About 40 minutes west of Halifax, in the town of Hubbards, Black Harbour Distillery staff and supporters gathered in mid-October to watch founder Jaime Landry appear on CBC television’s Dragon’s Den. The viewers had glasses in hand and fingers crossed. Landry, who had filmed the segment back in May, knew exactly what was coming.

It was “no” across the board.

Most people will never have her experience that spring day at the CBC studio in Toronto. Plenty of people will pitch for investment in their business, but few will do so in front of television cameras. Public speaking is fear-inducing enough. Pitching the business you put your sweat and tears into? Tougher. Doing it all under hot lights, looking up at your potential investors seated on a dais? Knowing it will all be released in clips online and on television? Well, that’s another level altogether.

She’s 25 years old now, but Landry was just 18 when she started to build Black Harbour Distillery (working with partners when she was still under the legal drinking age and for a time after). The jump into distilling was inspired by a mix of things: a visit to a batch maker in the Dominican Republic; her grandfather’s moonshine hobby; a school project that required creation of a business plan (she obviously went with a distillery start-up).

She shared it all with the “dragons”, the panel of would-be investors who are the stars of the CBC television program.

That included her experience of not being on the same page as her early business partners. She had to decide what to do, and ultimately borrowed $10,000 from her parents to buy her older partners out and then go it alone. There was pride in her presentation when she shared she was soon able to pay her parents back.

Black Harbour Distillery is still a young business. It has a line of products Landry openly acknowledges—per her vision for the business—are meant to raise eyebrows. The Lobster Vodka has drawn particular attention, aided by an appeal to influencers and the reach of social media. A Moon Mist Vodka has edible glitter in the bottle. They catch eyes on store shelves.

Landry has been happy with the response in the short time since her products were accepted for the shelves of the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC). A third product from the company now in NSLC locations is a 902 Blended Rum, inspired by her grandfather’s moonshine. The plan, she said on tv, reiterating the same to Atlantic Business Magazine, is to continue to build the retail presence.

She’s hoping to list more with the NSLC. Next steps include pursuing retail space in other Atlantic Canadian provinces. In the meantime, as it has to date, the distillery also sells direct and ships to consumers.

The dragons bowed out of an investment for different reasons. There wasn’t universal, personal interest in the beverage business to start. In one case, there were fears the products would be dubbed too “novelty”. Still, there were plenty of words of encouragement for Landry.

“Do not lose your sparkle”, said a particularly encouraging Michele Romanow, co-founder of Clearco and co-founder of the Canadian Entrepreneurship Initiative. Romanow has experience with e-commerce, tech development and digital marketing. She told Landry an investment from her personally would be “dumb capital” since she wasn’t as familiar with beverages and alcohol. She thought, going forward, Landry will be able to find better advisers. And she kicked in some personal reflections.

“I didn’t get 10 ‘no’s. I didn’t get 100 ‘no’s. I’ve gotten thousands of ‘no’s,” she said, while pressing Landry to keep going with the momentum she already has.

Landry said all of the panel were more helpful to her than was captured in the segment that aired.

At the viewing party, there was disappointment. But Landry – critical of herself immediately after the taping, and similarly disappointed – now says the whole appearance was valuable.

“A lot of the advice and feedback I got from there… I do believe was more valuable than the money I was asking for,” she told Atlantic Business. “It was a very good experience,” she said.

Landry has some advice for young entrepreneurs who may be thinking about going into business for themselves, but are afraid of the challenges sure to come. “Don’t overthink it and just go for it. (…) You can start a business at any age, and you’ve just kind of got to go for it. There’s so many roadblocks, but you just adapt and keep growing and you’ll figure it out I think if you have that passion and determination behind it,” she said.

She expressed gratitude for being in the province of Nova Scotia as well. She said she believes the province does a good job in encouraging youth entrepreneurs.

Black Harbour Distillery was far from the only Atlantic Canadian company to take a run at a Dragon’s Den investment in the show’s latest season. Newfoundland and Labrador-based raincoat and outerwear business Mernini’s owner Maria Halfyard was able to land a $500,000 investment from long-time dragon and business owner Arlene Dickinson. Another example is 7 Fathoms skin care, based in Grates Cove, N.L. and founded by Courtney and Terrence Howell. They successfully landed an investment. Atlantic Business will have more on the outcomes in the year ahead.

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