An energy bar for Dragons

‘It’s simple, yet so magical.’

Suddenly the outcome of Cheryl Zealand’s [BComm(Hons)/99] Dragon’s Den Season 19 audition was only a bonus.

Zealand, who graduated from the Asper School of Business in 1999, is the founder and CEO of Cranked Energy Bars, a product which was granted the ‘simple, but magical’ description by a CBC producer during Zealand’s first round of her fourth audition for the show.

“When I heard that, I thought, I can walk out of here right now. It was a win for me either way, and everything after that was going to be a bonus. Entrepreneurship teaches you that not everyone is going to love your product, but then there are those moments when someone tries it and says something like that.”

Zealand has always focused on creating an exceptional product that people love enough that they just have to tell someone about it, and she hasn’t been afraid to take her time in this goal.

A CPA by trade, she started Cranked in 2014, balancing contract work as a facilitator for CPA courses and raising her three boys with her husband (also an Asper alum!). Her career began right out of the Asper School of Business with a role at KPMG, but as her life changed shape, she felt her work needed to as well.

She decided to pursue Cranked full-time in 2018 and has been seeing steady growth since including a recent call-back to film for Dragon’s Den Season 19. The fourth try was a charm, she explains, because she was serious, and she was ready.

“I had to be at work that day, so I ran into the audition twenty minutes before closing with some bars and a cooler. I didn’t have a prepared pitch. Honestly, I went in there and said,

‘It’s been ten years. We’ve grown from this to this. I have a facility, capital equipment, staffing. We’re in 200 retailers. We’re trademarked in Canada and the US. I’ve done all of this on my own, and we are ready for a partner.’”

Zealand’s pitch, it turns out, wasn’t prepared, but it was lived in. And it worked. She flew to Toronto with her family to shoot with the Dragons at CBC Studios on Mother’s Day. While she can’t yet share the outcome of her seven tv-minutes (about 60 real minutes) in the den, she is confident that Cranked Energy Bars will continue to do what it has always done best: to grow, persistently but patiently, led by a product with a bit of magic.

“When I started Cranked at 40, I knew the product had to be better than anything else on the market, plain and simple, and not just the product but the customer service that we offer, my commitment to my community. All that stuff takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

It’s not yet clear if Dragons eat Cranked Energy Bars. Viewers will have to tune in to Dragon’s Den Season 19 and look out for Cheryl Zealand to find out. “All I can say,” says Zealand, “is that it is nothing that I expected, but everything I needed.”

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Cheryl Zealand has stayed connected to the Asper School of Business as a guest speaker and has helped faculty develop case studies based on Cranked Energy Bars. While she shares plenty of great advice with students, she always hopes to communicate the value of education and applicability of the CPA track.

“I think the Asper School of Business really trains you to be able to take on various roles and provides such a strong skillset as a basis. I also want more students to know how adaptable the CPA track is and how well it pairs with entrepreneurship,” she says.

The Asper School of Business holds accreditation from CPA Canada that allows BComm students to enter directly into its Professional Education Program. Learn more here. 

Emily Wilson