Get a Grip said Daddy Bear

GripIt Fixings is an intoxicating story of boy dun good. Trouble is it has all clearly gone to his head.

There is no doubt the product has been a success but the hype is overdone. The business is now on Crowdcube valued at £13.5m.

If you check back over the last couple of years there is a trail of media crumbs that leads straight to Debs Meaden's door - the Dragon who put £80k into the business in 2014 for 25%.

Articles are rife -

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/dragons-den-contestant-becomes-one-4066626

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3459388/From-Pitches-Riches-Entrepreneur-10million-business-20-youngest-person-funding-Dragon-s-Den-appears-new-featuring-biggest-winners-losers.html

The problem is that the figures are not matched by the hype and the Crowdcube valuation is way ahead of the headlines claiming this business is now worth £10m.

Sales for YE Dec 2015 were only £335k with losses of £179k  - from a claimed distribution network of over 2000 UK stores. As you would expect the projected turnover rockets this year to by a factor of 9 - well it had to, to be worth over £13m. Future sales overseas are due to be epic - but they are for the future.

This business is a success, there is no doubt about that. At what level a success with a view to investment - well that is another matter. It seems to us that it is following in the Crowdcube tradition of being grossly overvalued at £13.5m.  

Someone is being very greedy and I think we all know who that is, Mummy Bear.

An interesting aside from this story is just how much money is needed to get a small business off the ground. Meaden has put in over £1m since her equity investment in 2014 - which may explain why she is so keen to see it back. Most small businesses raise £150k on here expecting that to be the end of their capital requirement, when in fact it is only the beginning.