Fife business Tree of Knowledge left Dragons’ Den with no investment – not knowing what the next steps would be.
The Dunfermline business got so close, but yet so far away as Peter Jones offered £50,000 for a 20% share on the BBC show.
But because Alan Burton and Gavin Oattes had asked for £100,000, under Dragons’ Den rules, they walked away with nothing.
What seemed like a business failure turned out to be a catalyst for huge growth, as an audience of eight million watched the pair’s pitch.
Since their appearance on the programme in 2010, Tree of Knowledge has trained over a million people.
As Covid hit, the firm’s activity came to a grinding halt.
Managing director Gavin recalls sitting in silence on a call with his business partners.
“For a business that relies on rooms full of people, we knew this was going to hit us hard,” he remembers.
“It was three weeks of close to panic, there was no sleep going on for me.
“I found myself pacing through the night with a notepad, just trying to think of something that would allow us to plug a gap until everything goes back to normal.”
Combining comedy and teaching
At the heart of every workshop and programme sits a focus on mental health.
Lockdown led to the creation of Treehouse, an online health and wellbeing platform for children age 3 to 18.
Over 400 schools use the platform which has over 100 modules to improve mental health.
🫧 However busy your week has been, it's time to take a great big deep breath, blow bubbles and relax into the weekend! 🫧
In this Primary #Treehouse module, our @alice_beveridge explains how blowing bubbles can help us slow right down. #edutwitter pic.twitter.com/FZsOEqaRSl
— Tree of Knowledge (@Tree_Of) March 18, 2022
Though hesitant to begin with, Gavin and his team also created small TOKs – 60-minute version of their full and half-day programmes.
As Tree of Knowledge aims to deliver entertaining workshops with an element of stand-up comedy, the former primary school teacher didn’t think it would catch on.
“I honestly thought you couldn’t capture energy on a screen, but we did, we have and we are,” he says.
“And now, I love it. This might be a weird thing to say, but I’m really grateful.
“I’m really grateful for what Covid brought, and I don’t mean the illness, but the positives to come from this terrible thing.
“It shook us to our core, but it brought out the best in us, forced us to reimagine and be better people.
“We find ourselves now in the best position we as a business have ever been in.”
Tree of Knowledge expands
Coming out of the pandemic, Tree of Knowledge is opening an office in Manchester though a partnership with IN4 Group.
The move will allow the firm to deliver Treehouse, workshops and programmes to businesses and schools in North West England.
With a new base, delivering talks and holding events for a wider range of people will be easier than before.
The pandemic has created a new path for the Dunfermline business, with a mix of physical and digital events planned for the future.
“We can deliver more with less. Being able to do sessions online has changed things,” Gavin says.
“I still love going and delivering in person, but I’ve had two years of finding a new way and I don’t want to go back.
“I was the dad that was away and travelling quite a lot, but every morning where I can now, I’ll do the school run and it’s the highlight of my day.”
