By Teena Monteleone

P.A. boys invent unique ramp; impress Dragon’s Den investors

Mar 9, 2017 | 4:00 PM

It took about four years for Donny and Dean Jackow to perfect their invention.

“It’s a 14-foot tilting flat deck that can convert into a trailer in a couple of minutes without any tools,” Donny Jackow said.

The brothers from Prince Albert, Sask. are welders by trade. The product called the “Braaamp” was just in the prototype stage when their cousin told them the popular reality TV show Dragon’s Den was holding auditions in Saskatoon. They were eventually invited to Toronto for a taping of the show. The series offers aspiring Canadian entrepreneurs an opportunity to pitch business and investment ideas to a panel of five venture capitalists in the hopes of securing financing and partnerships.

“We kinda knew they were going to bite on it because it is such a good product,” Dean explained.

It took the brothers a matter of minutes to convince businessman Jim Treliving and tech entrepreneur Michele Romanow to invest in the Braaamp. To help ramp up their sales, the brothers agreed to accepting $150,000 in exchange for 10 per cent of gross sales and two per cent after.

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“We were blown away,” Donny said. “It was shocking to hear them offer us money and say they wanted to be a part of it.”

The brothers plan to hire a few more people and start mass producing the ramps in Prince Albert.

“We don’t want to manufacture anywhere else,” Dean said. “We want to support our local community and give our kids and their friends jobs in the future.”

Since the show aired earlier this week, the Jackows said the phone at their welding shop, Dee-Jacks Custom Welding, has been “off the hook” with offers from across the country.

“We have dealers across Canada that are begging for them right now because nobody has seen anything like them.”

teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TeenaMonteleone