Rejecting Dragons & Raising Investment with Daniel Pawson from Sea Chips

"I've done a lot of pitches and it was just an experience that I don't think that you can replicate or ever go through again. I'm glad I did it but it was just horrific, it wasn't fun! It was very surreal. I've been watching since I was a kid and then you walk into that den and you see these people you've been watching for so long...it was just crazy! I wouldn't do it again!"

Dan started his career by working as a chef at three Michelin star restaurants, and also later became a private chef to celebrities like Kylie Minogue after winning several cooking competitions across the UK and overseas. However one thing that stood out for him was the tremendous amount of food waste that he saw over his career. Therein lay the idea for using recycled salmon skin to make consumer-friendly snacks, just over two years ago now.

So, Daniel and his business partner, Dominic Smith, decided to ask fishmongers in the UK for salmon skin as it has the perfect thickness and comes in high nutrition wise after being cooked: 63g of protein per 100g and full of omega 3's.

Really interesting story, you may have just seen Daniel on Dragon's Den, turning down an offer of £30,000 for a 35% stake. He had already had an offer from an entrepreneur called Johnathan Brown who's now a shareholder of food startup Sea Chips, who also owns 10% of the salmon market in the US and has over 30 years of salmon processing experience.

So, a pretty amazing mentor and investor to come across!

Let's StartUp!