The inventor of Rehook, the tool that reseats the chain of their bike without getting their hands or clothing dirty, has secured £50,000 in funding on Dragons’ Den in return for a 25 per cent stake in the business from the show's Deborah Meaden.
Initially, the Dragons seemed reticent about whether or not to back the product as Norwich-based Wayne Taylor made his pitch on the BBC show last night.
He explained that he came up with the idea for the product after his chain shipped on his way to a meeting and he arrived with his hands and shirt dirty, and showed the Dragons how it worked.
Theo Paphitis seemed unconvinced of its benefits and literally got his hands dirty showing how easy it was to reseat a change the good-old fashioned way.
But his interest – and that of the other would-be investors – was piqued by the fact that the product has already achieved sales of £150,000 since its launch a couple of years ago and ultimately all five made offers.
You can watch last night's programme here on BBC iPlayer.
Taylor developed the business with his wife Anna Taylor-Maughan, both also having to juggle it with their full-time jobs, looking after their two children and doing up their home.
Ahead of appearing on the show, he said: “The product seems to have a real Marmite effect on people, so it could go either way in the Den.
“I feel our numbers are good, so it’s really going to be down to the what they think of the product. I’m a bit nervous to say the least!”
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.