Jive Turkey

Aricka Westbrooks, CEO, and Anthony Anderson, Culinary Director, of Jive Turkey in Chicago, Illinois asked for $150,000 for 30 percent of their business, a specialty food manufacturer and retailer of deep fried turkeys sold already cooked and frozen, reheated in a special bag, available online and in select US grocery stores including a partnership with Williams-Sonoma. The turkeys come in 16 flavours, average 8 to 10 pounds serving about 10 people, and retail for $79. The company has operated since 2001, had a historic sales high of $488,000 before relocating production from New York to Chicago and losing its retail storefront, and has had $100,000 in sales over the last 12 months since that pivot; the company currently has no operations in Canada.

Joe Mimran, Manjit Minhas, Michele Romanow, Michael Wekerle and Jim Treliving all declined to invest, citing weak sales relative to the company's 14 years in business, the difficulty and cost of expanding into Canada, the need to educate Canadian consumers about deep fried turkey, and the greater opportunity in the larger US market. No deal was made.

We haven’t confirmed whether Jive Turkey is still operating.