Q &A

By many measures, Hatem Jahshan (Rotman MBA ’10, B.Eng, ’99) and his wife Tonia are enjoying stratospheric success. Their 10-year-old loose-leaf tea company, Steeped Tea, has 9,000 ‘consultants’ across Canada and in every U.S. state who directly sell up to 300 types of tea to their family, friends and neighbours by hosting tea parties in people’s homes. In the last five years, the Ancaster, Ontario-based company has seen its revenues grow 3,500 per cent, and last year, it pulled in $20 million. Earlier this year, Tonia scored the top spot on the 2016 PROFIT/Chatelaine W100 ranking of Canada’s top female entrepreneurs. But one business milestone stands out from the others — both because it happened on national television, and involved the kind of pressure that can crack even the most self-assured entrepreneur: they scored a deal on the CBC reality show, Dragon’s Den. Here, Hatem explains why they chose to go ‘investment hunting’, and what it was like to tangle with the Dragons.

When you and your wife appeared on in September 2012, you were already six years into your business, with 500 ‘consultants’