Just 12 months ago the three founders of Love Da Popcorn were working full time at advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. They wanted to start something themselves and spotting gap in the market for a range of unique flavoured popcorn without being heavily loaded with sugar.
The three founders are Christian Hartmann, Martin McLaughlin and Tom Callard seem totally mad but that's what makes the company really. The three brand experts have created exactly that, a fun loving, creative and slightly nuts brand for Love Da Popcorn and a lot of that image comes from the image of the three founders. They are looking to modernise and inject some life into the old popcorn treat and make it into a more modern mainstream snack.
On the 7th August Christian, Martin and Tom appeared on the Dragons Den TV show where they pitched Love Da Popcorn. They went in looking for £70,000 and they came out with exactly that after dragon Peter Jones was impressed enough to make an offer. The only problem is that in getting the investment they gave almost half the company away in equity, 45% to be precise.
The small business was built on the passion of the three young entrepreneurs, but after their grilling on Dragons Den a lot of questions were raised that could hamper there success. Thankfully they were able to raise the money they needed but more importantly, have the expertise of the world renowned Peter Jones on board, who can help take them to the next level.
The guys are very ambitious and there hunger for success will, I'm sure, go far.
"It's been harder than we ever imagined, but it's also a really exciting time for us. I don't think any of us understood how difficult it can be to start a business, but we now have an amazing opportunity to make Love Da Popcorn a household name".
.......................................................................................................................Tom Callard
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Check out their appearance on Dragons Den:
