Dragons Den

Charlie

Does anyone watch this show, Dragon's Den on BBC. I have watched for a while now and find it terrific. What do people think about the show; Who's their favourite dragon; their favourite investment, etc.

Personally I found Doug Richard, the American guy from the first two seasons to come across as the best dragon and found Simon Woodruff, also from season 1 & 2, to be the most fun. Can't stand the new lady they brought in for season 3, stuck up cow. My favourite investment was probably the student who was setting up a truffle business, seemed like a really quirky idea.

I notice that season 3 always seems to involve the dragons going in 50/50 on an investment, don't really like that idea, just grow a pair and go it alone. I think aswel that sometimes they seem to bleed the inventors dry when it comes to the stake in the company they receive, but hey, I guess that's business.

Mr E

I think its a great show too. Its car crash TV when someone starts to screw up a pitch.

I do think the entrepreneurs are screwed by the dragons though.... maybe the dragons learnt the hard way from earlier series?

gucci

what about the dude with the reggae sauce....man i was so freaking hungry at the end of that episode. have to agree the lady dragon is such a pain! duncan bannedine is the funniest at his put downs when someone starts to waffle

Charlie

Yeah reggae sauce dude was cool. Thought it was about to go kerplunk for him when they realised projected royalties were not 3 million but about 30,000.

Deliverance

Yeah that was funny, I was waiting for a barrell of reggae sauce to drop on him from above, the look on his face was priceless but the guys personality carried him through nicely. I like the show it just goes to show that in any presentation you really have to be prepared.

The Dragon's are definately using the tactic of offering half the money to get a bigger stake in the companies with less risk. But I suppose at the end of the day the newcomer is getting twice the experience.

Hard to pick a favourite easier to pick one that I dislike, I'm sorry to say that it is the lady who's name escapes me, looks like shes sitting on a spike when listening to presentations and always gives the least sympathy.

DonkeyStyle \o/

TmB wrote:

I think its a great show too. Its car crash TV when someone starts to screw up a pitch.

Totally... I re-watched the very first episode and the first pitch was a disaster, the guy was freaking
A cringe worthy horror show.

Deliverance wrote:

Hard to pick a favourite easier to pick one that I dislike, I'm sorry to say that it is the lady who's name escapes me, looks like shes sitting on a spike when listening to presentations and always gives the least sympathy.

Yep, Deborah Meadan(?), an unkind face and a cold demeanour.
I know what you mean about not being able to pick a favourite though, I think they're all good in their own way... I like Duncan because he's sometimes a bit of a wildcard... and Peter Jones because he's great at weeding through the crap.

Zaph

From the BBC website 7/3/07

Dragons' Den chef tastes success

A chef who sang to impress investors on BBC Two's Dragons' Den has said his supermarket deal is a "dream come true" as his sauce hits the shelves.
Levi Roots, who was nominated for best reggae singer at the 1998 Mobo awards, persuaded TV entrepreneurs to invest £50,000 in his sauce-making business. His Reggae Reggae Sauce is now on sale in 600 Sainsbury's stores.

Mr Roots, from Brixton, south London, said events since appearing on the show had been "amazing and life changing". The deal with Sainsbury's is a dream come true for me and my family, and seeing the sauce on the supermarket shelves is an emotional but enjoyable moment," Mr Roots added.

Dragons' Den judges Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh each paid Brixton-based Mr Roots £25,000 in return for a 20% stake in his company. Mr Jones said: "Levi is a great guy and he's created a great product which he is passionate about. I am sure this deal with Sainsbury's will be the first of many fantastic milestones on the way to business success and making his dreams a reality."

The sauce - an old family recipe - will initially be sold at more than 600 Sainsbury's stores for six months. The supermarket will also sell Mr Roots' record Proper Tings (The Reggae Reggae Sauce Song). The sauce was previously only available on Mr Roots' website or at the annual Notting Hill Carnival.

