Dragons' Den welcomed London couple Will Moxham and Hilary Kennedy onto the show last Thursday - but their pitch infuriated BBC viewers when the business owners referenced budget-supermarket Lidl.
The couple were looking for investment from the Dragons for their vegan meal kit brand Planthood.
Will and Hilary's subscription-based service offers plant-based meal kits for £45 each but Dragon Touker Suleyman questioned why customers would consider paying so much for a kit when they could buy the ingredients themselves at "Lidl for £20".
Will said: "I wouldn't use Lidl as a benchmark for our service. It's just not going to happen - the type of people who, up until this point, are paying a premium for this service, are not going to drop this and go to Lidl and plan their meals every week."
"I don't think you're putting yourself into our consumer's shoes," the businessman added.
BBC viewers were not happy with the vegan meal kit brand owner's response and took to Twitter to slam the entrepreneur.
One wrote: "I despise Lidl but I despise snobs even more. How dare you sneer at people that shop there," while a second fumed: "Stuck up vegan p*****, what's wrong with Lidl?"
A third quipped: "Get the feeling he doesn't shop at Lidl often," and another tweeted: " Aldi and Lidl have both won supermarket of the year within the last two years, maybe he should get his head from his a****."
"What a pair of t****. Imagine thinking you're so special because you can throw some ingredients in a box," someone else shared.
The couple were looking for a £75,000 investment for a 2.5 percent share in Planthood but the Dragons were not in agreement over the potential for growth in the business.
Dragon Steven Bartlett offered the couple the full amount they were looking for but for a 7.5 percent share in the business.
After talking the offer over, the couple accepted the offer with Will saying: "Pretty incredible. We got what we needed," and Hilary adding: "We're getting married in two weeks, so this is just an unbelievable gift to have."
