hello I'm Melissa Snover at the head
magician and founder of the magic candy
factory today I'm looking for an
investment of 80,000 pounds in exchange
for 2% of my business
the magic candy factory is the world's
first and only 3d food printer to be
certified and safe for live public and
commercial use people can write words
make 3d shapes or even upload
photographs to create their very own
sweet selfie I made a few of you guys up
here magic candy factory launched its
first printers into the market in 2016
in April and since then we've deployed
over a hundred machines in different
retail travel and entertainment venues
across the globe but in addition to that
we're launching a new concept and
personalised supplements so people will
go online and they'll be able to choose
seven active ingredients from 27
different options across minerals
vitamins probiotics and then we will 3d
print them they're customized vitamins
and send them in the post with less
inconvenience less cost and less waste
the future of wellness is 3d I hope
you'll agree and I made you some
examples and I can show you here
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customized candy as well as personalized
vitamin supplements are the offerings
from Melissa Nova
she's looking for 80,000 pounds in
return for a two percent share in her 3d
printing business if I kiss the Frog I
like it you might you never know you
never know a fairy tale taste test very
nice
but touka Suleiman wants to go back to
the very beginning of the story
Melissa yes how did you start with all
this so I started making candy about
seven eight years ago because I'm a
vegetarian and I couldn't find gummy
candy without gelatin that tasted good
and so I came up with my first consumer
brand goodie good stuff I sold goody
good stuff about two and a half years
ago to a large conglomerate and at the
end of that one of my biggest
frustrations was that you couldn't make
customized products in a normal factory
so the magic candy factory was my vision
to allow the consumer to create their
own product and how much you said your
company for unfortunately it's
undisclosed I'm not allowed to say what
we sold it for was in the millions
yes where would I find this in the UK we
actually leased the printers to a retail
outlet for a period of time so it was in
stores nationwide for Christmas what
they'll be machine you what the is the
bits of a machine yes so I want some
vitamins I go on your website and I say
I'm short of iron I'm sure of this I'll
be calculated but you'll say you need x
y&z and we'll put you on a year
subscription yeah that's great and then
we will send them in the post there'll
be lots of options so one month will be
one price three months will be cheaper a
12-month subscription will be less
impressive thank you to potential
sources of revenue for Melissa who's
made a good first impression on the
Dragons now Jenny Campbell wants to find
out exactly what's brought her to the
den you're a successful businesswoman
thank you you had a business and you
sold it for many millions so I'm
intrigued first of all as to what you
want a mere eight two thousand pounds
for why do you need I want a dragon so
what I really want from this experience
and the reason I wanted to come on was
that I'm about to go into two markets
that are not my specialty so vitamins
and supplements and direct-to-consumer
totally digital online business and so
really would like to have the expertise
of someone who has more in those areas
so it's more about the building blocks
for business the basement
business that's exactly right yeah only
that sorry yep hi Melissa hi how are you
very well thanks and vitamins has been
my business for many many years and just
going with your vitamin machine at the
moment how long does it take to produce
a pack right now we're currently testing
at five minutes for a one-month supply
it is still a prototype and we do hope
to be able to get it down to about three
minutes but for a one-month personalized
vitamin at the moment that cost price is
still messing us about a 50% margin Wow
in terms of customization I see things
going there I don't know if it is today
but it definitely is moving towards that
direction yeah praise for Melissa's
product from the vitamin King who
appears to share her vision for the
future of supplements but touka Suleiman
wants to drill deeper into the mechanics
of her business how much money have you
raised to get this off the ground the
original investment that was put in from
myself and my other shareholder or the
other director was around about a
800,000 and who and who all the
shareholders just myself and my business
partner Bastion foreseen how much do you
have the business 10%
you own 10% yes oh who owns the rest he
does is he an active shoulder no he's a
passive shield yeah so what is he doing
he has his own candy business based in
Germany which is very old about a
hundred years old he has a lot of
responsibilities catchers Melissa surely
if he owns 90% of the business yeah he
should have been here
well he didn't feel like he needed to be
here today the day I run the company and
the entire operation but I mean do you
have the mandate to negotiate yes yes I
do the revelation the Melissa only owns
a 10% chunk of the business has given
the Dragons something to chew on and
Peter Jones has spotted something on her
candies packaging which could further
sour the mood in the den so the product
here and the guy that owns captures is
that right yeah this is his branding yes
