Are You The Next UK Entrepreneur? - A Guide to Dragons’ Dens November 15

Filed under Entrepreneur Hotlist by Seriously Business | 3 comments

Dragon’s Den is a BBC series that seeks to find the next big entrepreneur. The lucky - or sometimes unlucky - individual must face five ‘dragons’ in a room whereby they pitch an idea in order to hopefully gain the desired investment for their business venture.

Dragons Den Entrepreneurs

The panel of dragons is made up of the following: Australian millionaire Richard Farleigh who specialises in providing private equity investment for high growth technology startups. He is a ‘business angel’ and some of the companies he’s invested in are Amino Technology, ANT, Celoxica and Wolfson Microelectronics.

Deborah Meaden is a multi-millionairess and made her money initially with the first Stefanel fashion franchises in the UK. She now focuses on the retail and leisure sector and has an active role at her family’s holiday park business Weststar Holidays.

Duncan Bannatyne famously started off in business with an ice-cream van from which his entrepreneurial skills manifested through the chain of health clubs, Bannatyne’s as well as Bannatyne’s casino, bars and hotels.

Peter Jones started a tennis academy when 16-years-old and went on to run the UK arm of Siemens Nixdorf. He currently has interests in telecoms, publishing, leisure, TV and media and established Phones International Group in 1998.

Last but by no means least, Cyprus-born Theo Paphitis is a successful consultant, helping the likes of Ryman, Contessa and La Senza turn round their fortunes. He has also been chairman of Millwall F.C in his time.

Persistence and a desire to be achieve big things has earmarked a few Dragon’s Den entrepreneurs for a highly successful future. James Seddon walked away from the Den with £75,000 for a 40 per cent share in his electronic water free egg cooker idea which was praised for its unique concept as well as the patent protection that Mr Sneddon had secured to safeguard his design.

The EggXactly range of egg cookers has not hit the shelves yet but is actively seeking companies to distribute or licence the product and even though Mr Sneddon’s product actually failed on the day in front of the dragons, they saw enough to believe that a product had been created that would whip up a lot of sales.

Another entrepreneur skilled enough to walk away from the Den with investment secured was Ian Chamings whose idea was to enhance his dance music website that had a unique download and mix feature incorporated into it. Richard Farleigh was impressed with the projected income but it was Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis who paid £150,000 for a 40 per cent stake in the company.

Realising the potentially lucrative nature of music websites, Mr Chamings came away with the investment that would see his business grow and it was clear that he had done his homework on his target market before pitching his idea to the Dragons.

Although some see Dragon’s Den as a cynical way to exploit naive entrepreneurs into making fools of themselves on national TV, on the other hand the show can provide inspiration for people in a similar position who may be seeking a platform from which to launch their ideas.

Dragon’s Den has proved that the entrepreneurial spirit is very much alive and well in the UK and for individuals like James Sneddon, and the series enabled them to find lucrative funding to see their business ideas reach fruition.

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3 comments

  1. Shawn A. Hessinger Nov 16

    Is this on BBC America yet? Yikes! It’s like some terrifying cross between “The Apprentice” and “American Idol”. If you want a good motivation to bootstrap your start-up without the need for large capital investment the prospect of a visit with the Dragons would certainly be it.

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