The candy-striped champions of Dragons’ Den on a mission to ‘pop’ their way to the top
Founders: Christian Hartmann, Martin McLaughlin and Poppaloppadingdong (previously known as Tom Callard)
Founded: August 2010
Website: www.lovedawebsite.com
Few will forget Love Da Pop’s colourful turn on Dragons’ Den. Presenting their candy-striped paper bags of home-baked, flavoured popcorn, the creative co-founders’ business plan may have been lacking but their innovation was evident – prompting Peter Jones to invest £70,000.
Fast-forward 11 months and the updated Love Da Pop range is about to launch in Waitrose; one third of the team has left their jobs at Saatchi & Saatchi and they are also looking to grow the events wing of the business (selling corn at pop-up cinemas and similar). With Branson-esque ambitions to extend the brand onto other projects (think Love Da Milkshake, Love Da Airline), no doubt this won’t be the last we see of these energetic entrepreneurs.
