Cereal inventors advance to next round of ‘Dragon’s Den’

FORT FRANCES—The inventors of wild rice popped cereal have made it to the next round of competition in CBC’s “Dragon’s Den.”
Andrew Atwell and Ron Allen, from Nicickousemenecaning First Nation, will be facing the judges of the show during a taping June 13 in Toronto.
“When they called me to say I’m moving to the next level, it just so happened to be on my 50th birthday on May the 14th,” Atwell enthused.
The show features a panel of five successful business people who choose whether or not to invest in the various ideas presented to them.
The show called to congratulate the pair, and Atwell was given the opportunity to pick the date they would meet the producers.
“There will be 200 [contestants] over the two-week period out of about 4,000 original contestants,” he noted. “So they say it’s great to get this far and about 60 percent make it on to the show.”
Atwell is thrilled to have been chosen to go on in the competition and is looking forward to meeting with the “dragons.”
He has been in constant contact with the show’s producers, noting they have tried to prepare him for what to expect once the pair arrive in Toronto.
Atwell said about 120 people will make it on to the taping of “Dragon’s Den,” and that he has nothing but an optimistic outlook on how he and his business partner will fare.
Atwell also has been promoting his cereal idea in Fort Frances, teaming up with Dee’s Restaurant at the Makabi Inn on Scott Street.
“I was having breakfast one morning and someone came up to me and said, ‘Are you the cereal guy?’ and this girl that worked there said she was one of the first people to try the cereal,” Atwell noted.
After speaking with her, he talked with the owner of the restaurant and they agreed it would be a good promotional partnership. With any breakfast item purchased at Dee’s Restaurant, patrons receive a free sample of the wild rice popped cereal while supplies last.
Atwell, the inventor of the cereal, has gone full steam ahead with the development of his product after receiving the positive news from the producers of “Dragon’s Den.”
He has hired Shannon Peters, an Ojibway artist from Carleton Place, near Ottawa, to draft the design layout for the cereal box in preparation for their June 13 appearance.
The pair also have decided on a name for their cereal: “Rainy River Minochegewin Cereal” (which, loosely translated into English, means doing good things).
One aspect of the show that surprised Atwell was once they know whether or not they’ve been granted the money they’ve requested, and move on through the various stages of the show, they are bound by contract to not tell anyone.
“You can’t divulge anything after you’re done—to your family or anybody until they say you can,” he noted. “So I can’t come home and say, ‘Yeah, I got the money.’
“And the other thing is, we won’t know if we made it to the final air time until a week before the show is aired,” he stressed.
“[But] I’m really pleased for the local support we’ve been getting so far. It’s awesome,” Atwell enthused.
(Fort Frances Times)