The owners of a South Surrey-based business are happy with the response they’ve received after appearing on an episode of CBC’s Dragons’ Den.
Safe Sweat owners Emre Ozgur and Andrea Kloegman, who appeared on the show Sept. 28, have had several franchise inquiries, interest from investors and plenty of new members at their flagship Grandview Corners location.
Although one of the “dragons” on the show did make an offer, “we respectfully declined,” Ozgur said.
“(Dragon Vincenzo Guzzo) gave an offer of $575,000 and we said ‘no.’ That was for 33 per cent of the business… we came in with a higher valuation,” he explained.
”Unfortunately (Guzzo) was increasing the equity he wanted too much.”
READ ALSO: South Surrey’s Safe Sweat creators headed to CBC’s Dragon’s Den
Ultimately, he and Kloegman are happy with the exposure they received from being on the show, despite so much material being cut by the time it appeared on TV.
“We wanted to show Safe Sweat to millions of people and we were able to do that in one night,” Ozgur said.
One of his biggest takeaways from their TV appearance, Ozgur said, is “that we are doing the right thing.”
“After the show we have had probably 25 times the traffic on our website, we have more calls, more inquiries… we’ve had hundreds of people that have reached out telling us, ‘You guys have got something special, keep going,’” he said.
Ozgur said he and Kloegman still intend to franchise, likely as early as next year, and are in discussions with a few different groups about “certain locations in Canada,” while they also also recently launched Safe Sweat Online Coaching, he shared.
“I know what SS is capable of… we know for sure it’s going to happen,” said Ozgur.
“We believe Safe Sweat’s going to be a global brand within five years.”