Kingston-Raised Entrepreneur Faces CBC Dragon’s Den Tonight

Published on: 2020/10/29 - in Entertainment

You can catch former Kingston resident Adam Corneil on tonight’s episode of CBC Dragon’s Den, where he will be seeking investment into his home deconstruction business based in Vancouver.

Corneil, who attended Frontenac Secondary School in Kingston, is the founder of Unbuilders – a company that dismantles buildings and salvages almost its entire structure, including irreplaceable Old Growth lumber, windows, doors, cabinets, fixtures and appliances.

Its team of former carpenters, roofers, framers, and tradespeople have made the switch from construction to deconstruction and, according to its website, now holds Vancouver’s record for attaining a 99% salvage and recycle rate on a single-family home.

Corneil began taking an interest in buildings and drawing blueprints by the age of 5 and went on to flip his first house with his father when he was 16.

As he continued building homes, he saw that changes were needed in the demolition side of the industry and created his company to recycle those materials back into the construction supply chain.

Adam can be seen making his pitch to the Dragons – including another former Kingston resident, Michele Romanow (Sc’07, MBA’08), who lived in the city while attending Queen’s University – at 9pm Thursday on CBC and online at CBC GEM. [update: Adam’s segment can be seen now on CBC GEM)]

UPDATE: For those who watched tonight’s episode, we’ve been informed the “3 Ships Beauty” segment also featured former Kingston residents (watch their pitch on CBC GEM). Founders Laura Burget is Kingston-raised and Connie Lo is a Queen’s University alumna, according to this Toronto.com article. (h/t to “R TC” on Twitter)


Multimedia: Adam Corneil on Instagram | CBC Dragon’s Den