it is yeah I know they in the UK no
they're not in the UK no and is this
almost like a division of their company
then no I don't see it that way it's all
what do you use their brand their brands
not known here in the very beginning we
called it magic candy factory on its own
and as it started to grow we both
decided we felt it was a good
opportunity to also raise awareness
about catches and at the end of the day
hang on hang on this is all words so I'm
gonna break this down because I'm good
at this I don't buy it
there is why don't buy it is that you've
got an investor that isn't here today
and owns 90% of the company and you're
putting his brand on a product that he's
got nothing to do with apparently well
he does have something to do with it
because he made it possible for us to
get to market where did the money come
from
did he personally put the money in or
did he use his company vehicle to people
money is in the business through the
company right okay you're now a division
of his global operations actually that's
not true because all of the major
decisions that would happen within the
company require unanimous agreement
between myself it's do it's still
irrelevant because he hasn't personally
invested is the other person named on
the shareholders agreement it is says
his name you're a business woman you
know exactly what you're doing here you
are a subsidiary in the UK of his
business I really don't see it that way
but I understand your point but the fact
about the facts are true though that's
true if you've got a shareholders
agreement hey I do yeah one second so
don't worry I'll find it you've seen
lots and lots of shareholders agreements
there we go
just to be absolutely clear this is not
agreement room you and mr. foreseen this
is an agreement between you and catcheth
that's actually pretty catastrophic as
far as I'm concerned catchers basically
own this business and they've
incentivized you with 10% to be their
manager
I've also invested and I know it's not
an unusual structure in a private equity
type arrangement and that's what we've
got here it's not one I want to sit as a
junior partner in I'm really sorry
Melissa I'm out
a blow for the entrepreneur who has lost
her first dragon
Melissa's pitch is in danger of
imploding is touka suleiman sufficiently
enthused by the technology to overlook
the contentious german connection i
think we are just coming to a new
revolution freely printing and just as
you fought about vitamins there'll be
something else
the more vitamin machines we're at the
beginning maybe you've done great
however the sheer structure concerns me
it's just complicated
and I've got I want a simple life at my
age so for that reason I'm not getting
this amount
I mean having said that your successful
businesswoman I'm now going to say
actually I find you come into the den
today on the basis of this proposition
very naive
you've sold a business okay when you
sell a business you as the owner go in
front of the buyers and you sell that
business but mr. foreseen he's not even
here
so I'm going to declare myself out more
disappointment for Melissa as a second
and a third dragon declined the chance
to invest does Peter Jones find the
notion of a tie-in with the absentee
Willy Wonka any more appealing I like
the idea of 3d printing I like this
moving forward but whatever deal can be
done it's impossible to get away from
the very issue that control will always
exist with the very person that is
actually branding on the back of your
product I'm now going to be an investor
in a subsidiary of a conglomerate that's
not what I want right I'm sorry to hear
that honestly this is really not the way
that it is in real life
nobody's it is in real life so for that
reason sadly it's not for me and I'm out
four dragons have walked away from the
deal only supplements supremo Taz Levani
now remains will his expertise in this
particular market allow him to identify
an opportunity that the others have
missed
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I need to ask you one question yes would
you go into business with someone you
haven't met without mr. foreseen we
would have never brought they've got
these two products to market
I know that he is very excited about the
opportunity to work with someone
specifically you that is very
experienced in vitamins this is just not
how I do business
yeah if he owns 90 percent of the
business and I'm gonna be coming in as a
partner I need to know who he is and
what he is and what he does and what his
plans are
it's absolutely senseless I mean to come
in with it with a proposal like this I'm
really really annoyed about it at the
end of the day I'm not in the den to be
investing in subsidiaries of corporates
I'm investing in people and you don't
control the company so I'm gonna say
this is not for me I'm out thank you
guys so much
Melissa must leave the den with nothing
her deal with the German candy giant's
may have enabled her to turn her 3d
vision into reality but it also
scuppered her chances of snaring a
dragon certainly wasn't the sweetest
deal we've had in the den masterful
I feel disappointed that the main focus
of the discussion was around the
ownership of the business and not around
the incredible innovations that we've
developed the products are what we are
most proud of and I was really glad to
see that they liked them in the initial
instance
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you
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