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DRAGON’S DEN
A brainy businessman who was once snubbed by Jason Priestley could become a star after landing a gig as a finalist on the next season of hit reality TV show Dragon’s Den.
Website creator Sean Alexander – one of six Calgary contestants to make it to the last round of the CBC investment contest – is out to hit the big-time with his Internet database wheresmystylist.com. He hopes the site will eventually include listings for every hair stylist and salon in North America.
Alexander, a sales manager with J & A Solids Control, went to junior high in Vancouver with Beverley Hills 90210’s Priestly, but the future heartthrob was too cool for Alexander, preferring Sex Pistols records and "being arty" over chatting with him. Plus, those were the days before Alexander discovered the importance of a good haircut, sometimes sporting a mullet and general sloppy mop.
Now he’s out to nab his piece of the limelight – as well as $250,000 in investment cash – by selling his idea to a panel of feisty millionaire judges, a.k.a. Dragons, on the Den. Ex-champion mountain biker Alexander, 34, teamed up with pal Chad Kroeker last year to create the website, designed to offer women the inside scoop on their city’s best salons and stylists. "I’m very excited," says Alexander, who gets his hair trimmed every two weeks at the Black Market salon on 1 Street S.W. "I think I stand a good chance at taking home the money."
Wheresmystylist.com offers photos of individual stylists and details of where they are working, as well as a directory of hairdressers who speak specific languages like Lebanese or French. Users can give reviews and share experiences. "What woman hasn’t been devastated after losing a stylist or having a bad haircut?" says Alexander, who once worked as a sales rep for shampoo companies. "Some people will travel hundreds of miles for the right stylist."
Alexander, along with roughly 180 other inventors from across Canada, are currently being filmed in their bids for investment cash, though results will not be made public until the show airs in October. Only the most interesting pitches will be televised.
This year the contestants, with sometimes wacky creations like a pet bike basket, stainless steel gravestones and biscuit treats for horses, will make a three-minute pitch to a panel of investors including the owners of Boston Pizza and La Senza lingerie.
The Den’s producers have already tipped Alexander as one of the competitors to watch, after he beat out more than 2,000 hopefuls for a slot on the show.
"I have to tap into the investors’ greed factor and convince them I can make them money," Alexander says. "The producers said the site has a sexy feel about it. It also has what’s called ‘the first mover advantage’ in the industry – meaning I’m the first person to bring this to the market."
His site, set up with Kroeker in March 2006, has received two million hits from 50,000 different people. It makes money through selling banner ads to salons. Alexander once earned $2,500 in six hours selling ads to Calgary salons. It is currently free for salons and stylists to register their names and photographs, but Alexander plans to charge for some of the publicity one day. "There are 1.6 million stylists in North America. At $1 per stylist per month, we could be making millions every year," he says. He is also hoping the site will sky-rocket in value, following in the footsteps of Calgary’s Bruce Livingstone who banked $50 million last year after selling his website istockphoto.com.
If Alexander gets the $250,000 from the Dragon’s Den panel, which also includes two IT whizzes, it will be used for a publicity blitz throughout Alberta and B.C. And, if they like his idea enough, they could offer more.
Tune into CBC this fall for a chance to see Alexander and his fellow inventors make their bids.
Visit www.cbc.ca/dragonsden for more details.
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The original Dragon’s Den television series was created in Japan and aired between 2001 to 2004. It has since been copied and redeveloped by TV companies in several other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Israel, the U.K. and the Netherlands.
In Canada, Dragon’s Den has been a runaway hit for the CBC and is its fastest growing program, regularly drawing more than 650,000 viewers. |
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