About
Meet the Creator Behind Shop the Den
An independent platform built to make every business from CBC's Dragons' Den discoverable and shopable.
The Origin
It started with a simple question: "Where can I buy that?"
Garrett Gaudet has always been a big fan of CBC's Dragons' Den.
While watching the show with his girlfriend, Garrett would regularly find himself doing the same thing after a pitch: pulling out his phone, searching for the business, learning more about the entrepreneur and looking for somewhere to buy their products.
It sounds simple.
But finding the businesses wasn't always simple.
Some were easy to find. Others required digging through search results, social media profiles and old articles just to figure out whether the company was still operating or where its products could be purchased.
Eventually, Garrett had a thought:
That idea became Shop the Den.
What if every business that had ever appeared on Dragons' Den was in one place?
The Build
From an idea in April to more than 1,800 Canadian businesses
Beginning in April, Garrett started researching, designing and developing Shop the Den.
What started as an idea for a better way to find businesses from the show quickly became a much bigger project.
Garrett set out to build a platform where Canadians could discover the entrepreneurs they've watched pitch on television, learn more about their businesses and, most importantly, find ways to support them.
Today, Shop the Den features more than 1,800 businesses from across Canada, organized into a searchable platform where visitors can explore businesses by season, episode, industry, province, status and keywords.
And the timing couldn't be better.
Shop the Den launches September 9, just in time for the return of Dragons' Den for Season 21.
1,800+
Canadian Businesses
Sept 9
Launch Date
Season 21
Just In Time For
Both Sides of the Table
Entrepreneurship has always been part of Garrett's life
Shop the Den isn't Garrett's first experience helping entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life.
As a Business Professor at Fanshawe College and previously Program Coordinator of the Business Entrepreneurship & Management program, Garrett has spent years working alongside aspiring entrepreneurs.
One of the most memorable parts of that experience was helping facilitate the program's Dragons' Den-style Capstone project.
Alongside fellow faculty members, Garrett served on a panel of "Dragons," where students pitched the businesses they had developed in their Business Models course.
Students had to take an idea and turn it into something they could defend by developing their business models, understanding their customers, communicating their value proposition, and ultimately pitching to a panel.
In other words, Garrett has experienced entrepreneurship from both sides of the table.
He's helped aspiring entrepreneurs prepare their pitches.
He's sat on the other side of the table evaluating those ideas.
And he's spent years working with businesses through his own creative and marketing company, Strobe Creative.
Now, he's built a platform celebrating entrepreneurs who have done the same thing on a national stage.
The fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Finding a solution to a problem.
Shop the Den was created to solve a very simple problem:
The goal is to make it easier for Canadians to discover the businesses they've seen on Dragons' Den, learn where they are located, see what they do and find ways to shop and support them.
But there's a bigger idea behind it.
Every pitch represents someone who decided to take a chance on an idea.
Someone who built a product.
Someone who started a company.
Someone who put their business — and themselves — in front of a panel of Dragons.
Shop the Den is a way to celebrate those entrepreneurs and make it easier for the people watching at home to become customers.
Every Story Counts
Built by an entrepreneur, for entrepreneurs
Garrett understands the dedication that goes into building a business.
Through his work as an educator, entrepreneur and marketing consultant, he's seen firsthand how much work happens behind the scenes before a business ever gets its moment in the spotlight.
That's part of what makes Shop the Den meaningful to him.
Every business in the directory represents an entrepreneurial story.
Some became household names.
Some grew into successful companies.
Some changed direction.
Some are no longer operating.
But every one of them started with someone willing to take the leap.
Shop the Den exists to help people discover those stories — and, when possible, support the businesses behind them.
Made in Canada
Built in Canada. Built for Canadian business.
Shop the Den is an independent platform created by Garrett Gaudet and Strobe Creative.
It is designed to make it easier for Canadian consumers to discover and support businesses featured on Dragons' Den while creating a living resource for entrepreneurship enthusiasts, students, educators, entrepreneurs, and fans of the show.