Young entrepreneur Jordan Daykin starred on Dragons’ Den and has now become the show’s biggest ever success story with a business worth £10 million.
His company, GripIt fixings, originally began in his garden shed in Wiltshire when Daykin was only 13, assisted by his grandfather Stan.
In 2014 aged 18, Daykin then appeared on Dragons’ Den with his universal plasterboard fitting, securing an £80,000 investment from Deborah Meaden and becoming the youngest ever contestant to bag an investment in the Den.
He even negotiated Ms Meaden down from her initial demand of a 30 per cent stake in the business to 25 per cent.
Since then, GripIt fixings has been taken to ‘the next level’, with the product now stocked in 2,000 UK stores and exported across 32 different countries. The company is set to launch in Australia next month, while deliveries for the US are expected to ship in July.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Daykin said, ‘For me the best things about all I have achieved so far is seeing my granddad’s face light up each day when I tell him what’s new, and the sense of achievement we get looking out onto his garden shed where it all happened.’
His rags-to-riches tale is set to be featured in the upcoming series Dragons’ Den: From Pitches to Riches, which looks at the biggest hits and misses of the show’s 13 series.
Catch the show’s debut this Sunday on BBC Two.
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