Dragon’s Den spurn no barrier for Regina entrepreneur

A Regina entrepreneur with a freeze dried meals line expects explosive progress regardless of getting shut down on CBC’s Dragon’s Den.

Primed Warrior CEO Taylor Eiswerth hosted a watch celebration for dozens of attendees in Regina Thursday, regardless of figuring out the TV phase would finish with a thumbs down.

“Sharing my story of overcoming alcoholism, being an entrepreneur, and rising Primed Warrior even additional for the reason that Dragons’ filming has been unimaginable,” stated Eiswerth.

“To assume again the place we have been even simply six months in the past and the way a lot we’ve grown since then has been fairly surreal.”

Alcohol was getting the higher of Eiswerth till he sought assistance on September 19 2019. He and his spouse had their first youngster, a boy, precisely one 12 months later. By then, Eiswerth, who had a profession in gross sales, was already turning his curiosity as a client right into a enterprise alternative.

“With the turmoil and the whole lot occurring, and COVID and meals being scarce and ports shutting down, folks ripping meals off the cabinets, we actually felt the necessity for meals safety. So we went to buy some and we have been unable to,” Eiswerth recalled.

“All of the freeze-drying corporations in america have been so backlogged they could not get to us for a 12 months.”

Eiswerth began researching the freeze drying course of and began a enterprise out of his house. He leveraged his financial savings into shopping for business house. The enterprise has grown exponentially each previous to the Could 2023 filming of the episode and the time since.

“We began two years in the past packaging up freeze-dried meals at our kitchen desk and now we now have a 5,400 sq. foot facility that may package deal as much as 10,000 kilos every day,” Eiswerth defined.

“We’re in all main grocery shops throughout Canada and have grown 500% up to now 12 months.”

Loblaws, Sobey’s, Superstore and Federated Co-Op are carrying his product throughout Canada.

The Dragon’s Den hosts have been amused at the perfect earlier than dates in 2053, owing to the 30-year shelf lifetime of such merchandise. Some are small sealed packages of tasty “puffs” whereas others are giant sq. pails of staple meals, splendid for preppers.

The ‘dragons’ turned down the chance to spend money on Primed Warrior, partly as a result of Eiswerth introduced hazy monetary figures between gross and web quantities. He stated it was higher to get the publicity and never give up an excessive amount of data.

“I’ve already obtained messages of individuals within the east which are providing us cash and need partnerships. It is solely going to proceed. We’ve so many relationships which were began in america as properly. That is just the start.”

Bruce Marlow, president of Calgary-based Star Wholesale, has been doing distribution of Primed Warrior merchandise for a 12 months. He stated the product is “going loopy” though Marlow had his preliminary doubts.

“I used to be a bit of bit apprehensive. I’ve been within the enterprise for 30 years. There’s fads that come and fads that go. And I believed possibly it was a bit of bit faddy,” he stated.

“My group, then again, was throughout this. Everyone stated, ‘That is going to be the subsequent large factor.’”

Marlow stated the Primed Warrior puffs are well-liked and as soon as folks begin consuming they do not wish to cease. He stated Eiswerth is a “real” particular person and his smart strategy to the TV episode was paying off simply hours after it aired.

“I’ve by no means seen a man that is extra invested in what he does. In the long run, he may be brilliantly loopy,” he stated.

“I am considering we’re gonna get 5 – 6 shoppers that we have been engaged on for six months that already made cellphone calls at the moment. We despatched out 120 invites at the moment for various retailers to only watch this present. They’re already responding, ‘We noticed it, Find it irresistible. Give us a shout tomorrow.’”

Requested what recommendation he had for entrepreneurs, Eiswerth stated to “have religion.”

“Matthew 21:22 says you may pray for something, and you probably have religion, you’ll obtain it,” he defined.

“What might sound insurmountable, so long as you could have the religion and you set within the onerous work, you may obtain it.”