Jordan Daykin

Jordan Daykin (born 6 July 1995), is a British businessman and entrepreneur. He is best known for his 2014 appearance on the BBC Two business programme Dragons' Den, where he became the youngest and most successful entrepreneur to win investment[1] when he secured £80,000 from Deborah Meaden for his plasterboard fixing invention.[2][3] He was called "One of Britain's Leading Young Entrepreneurs" on City A.M.'s list of 100 Most Powerful Entrepreneurs in the UK in March 2016.[4]

Jordan Daykin
Self-portrait photograph
Born (1995-07-06) 6 July 1995
Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationThe John of Gaunt School
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forDragons' Den, GripIt Fixings

Early life

Daykin was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, where he attended The John of Gaunt School.[5] His parents split up when he was nine; Daykin lived with his father until he was 13, when he moved to his grandparents' bungalow because his father went to Sierra Leone for work. At the age of 13, he left school to be privately home-tutored.[6]

Early businesses

Whilst still in school at the age of 12, Daykin founded his first business, RS2Services, which sold game accounts and virtual currency to fans of fantasy role-playing game Runescape.[7] A year later he started his second business, a nationwide tutoring agency called Tutor Magnet.[8]

GripIt Fixings

In 2008, shortly after Daykin moved into his grandparents' home, he and his grandfather Stanley Daykin set about converting the garage into a bedroom for him. Daykin wanted both a blackout blind and a curtain rail to ensure no light could break into the room.[9] After Daykin and his grandfather broke several fixings and drill bits attempting to hang the curtain rail, he went to the local DIY store to find a better solution, but could not find anything suitable. That afternoon they both went to the shed, and created the GripIt invention. The fixing was soon successful in mounting a television on the wall, and Daykin spotted a gap in the market. Four years later a patent was granted for GripIt and the invention was taken to market.

In 2014, Daykin appeared on Dragons' Den and secured an £80,000 investment for 25% of his company from Deborah Meaden.[10] By 2016, GripIt Fixings were stocked in over 3,000 UK stores and exported to 32 countries.[11]

In February 2016, Daykin raised £2 million from a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube to fund the rapid expansion of the GripIt Fixings business abroad.[12] In that month his net worth was estimated to be £10 million.[13]

In July 2019 Daykin resigned as a director of UK Building Products Limited and left the company.[14] In November 2019 the company successfully filed for a voluntary insolvency.[15] GripIt has since secured a license deal with Charles Bentley a global distributor based in Loughborough.

Other businesses

Since 2017, Daykin has been sole director of VPS Group Limited, a company operating in the automotive sector.[16]

Television and reception

After Daykin's first appearance on the BBC Two business programme Dragons' Den in August 2014, he appeared on ITV's This Morning television programme. On 28 February 2016, he appeared on the BBC Two programme Pitches to Riches which looked at Dragons' Den's biggest success stories.[13]

gollark: I can get by fine without Windows-specific stuff.
gollark: It's not unusable. It's just bad.
gollark: I mean, the HDD and never-changed thermal paste probably didn't help.
gollark: And one of my parents has (they're replacing it now, though) a ~10-year-old laptop which ran glacially slowly.
gollark: I used it for several years when I was a foolish younger person.

References
  1. Burn-Callander, Rebecca (17 August 2014). "19-year-old becomes youngest entrepreneur to win backing on Dragons' Den". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  2. "From Dragons' Den to £10 million business: Meet the show's biggest ever success story". Metro.
  3. "Grip it Fixings". Deborah Meaden.
  4. Green, Emma Haslett, Harriet. "The 100 most powerful entrepreneurs in the UK". cityam.com. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  5. "Former Trowbridge pupil and Dragons Den star's business now worth £10 million". Bath Chronicle. Archived from the original on 24 February 2016. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  6. "A 19-year-old school dropout has just won £80,000 investment from Deborah Meaden on Dragon's Den". Management Today.
  7. "19-year-old becomes youngest entrepreneur to win backing on Dragons' Den". The Telegraph.
  8. "19 and 3 businesses in: How young entrepreneur Jordan Daykin won over the Dragons". Startups.
  9. "Dragons' Den success story: The 19-year-old running his third business". BusinessZone. Archived from the original on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  10. "A 19-year-old school dropout has just won £80,000 investment from Deborah Meaden on Dragon's Den". Management Today.
  11. "Dragon's Den youngest entrepreneur Jordan Daykin now gets £2m funding for his GripIt Fixings firm". This is Money.
  12. "Dragon's Den Jordan Daykin gets £2m funding for GripIt Fixings firm". This is Money. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  13. "Dragons' Den entrepreneur reveals staggering £10m fortune". London Evening Standard. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  14. "Companies House Filings". Companies House. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  15. "Notice of commencement of moratorium: UK Building Products Limited". Companies House. 1 November 2019.
  16. "VPS GROUP LIMITED". Companies House. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
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