A Scot who invented a snack as a last minute entry for a food festival has landed a $100,000 (£57,000) investment on the Australian version of Dragon’s Den.
Glaswegian Crag Carrick crossed a chicken nugget with a doughnut and came up with the Donug.
It went down so well at food festivals that he took the idea to TV show The Shark’s Tank where businesswoman Naomi Simson said she could see it being sold at “every sports ground”.
Crag, 36, was a well-known face in the Glasgow music scene before he moved to Melbourne in 2011.
He started out as a bouncer at King Tut’s and later built up the live music venue Bloc.
The idea for the Donug came about when he was working as a consultant, troubleshooting on short-term contracts in the hospitality industry.
At the start of the year, one of his contacts asked him to work on a chicken nugget festival.
The event needed more exhibitors and he was asked if he had any ideas.
Speaking to BBC Scotland news website, Crag says: “I had an idea and bought some chicken from the butcher on the way home.
“My wife is a phenomenal chef of high repute in Melbourne – high above the nugget sphere.
“But she is also married to a Scotsman and knows my tastes well.
“I have cooked her up chicken pakora, a Chinese-style chicken curry you only really get in Scotland, tattie scones and black pudding.
“So we messed around with a few recipes and different spice combinations.
“After a few aborted attempts we came up with the Donug, then we made some sauces. One of them is the Glasgow chicken curry.”
They had five days to turn it around for the festival so they roped some friends to help make 1,000 of them and set up a stall.
The Donug was a runaway success and sold out in about six hours.
Customers were already talking about them on social media and asking where they could try them next.
After the event, Crag did some homework.
He registered the name as a trademark and then tried another event.
The same thing happened.
After spotting an advert for the Australian version of Dragon’s Den – The Shark Tank – Crag tried his luck with an application.
He says appearing on the show was “daunting”.
“You have no rehearsals, you don’t get to meet anyone beforehand,” he says.
“Businesses go on this looking for investment and at that stage I didn’t really have a business.
“I just went in and spoke about my belief in the product.”
The sharks were initially not keen.
Investor Andrew Banks, internet entrepreneur Steve Baxter, pet firm Greencross founder Glen Richards and Boost Juice founder Janine Allis decided not to invest.
However, RedBalloon founder Naomi Simson surprisingly offered the pair $100,000 for 25% of the business.
Crag thinks the whole experience has been worth more than the cash injection.
He says: “I just thought if I get a deal from this it will be great protection. No-one will try to steal our idea if we have been on this show.
“And it has opened so many doors. We have had lots of great enquiries from really big players, medium players and small players.
“I’m not reinventing the wheel, not trying to change the world. I am just doing something that is fun.”
Source: BBC news
