Dragons' Den

AJUK said:
I have just had another thought about DD. I have watched this series from the start but I have yet to actually see any of the businesses that obtained investment actually on the high street. The overwhelming majority of businesses were goods related but I cannot remember ever seeing one of the products in a shop. Anyone?
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there was one from the last series, a guy who started a magazine called "wonderland" (i think)...

anyway, i saw it in the shops a few months back, but i've not seen it since.


edit: smiths bi-monthly
http://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/
 
I remember that magazine form an earlier series but I have never seen it on sale at all. That said, it isn't the sort of thing I would buy anyway so I would never notice it on the shelf.

Pretentious tosh anyway.
 
Sequoia said:
As an entrepreneur, are you the type that'll talk about it, or do you have a Harry Potter inside you?

I suspect, if you're the latter, then when the time is right, you'll do it regardless of what I say. And I hope if you do, it proves to be a wild success.
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Amen to that :)

It's important to note that many of the well known entrepreneurs have been at the helm (or very close to it) of major failures too. What makes a successful entrepreneur in my opinion is not only the calculated risk taking, but the ability to repeatedly bounce back from disaster.

Don't mind the programme myself, but the panel are a bit Simon Cowell'ish :)
 
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I would really like to know where a couple of the Dragons got the money to startup their own businesses. Take Peter Jones for example, when he was 16 he started up his own Tennis academy...where did he get the money to do that, at just the age of 16, fresh out of school? He must have came from a rich family.
 
shifty_uk said:
I would really like to know where a couple of the Dragons got the money to startup their own businesses. Take Peter Jones for example, when he was 16 he started up his own Tennis academy...where did he get the money to do that, at just the age of 16, fresh out of school? He must have came from a rich family.
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Do you think he had a go at himself every morning for not wearing a suit? :P
 
AJUK said:
I remember that magazine form an earlier series but I have never seen it on sale at all. That said, it isn't the sort of thing I would buy anyway so I would never notice it on the shelf.

Pretentious tosh anyway.
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Wonderland? I saw a copy of it on sale once :)
 
shifty_uk said:
I would really like to know where a couple of the Dragons got the money to startup their own businesses. Take Peter Jones for example, when he was 16 he started up his own Tennis academy...where did he get the money to do that, at just the age of 16, fresh out of school? He must have came from a rich family.
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Well, what do you mean by "start a tennis academy"?

See, it could mean a flash, ritzy private club with acres of carefully manicured grounds and a startup cost of a couple of million, or it could mean you got your Lawn Tennis Association coaching qualification, and started up an "academy" by coaching local schoolkids privately at a local club for a tenner an hour.

As I understand it, Peter Jones came from a well-to-do middle class family, but not a wealthy one. His money he made himself, firstly as a business executive (Siemens Nixdorf if I remember rightly), then with a bit of startup capital, some business experience and the entrepreneurial spirit, by going into mobile phones in the right way and at exactly the right time. It's mobile phones that have made him his money, and provided the springboard for everything else. And, for all the current polish, he's had his failures, too, and what's more openly admits it. It hasn't been a non-stop story of business success. But the thing about failing businesses is ..... do you learn anything, and do you have the spirit to, as I've said many times, despite failing, dust yourself off and start again? Peter Jones ran a computer business that went out of business due, in large part, to elementary mistakes, and a restaurant that failed because he didn't know the business. His real financial success has all been in the last 8 or 10 years. The "tennis academy" thing shows his mindset, but isn't the start of the business empire.

In other words, right time, right place, right product, right person, right risk.
 
joey1211 said:
http://www.profevents.com/cgw/pjones.htm
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Nice find, Joey.

From that quoted link ....
Peter Jones said:
The tennis academy I ran as a teenager came about as a result of the game being something I loved and spotting an opportunity at the time. I could see a demand for coaching lessons at my local club and there wasn ’t anything inoperation that was open to the masses, so I decided to establish something myself.

I gained my LTA coaching certificate through sheer determination and set up in business with the club ’s blessing. I charged £5 per lesson and taught in groups that started small and grew very quickly.
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Seems I got the rate wrong. ;) :D
 
I find the dragons most annoying. They are all trying to model themselves after Simon Cowell. Except for Peter Jones and the Aussie guy who are engaging, and take proceedings seriously, and seem to be more about the business as opposed to being famous.

Having said that, interesting to see how and why people get turned down and the mistakes they make. In that respect, it is valuable TV.
 
CVD said:
I find the dragons most annoying. They are all trying to model themselves after Simon Cowell. Except for Peter Jones and the Aussie guy who are engaging, and take proceedings seriously, and seem to be more about the business as opposed to being famous.

Having said that, interesting to see how and why people get turned down and the mistakes they make. In that respect, it is valuable TV.
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I really like Duncan Bannatyne though, I listened to an interview with him a few months ago and his story is interesting, it really was a rags to riches tale. He succeeded through his own hard work, his own mistakes and I say fairplay to him. He has earn't his money and now deserves to sit in the seat and play up as much as he wants.
 
joey1211 said:
http://www.profevents.com/cgw/pjones.htm
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Thanks for the link dude :) and thanks for the info Sequoia :)




CVD said:
I find the dragons most annoying. They are all trying to model themselves after Simon Cowell.
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I like Duncan, Peter and Richard as people, but I admire them all as businessmen.
They need to be blunt and slate people, it's a way to learn, and they give out decent advice most of the time. As I said in a previous post, it's their money after all. They can't go around giving out 200K for a business idea that will never take off, or go completely bust.

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Simon Cowell is a joke, and I wouldn't compair these people to him.
He needs to get a decent haircut aswell, the top of his head looks square.
 
CVD said:
I find the dragons most annoying. They are all trying to model themselves after Simon Cowell. ....
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I don't think they are. Oh, they're no doubt acting up a bit for the TV. It is, after all, entertainment ..... but hopefully it's educational entertainment, and for all the melodramatic language they use, there is nearly always (if not always) sound, cool rationale behind what they say. And, often, people that get as far as approaching a VC for finance, are so immersed in their wonder-idea that it can take VERY pointed criticism to puncture their bubble with a little reality. You certainly need enthusiasm, dedication and belief in your vision to make these ideas work, but you also need a little objectivity, and the dragons provide that, with bells on.

Nobody should assume the Dragons are perfect. They're capable of making mistakes, and certainly of not seeing the vision. But, on balance, the mere fact that they have achieved what they have achieved proves that they get it right far more often than they get it wrong, and that they have the skill, expertise and experience that their opinion carries credibility.

Anyone starting up in business does not have to agree with everything they say and do, but it'd be a fool that didn't listen carefully, because a lot of the time, they're dispensing a level of experience-based practical advice no small business could afford to buy. Richard Farleigh made the point in that last show .... sometimes he's given equity in a new venture, just to get him on-board for the experience and, don't forget, the contacts. These people can open doors that would be closed to 99% of applicants. And though he didn't say it, I'll bet the converse is true of Farleigh too ..... there will be times people have tried to give him equity and he wouldn't take it because he doesn't believe in the project enough to be prepared even to put time into it. Time is, after all, money.
 
Tis a great program, the woman is stupid though, all she ever does is whinge and say "OGM TAKE MY OFFER OR YOUR STUPID OLOLOLOL". She's almost as bad as the redhead woman that was on last year that was basically bankrupt and had a tiny pile of money lol.
Alex
 
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