Dragons Den

DonkeyStyle \o/

Good show tonight, the plasma-tv-stand guy bricking it was such a cringe moment
Felt for the guy really... public speaking is hard... once you lose it a bit, that f*cks you up even more untill you're a blubbering mess.
Fair play to him though, he recovered well and had all his research done.

I've got a note for tomorrows show written down since I'm always doing something else when that show is on. :rolleyes:
Think I've only seen 2 episodes this series

whiskeyman

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

Good show tonight, the plasma-tv-stand guy bricking it was such a cringe moment
Felt for the guy really... public speaking is hard... once you lose it a bit, that f*cks you up even more untill you're a blubbering mess.
Fair play to him though, he recovered well and had all his research done.

Brilliant show tonight.
Thought the Dr with the respivest held himself fantastically well during the pitch and I expected Peter Jones to go with him (he seemed his style).
He has a press release here - note it's from 3 years ago and was on Tomorrows World back then!
Homepage for Respivest here.
Thought the way he fought down Duncan was hilarious, as was Dougs intervention... one of the best bits of tv I've seen in a while!

Agree with you on the TV plasma stand guy... the Dragons knew he had the talent and he did very well to get 2 on board.
No doubt he knows that £3m offer from panasonic could be worth a lot more with some more investment and business know-how.
(anyone catch his companys name? Trying to find it online)

segadreamcast

Thought Duncan's intervention was pathetic - it was obvious that he had a vested (pun not intended) interest in this field, since he works in the personal trainer business. Of course he's going to say that self-training kits don't work. Fool.

whiskeyman

NoelRock wrote:

it was obvious that he had a vested (pun not intended) interest in this field

good point!
I'm surprised he didnt know when to shut it.

Pigman II

Duncan made a fool of himself there!

"I have a load of gyms and peddle all kinds of related tat therefore I know this thing of yours doesn't work" .

jrey1981

My Dad & I both thought the plasma-tv-stand guy could have just paid someone a salary to do what he wanted the dragons to do, without giving away half his business in the process....

He had the business acumen and he was growing turnover and profit 100% year on year...there is no reason he could not have hired a consultant or a business development exec instead...

ElNino

I think the plasma stand guy was right when he said that he wasn't a businessman. How could he sell half of a company worth £3.25m for 225k? If I was him I would hired an experienced manager and given him 10% of the shares to set up a proper manufacturing operation.

RainyDay

whiskeyman wrote:

Brilliant show tonight.
Thought the Dr with the respivest held himself fantastically well during the pitch and I expected Peter Jones to go with him (he seemed his style).
He has a press release here - note it's from 3 years ago and was on Tomorrows World back then!
Homepage for Respivest here.
Thought the way he fought down Duncan was hilarious, as was Dougs intervention... one of the best bits of tv I've seen in a while!

The Doc was great and firmly put Duncan in his place. Duncan was stuck with this false-bravado fixed-grin that tried (& failed) to hide his embarrassment. It's nice to see that someone worth €100m+ still screws up from time to time.

Did nice Peter fall under the spell of the fairy-tale lady? I reckon she could have got Peter to sit on her knee & take a bottle & burp his windies without any bother.

TMB13

RainyDay wrote:

She picked Peter over Theo simply because she fancied him. Theo looks like a troll sliding down in his chair.

She claimed to have 'discovered' her business acumen while working in sales, but I found this hard to believe. She was a terrible negotiator. She told Peter she was choosing him, and then asked him to drop from 45% to 40% - As he pointed out, she had no leverage after telling him that he was the chosen one. Even the way she asked for the extra 5% "there's no way you'd go to 40%, is there" was entirely negative and bound to get a negative answer.

It doesn't seem like a very Truly Madly Baby friendly place in here but just thought I would say hi anyway.

The thing about the show is that our 14 minute slot was a heavily edited snippet of a 2.5 - 3 hour intensive pitch in which we were grilled on the ins and outs of the business plan and the industry.

My experience goes far beyond what was actually shown on the programme, including 3 yrs in a senior sales role for Yell.com and as Sales Director for my husband's business, Hyperformance Group, for 4 yrs before becoming pregnant.

I had not considered seeking investment prior to Dragons' Den; bank loans were going to be the way to go, but as good as a loan is, it can't buy the kind of publicity and expertise that we are now recieving.

I can catagorically assure you that I do not fancy Peter in any way and the negotiations were not quite what they appeared. As I said above - it is very clever how they edit the show. Rachel Elnaugh did not say at any point that she did not want to invest - she was in until the end.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
Speak soon, Jules. www.trulymadlybaby.co.uk

P.S - The business is going very well and is laready profitable and Peter hasn't bought a thing !!!

