You’ve got a deal: Brüst strikes gold in the Den

If you’ve already seen one of the ‘As seen on Dragon’s Den’ signs at your latest market, local vendor or grocery shelf, there’s another innovative product to add to your list. Brüst Beverages, a first-of-its-kind protein coffee beverage, struck gold as they closed a deal with Arlene Dickinson in the latest Dragon’s Den episode. Asking for $1.2 million for 25% in their scaling business, the Co-Founders Josh Barr and Amar Gupta, were offered three unique deals from Arlene Dickinson, Managing General Partner at District Ventures Capital; Manjit Minhas, Co-Founder and CEO of Minhas Breweries, Distilleries and Wineries and Wes Hall, Executive Chairman and Founder at WeShall Investments Inc., Kingsdale Advisors and The BlackNorth Initiative.  
 
Sharing their journey, Brüst came up with the idea when Barr and Gupta, former athletes and Ivey Business School graduates, struggled to get some protein and hot coffee in the morning to hit their macros and recover from their training while balancing their lives as students. The protein drinks they found in the market were chalky, grainy and overly sweet. That’s when Brüst was born in 2019. This protein-coffee beverage comes in two flavors power-packed with protein and little or almost no sugar in their drinks. Pitching their business to the Dragons, Brust shared how their product has been well-received by consumers and grocery stores as evident from $400,000 in sales in the last quarter, with presence in Walmart, Loblaws, and Costco. Currently valued at $4.8 million, the company expects for sales to skyrocket to $7.9 million as they enter more stores and create a stronger Canada-wide presence.  
 
With hesitations from the Dragons about the valuation, the deal offered and the projected total sales in 2024, the Co-Founders’ resilience and belief and long-term strategy of being acquired by a strong Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) venture stood out with the Dragons. With Arlene Dickinson offering $1.2 million for 28%, Manjit Minhas offering $1.2 million at 30% and Wes Hall presenting the most unique deal at $1.2 million for 30% and increasing it to 38%, if the venture fails to meet their 2024 total sales goal, Barr and Gupta didn’t shy away from negotiating and brought a counteroffer with 10% stake for each of the Dragons and $400,000 from each for a total of $1.2 million. The Dragons did end up sticking to their original deals considering Brüst’s early stage in this industry and the fear of having too many cooks in the kitchen during the early stages of building their business. The Co-Founders ended up bringing Arlene Dickinson onto their team. “We’ve come such a long way from making these products by hand to now being on the Dragon’s Den and having national distribution. It feels like we’ve really hit a milestone in our business,” shares Josh Barr.  
 
You can watch their segment here – https://www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/pitches/brust 

To know more about Brüst, visit their website here – https://www.brustbeverages.com/