Sainsbury's buyer Nick Paddison said the chain had been hugely impressed with the product. "It fits perfectly with our ethos to encourage customers to try something new and our desire to help nurture smaller, niche suppliers, so we have pulled out all the stops to make it available in stores as quickly as possible," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6424021.stm

fred funk }{

I like the show a lot, was it in Ch4 before BBC?

That's a great story with the Reggae sauce, I'd like to see an episode which looks back at the previous products that were invested in, to see how they got on.

Deliverance

Well done to Levi Roots, I feel like I want some reggae reggae sauce now, anyone seen a Sainsburys around...? Oh right, we don't do Sainsburys.

Charlie

Anyone see tonights episode? Loved the little the follow up in the end that profiled some of the past inventors. Good to see Levi is doing so well for himself.

WTF happened with the two lads who had that standby power device!!!

All five dragons were drooling over it yet they still managed to mug the poor lads off for half of the company. I was shocked. They way their pitch and product were holding so well I was expecting one of the Dragons to interrupt and say i'll invest 100% of the money you require for the amount of equity you initially offered. I was even bracing myself for a bidding war, as the product and the amount the patent could make is so so lucrative.

I really think the Dragons acted a little shady here. I remembered one of the inventors saying he wasn't happy with the offer to which Peter Jones replied that it was a good offer, the rest of them perked up and said the same thing. They must have knowing they were getting an absolute bargain.

Anyone think that the guy who presents the series and interviews the inventors after they've been to the den is really wooden and creepy.

gucci

fair play to levi roots...easily the most memorable candidate, good luck to him in the future

charlie mchugh wrote:

Anyone think that the guy who presents the series and interviews the inventors after they've been to the den is really wooden and creepy.

hes the economics or business editor for bbc news i think, or correspondant at least, so i guess he might have knowledge of the field that the people will be entering.

DonkeyStyle \o/

charlie mchugh wrote:

Anyone see tonights episode?

*Screams-in-head* - can't believe I missed it again. :eek:

charlie mchugh wrote:

Anyone think that the guy who presents the series and interviews the inventors after they've been to the den is really wooden and creepy.

Only because he's ever so slightly cross-eyed... it's like he's looking into my soul and stealing my thoughts.

Charlie

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

*Screams-in-head* - can't believe I missed it again. :eek: .

I am nearly certain that Dragnon's Den is repeated during the week possibly Saturday? Have a look at the listings. Good episode though.

Deliverance

Caught the last 20 mins, heartwarming for levi, good stuff. I think the dragons are learning to work together to get better stakes with less risk on good investments.

Interesting though to see how this will work out for future investors and how they handle the dragons. Early days, this is a great show and will only get more interesting.
Incidentally anyone remember the woman who pitched her pram mits attached to the pram to keep hands warm? As far as I remember she was succesfull. A friend of mine had that exact same idea 15 years ago and everyone laughed at him. Bet he was fuming watching that show.

fred funk }{

Anyone think that the guy who presents the series and interviews the inventors after they've been to the den is really wooden and creepy.

Ye I think he's really odd, He's like a Deer caught in the head lights.

On another note, The Dragons seem to have a lot of marketing power, a lot of pull in the business. They get the products manufactured and on the shelves really fast.

Rollo Tamasi

i was absolutely gutted about the rip-off disastor that hit the two money saving battery guys. I couldn't believe they got 50% of their business taken away. They now have 5 investors in a company instead of 1, that is bound to create confilict. Terrible decision by the two guys and terrible team tactic by the 5 dragons. It really showed them up to be a pack of *****.

ElNino

charlie mchugh wrote:

I am nearly certain that Dragnon's Den is repeated during the week possibly Saturday? Have a look at the listings. Good episode though.

