Spark scholar and award-winning University of Leeds graduate Trib Gosain caught the eye of super investor Peter Jones on Dragons’ Den last night with his high-performance umbrella.
Trib, co-founder of Gilley Umbrellas with Reid Jacoby, weathered the storm of appearing before the multi-millionaires with his upmarket product and secured an investment offer from the BBC series’ original Dragon, who told them “you’ve invented something really clever”.
But in a dramatic turn of events, they refused Jones’ offer of £50,000 because they felt he would have too high a stake in their business by asking for a 20% share.
Trib and Reid were invited on to the programme last year by scouts who saw they had made a promising launch of their product with the online fundraising platform Kickstarter.
They started trading the product, an umbrella that can withstand up to 30mph winds and can be folded into a watertight case, in 2023 after which they reached sales of over £150,000 in the first year.
Reid points a powerful leaf blower at Trib to test out the Gilley Umbrella Trib is holding.
The University of Leeds had already recognised the entrepreneurial flair and determination of their International Business and Marketing student.
Trib, who graduated in 2020, said: “I hadn’t realised that the University supports entrepreneurs up to seven years after graduation. By complete chance I was still subscribed to Spark emails and I came across the one about the Business Plan competition. I entered the competition last year and came second in the Trading category, which was fantastic.”
Spark is a business start-up service based at the University of Leeds Careers Centre.
Trib received £1,250 and went on to impress the judges of the University’s most prestigious entrepreneurial award, the Sir Peter Thompson Enterprise Award, for his financial competence and clearly thought-out growth plans.
Everyone uses an umbrella and they have not really changed in the past couple of decades. It is an interesting space with a lack of great brands and no real innovation.
The £5,000 award helped Trib and Reid to refine the product still further.
“Everyone uses an umbrella and they have not really changed in the past couple of decades. It is an interesting space with a lack of great brands and no real innovation,” said Trib.
“This is an elevated product with a watertight case you can put in your bag or easily carry. So many people leave an umbrella out to dry somewhere and then forget to pick it back up again. They then have to go out and buy another one but they don’t want to spend much in case they lose it once more. We believe using a Gilley umbrella breaks that vicious cycle.”
When Trib and Reid were approached to appear on Dragons’ Den, they jumped at the chance to meet well known and highly successful business figures Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Steven Bartlett, Sara Davies and Touker Suleyman.
The Dragons’ Den experience
Trib described appearing on Dragons’ Den as an out-of-body experience. “We were on the show for about two-and-a-half hours and the filming is done in one take. They just continue to roll the cameras.
“We had done investment pitches before and knew what to expect, but when the dragons are there in front of you, it is quite different. When the dragons start responding and reacting to each other, you can feel the mood shift in the room. We were confident and wanted to keep it light but it was still a very intense experience.
“We didn’t speculate as to who we would like to get on board but we knew what deals we were prepared to take and we weren’t prepared to accept.
“We decided to refuse Peter Jones because he wanted a 20% share of the business and we felt it was too much.”
Leeds connections
Trib said that the support he got from the University wasn’t just about the money. He explained how the team at Spark linked him up with alumni James Butterfield from Chilly’s Bottles and Alexander Solomou (known as Solly) who co-founded LADbible with Arian Kalantari.
James started thinking about developing reusable water bottles whilst in the last year of his Management degree in 2010 whilst Solly developed the idea of a social media publishing business whilst studying business management from 2009–2012.
“Making those connections is even more important than the start-up money that you can win in the Spark competitions,” said Trib.
I’ve always believed Gilley Umbrellas had huge market potential and that Trib and Reid’s financial competence and clearly thought-out growth plans were a great asset that would impress the dragons.
Kairen Skelley, Head of Business Start-up at Spark, said: “We were all extremely impressed by the ambition to re-imagine and elevate a humble, everyday product into a contemporary aspirational brand.
“I’ve always believed Gilley Umbrellas had huge market potential and that Trib and Reid’s financial competence and clearly thought-out growth plans were a great asset that would impress the dragons on Dragons’ Den.”
Further information
Please contact Jane Lewis in the University of Leeds press office at j.lewis3@leeds.ac.uk
For more information about the Spark scheme email spark@leeds.ac.uk
For more information about Gilley Umbrellas, visit www.gilley.uk