RainyDay

Hi Jules - No offence intended with my 'fancying' comment. I was really just trying to slag off Theo a bit! Best of luck wit hthe business.

RainyDay

New series is on BBC2 - 2nd or 3rd show in series was on tonight. This was the first time I've seen dragons actively competing to get an investment. The pitcher went with Theo and the new lady, even though they were taking more equity than Duncan and the new guy.

daveirl

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MG

I don’t really understand why anyone would go on the show.

If you have a bad product they will tear you to shreds and no one will touch your business.

If you have a good product you have put yourself in a really bad negotiating position. If the product if a good one, it should be possible to approach private equity investors and negotiate on your own terms or to simply borrow and buy business advice.

You either get a public humiliation or a bad deal by going on the show. Mind you, I suppose you get what you deserve.

Great show though.

daveirl

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meep

the guy with the exercise chair was 10 minutes of the funniest television I have seen in years!!!

Also, the Truck Wash guy was very confident and had an excellent answer when asked why he just didn't go to the bank. Required watching for anyone getting a business off the ground!

magnumlady

I actually loved the exercise chair (not the chair itself but the idea).
I would have bought one.
Didn't think much of last nights show, those wellies were awful and the woman trying to flog them was really rude to the dragons.

Lump

I keep missing it

John

RainyDay

I just loved last night's show. It had a bit of everything. The jolly hockeysticks English lady with her nice sensible wellies being ripped apart by Theo and Duncan when she assumed they had a nanny. The cockney Delboy character with the big towels who repeatedly tried to give 'secrets of good business' to 5 of the most successful business people in the country, even after they told him to stop doing it. I guess it was a generational thing, and he still thought of them as little whippersnappers.

Then the 'man overboard' device and the peeling back the onion to find the flaws (out of range in 3 seconds!) with Peter & Richard competing for their investment. Peter was really pi$$ed at being undercut, and the guy was a good negotiator. Great, great TV. It's repeated late on Weds evenings - watch out for it.

daveirl

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RainyDay

Or watch it online if you prefer.

parasite

but the repeat is on tuesday nights

Pigman II

Does Richard Farleigh remind anyone else of a hobbit?

RainyDay

Pigman II wrote:

Does Richard Farleigh remind anyone else of a hobbit?

Don't you mean troll Theo?

Lump

Started watching the episodes on broadband.... LOL at the Car Doctor phone call bloke. What a muppet.

John

Nuttzz

i like Richard Farleigh, he doesnt seem to have as bad an attitude as the likes of bannatyne

BaZmO*

Nuttzz wrote:

i like Richard Farleigh, he doesnt seem to have as bad an attitude as the likes of bannatyne

Yeah I actually like the guy too.

One thing that I've noticed about him is that he's actually willing to invest in some of the ideas offering money to 2 or maybe 3 people per episode unlike the others who are lucky if they offer money to one an episode. He's also willing to undercut the other Dragons which makes for great TV.

Dudess

Watched it for the first time last night. Brilliant stuff - for the schadenfreud element alone. Have to say it's great to see such deluded, arrogant idiots being brought down a peg or two. The dragons themselves are ace. They actually seem all right - tough but fair. I particularly like the Greek dude - seriously not to be ****ed with, but an okay guy underneath it all.

DublinWriter

whiskeyman wrote:

Brilliant show and great watching for anyone thinking of starting their own business.

Dragon's Den initially was a good idea, but it's basically car-crash TV.

To be honest, it's a bit like advising people to watch 'Scrubs' if they want to learn how to be a doctor.

I stopped watching it late into series 1 when I noticed that they were picking out the most looney people with even loonier ideas in order to create a bit of humour and drama.

If you have a good idea and no funding, the last thing you really want to do it show it to 60 million people, because there's a chance that at least someone else will see it and do it better than you.

Lump

What a load of rubbish, clearly they invest the money, so why pick a "Loony" idea!

Tonights episode was good.

John

BaZmO*

DublinWriter wrote:

If you have a good idea and no funding, the last thing you really want to do it show it to 60 million people, because there's a chance that at least someone else will see it and do it better than you.

Not if you have it patented. If anything, if you have a good idea you get valuable advertising free of charge.

I agree with you that alot of the people that are there are just picked for entertainment purposes but is that not the point of the show? And besides, not everybody can come on the show to pitch the next Rubiks Cube or Hula Hoop. You gotta mix it up with the good and the bad.