Olympic brothers fans of 'bike floss' give financial backing to supplier Purple Harry
Olympic triathletes Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee are such fans of ‘bike floss’, which is used to clean the bike gears, that they are now backing supplier Purple Harry financially.
Richard Hargreaves and Dean Perry had the idea for the product in a pub after a long ride. Their Derby firm, Purple Harry, has raised £83,250 to fund expansion through 161 investors on crowdfunding site Crowdcube.
The Brownlee brothers were the last backers, on December 30. The friends targeted cycling fans to invest in return for a discount on products.
Perry said: ‘I had been made redundant twice and Richard was in a job he didn’t like. We both worked in logistics. I thought: “I’m just over 40, he’s 40. It is time for us to do something for ourselves”. We went to market in August 2010 and the response to the floss was phenomenal.
‘Crowdfunding appealed to us because we wanted to involve cyclists. Now cyclists might tell their friends “buy Purple Harry because I own part of it”.’