CBC's Dragons' Den Auditions in Vancouver

On Friday afternoon I had the opportunity to sit in on the judge’s panel at the Vancouver auditions for the popular CBC series, Dragons’ Den.

It was lovely to see the talented producers once again since I first met them when I did Test the Nation in Toronto as a part of Team Blogger in 2008. I also met Trent Kitsch from Saxx Apparel who was the Concrete Equities Armchair Dragon Award winner last year.

I was there for a handful auditions from locals who all had unique business ideas – here are a few that stood out…

Madison on Main
A consignment store on South Main that sifts through clothing goods to provide only the best, top name-brand apparel at a healthy discount – website.

Gear Drop
A “valet service” for your stinky hockey gear so that you can leave it at the rink and pick it up again before your next game. They’re currently running out of 8 Rinks in Burnaby – website.

Banana Guard
Back from a stint on a previous season of Dragons’ Den, the Banana Guard guys introduced Froot Case and Froot Guard – going beyond the banana for protection of fruit – website.

Photo by: dEEsignphotography / For: BananaGuard

Glyde
Glyde condoms are flavoured, thin, smooth, and 100% vegan – website. It was indeed an interesting follow-up to the Banana Guard presentation.

VentureWire.com
Free, real-time stock quotes from every North American exchange – website.

Clifford T Melia
I didn’t want to take photos of Clifford’s invention since he hasn’t patented it but he was a charming man from the Chilliwack area that came up with a great device – hope he makes it to the show in Toronto.

Widemouth Brewing
The pitch wasn’t all about the beer, it was about a new design concept for the brew’s container – website.

BC companies have done well on the show in the past so it will be interesting to see if any of these ventures make it to the show, and in front of the Dragons. This year’s Dragon from Vancouver is Jim Treliving, the CEO of Boston Pizza and Mr Lube, who will be joined by a panel of others on the show.

You can head to the Dragon’s Den site to check out and rate video of some online ideas and pitches. Vancouver auditions are open until 4:00pm today.