BUSINESS AND FINANCE: Dragons' Den
On: BBC 2 Northern Ireland (144)
Date: Sunday 1st April 2007 (starting in 8 days)
Time: 23:30 to 00:30 (1 hour long)

Evan Davis presents the final episode in this series in which budding entrepreneurs get three minutes to pitch their business ideas to five multi-millionaires willing to invest their own cash. Among the ideas pitched is a power-saving plug socket which could save millions of pounds of wasted electricity every year by turning your TV off instead of leaving it on standby. Also, there is a catch-up with some of the most memorable entrepreneurs from the series.
(Repeat, Widescreen, Subtitles)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=22587

Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

ElNino

gucci wrote:

hes the economics or business editor for bbc news i think, or correspondant at least, so i guess he might have knowledge of the field that the people will be entering.

Evan Davis is his name and I think that he is a waste of space. All the voice overs that he does each time a dragon makes an offer or pulls out are totally unneccessary and just waste time.

standbyme

Does anyone remember what happened to the last woman on the last series!
She was subject to a Panorama prog. (i think?) as her company went bankrupt owing millions & the funny thing was the series was only half-way through when it aired !!

If you want a reminder she had red-hair & always teased for her percentages

Also Evan Davis was always ridiculed on Have I Got News For You every week as well as the other big-eared guy from BBC as his name escapes me, pity i'm stuck with the his image for life

ballooba

The money they offer is peanuts in terms of the equity they take. The money is not really what people are after I suppose. I was always told never to give equity away. The real incentive for being on the show is the publicity and getting the dragon's on board as directors of the business.

A lecturer of mine is trying to convince us all to submit business plans. They would be purely conceptual so I see us getting slaughtered. I doubt they'd even have us.

Charlie

Your wan's name was Rachel Elnor. I remember reading the same thing about her company going bust and the producers thought it would be a bit inappropriate for her to be seen as a business guru when she couldn't even keep her own business a float. I was never a big fan of hers but compared to the new women they have, I would take her back in a flash. I detest that Deborah one, absolute cow who rarely puts her money where he mouth is.

I am to shocked with the amount of equity some of the people give away. You would swear that someone was putting a gun to their head and they had no choice, that taking an offer from the dragons is the be all and end all of business. I commend the people who realised they are being ripped off and simply tell the Dragons no thanks. The lads on the last episode with the energy saving plug adapter were absolute fools. What was it, £100,000 for 50% of their company. That seems ridiculous for the product that they have. The patent alone fro such a device could be worth tens of millions alone.

DS

Yea I couldn't believe it when they came back and accepted the offer. I'd say the Dragons couldn't either. It was clearly a ridiculous offer and they were probably getting ready for a bidding war. You could see the shock on their faces when the lads accepted.

Personally I found Doug Richard, the American guy from the first two seasons to come across as the best dragon and found Simon Woodruff, also from season 1 & 2, to be the most fun.

Dunno about the American guy, he seemed too critical, and I heard he's the only Dragon never to have made an investment. Probably why he got replaced.

Charlie

I'm pretty sure Doug Richard made a number of investments, just can't think of one off the top of my head. I just found him to be the most straight-forward and clued up, some of the others criticise products they don't know a thing about and waffle as if they do.

Looking at his wikipedia entry his credentials are pretty strong. He says in interview that the one investment he regrets not getting the grasp of and investing in was the lad who could grow truffles. He said that soon after he wanted to track him down and make him a good offer but, and this is surprising, the Dragon's are contractually bound not to chase up anyone once they have left the den.

charlie mchugh

charlie mchugh wrote:

He said that soon after he wanted to track him down and make him a good offer but, and this is surprising, the Dragon's are contractually bound not to chase up anyone once they have left the den.

I suppose it's so they actually make an offer on the show and not just wait 'til it is over to sort it out.

Charlie

Myth wrote:

I suppose it's so they actually make an offer on the show and not just wait 'til it is over to sort it out.

Yeah I thought of that myself but the fact that some of them are such high ranking business people I would have thought that they wouldn't sign such contracts or restrict themselves so much.