Cenabal Case
Executive Summary
Jennifer MacDonald is an entrepreneur who has a Canada based start-up company named Cenabal. This company is in organic food business and offers Omega-3 fortified salad and bread dipping oil. In July 2006, she decided to appear CBC’s The Dragon’s Den television series for more capital. From two investors, she got an offer of $200,000 investment. She was looking for a good strategy on how to maximize the leverage from this capital. The main options are either getting into the US market or improving the distribution channels in Canada for the growth of the company.
As an entrepreneur, she was in a lack of business and management experience. The two investors were not interested in involve in any of the decision-making. Plus she had an advantage on promotional publicity by this television show in Canada. Since it will be re-aired in December 2006, it is a sign that she may continue to develop her reputation and brand awareness. As a start-up company with a good amount of investment, she should first go for the Canada market to be an established company in the area. By this she can get experience, she can build her brand faster with the publicity advantage. After these steps, by the time the company is developed enough to have both financial strength and reliability, she can start production in the US market. But for a start-up company like Cenabal with these opportunities that can be used well in Canada, it would be a huge risk and waste of resources to get into US market.