Project FANchise

Vivek Jain, Ray Austin and Sohrob Farudi, from Regina, Saskatchewan, pitched Project FANchise, an interactive football league where fans control real teams by choosing plays, coaches and players in real time, asking for $7,000,000 for 25% of the company. They had purchased a team in an indoor football league and let fans make decisions via phone voting, drawing 200,000 viewers from 99 countries and over 30,000 fan-called plays in one game, and struck deals with Sports Illustrated and Twitch, becoming the first live sport streamed on Twitch; the company gets 70% of subscription revenue, a 50-50 ad share, and all revenue from Twitch's digital currency bits. The founders had raised $1.5 million from angel and seed investors, including a recent $500,000 round at a $10 million valuation, and had spent close to $1 million operating two teams to date.

All six Dragons went out. Michael Wekerle said the business needed more work to be investable, Joe Mimran cited the need for more negotiation and due diligence, Jim Treliving was unsure the concept would work, Manjit Minhas was concerned about reliance on Twitch, Arlene Dickinson felt the $28 million valuation implied by the ask was too high, and Michele Romanow said the ask made it too difficult to invest despite liking the idea. No deal was made.

Project FANchise is still operating and sells through its website.