dried on the same day, and later packaged in St. Albert.
At the end of the show, the couple had three of the dragons make offers but they decided to enter a deal with Arlene Dickinson for $65,000 in return for 20 per cent ownership of the company.
"The only thing you can't really prepare for is speaking in front of the famous five. There is definitely a kind of star quality in the air," Michelle said a day after the show premiered.
"You can't really know what to expect until you get there."
At one point during the show, she added they had all five dragons interested in the company but Jim Treliving and Bruce Croxon pulled out at the end.
She said they decided against Kevin O'Leary because he wanted royalties. They chose Arlene Dickinson over David Chilton because of her experience in marketing, she said.
"We took a look at what we wanted most for our company. We have never spent a single dime on advertising or marketing," she said. "And we know that we have a great brand so we wanted the person who was the most skilled to launch that brand."
Whitehead said they will now invest the money into revamping their website and buying new machinery to semi-automate their packaging. They are also going to purchase pre-printed bags instead of putting stickers on every bag by hand, she said.
She added that, despite being known to be ferocious, Kevin O'Leary was very kind to them. The couple spent almost an hour talking to the dragons and a lot of the conversation is cut from the show, she said.
"I wish you could have heard more of the humming and 'mhh'," she said, referring to the dragons tasting their mushroom dishes.
"They really did like the product they tasted and a lot of the conversation they left out was also very complimentary."
Whitehead said she had several new stores contact her already, and sent out 40 online orders the day after the show aired. Her only worry now is that the mushrooms could run out – especially with a busy Christmas season ahead of them.
Aside from building their mushroom empire, the couple is also looking to invest more time in their second business, Wild Trader, a website that provides private individuals an opportunity to sell all things wild to buyers or businesses.
Untamed Feast's debut on the Dragons' Den can be seen at CBC.ca. More information about the company can be found at untamedfeast.com or wildtrader.ca.
