The winners at the eight annual Dragons Den Meaford are the co-founders of a company that provides life stream video of sports events, festivities and other community events in the Meaford-area.
Russ Ellis and Chris Taylor, the co-founders of CRTE Live Stream and Video Productions, were awarded $12,000 Wednesday night from the five "dragons." Their ‘take’ was mostly in cash but some came in the form of business start-up service offered by Meaford businesses.
The second-place winners were Rob and Sharin MacLeod, owners of Last Radicals, a company they founded. The MacLeod's run a business printing logos, designs and messages on t-shirts, mugs and other items and sell them as souvenirs.
Rob and Sharin want to expand their business and call the spin-off Radicals On The Run. The new business consists of attending local events where they offer customers the chance to select a design representing the event. They then have that design printed on a t-shirt using mobile printing equipment. The MacLeod’s proposal won the support of the Dragons who advanced them $2,450.
Georgie Donais, a dance teacher from Thornbury, was the Audience Choice winner. Donais recently opened a dance studio in Meaford where she teaches ballet, jazz and folk dancing as well a new type of dancing called ‘aerial silks. ’ Aerial silks involves dancing up swaths of silk and hanging from them.
All the contestants, including those who received no money from the Dragons, received a "business boost." This boost came in the form of advice from the Dragons, the chance to appear in public to promote their business and coaching help from various local companies.
This year’s dragons were Cindy Gretton, Ross Kentner, Daryl Hindle, Rick Lorenz and April Stewart.