I was a contestant on Dragons Den

agnes said:
Wow, talk about a stick up!

Always resepcted that program but that is just utterly disgusting.

I would have said no to the director and walked out. That is simply not on, you are not an actor, you are there for a professional business pitch, not for them to adjust, cut and paste your pitch together to get more views.
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You can have that attitude, or you can look at it like this:

He went on a show to get exposure for his idea. He is going on the show for 3things:
1. to get funding
2. to show the world his product - to advertise the same product on ITV1, say would cost him £1000s.
3. if he fails to get funding from the dragons, then somebody who watches the show might offer to fund his project.

Remember, the director wants a great show, but you need the investment AND exposure. The exposure part is actually very important.
 
That's right. I got 135000 hits on my website within hours of the show broadcasting .. and as dragons den was sold (and shown abroad) -- lots more hits. These generated plenty of sales (well over 100 at £100 a pop within 5 hours of initial broadcast )-- Don't get me wrong -- the product was still a failure - but because of DD I was way > £10,000 closer to getting back into the black -- just because of the show).

It's amazing how much total hate email I got after the show came out. >200 hate emails. People writing as nasty stuff as they could imagine -- thinking it would somehow 'get to me'.

I just LOLOLOLed through the lot of them. Wrote back to a lot of the 'haters' which really threw most off their guard (when I was reasonable back to them -- amazing how many wierdly wrote back again this time being kind of respectful! ). Printed the best hatemail (read 'worst!) out -- took them to the pub to read to my mates etc. which we all loved over a beer or three. It was great - a real insight into people. These people had such venomous hatred towards me -- it was just wierd reading the emails! Apparently soap stars CHARACTERS (not the actors) get similar hate mail. Writing to a fictional character about how much you totally and utterley hate them? There are some wierd folk out there ....! Interesting stuff..
 
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why are there so many people that are surprised that it's staged in certain ways?

it's TV! TV IS NOT REAL. :/
 
Kenai said:
hahahahahahaha

if you are after 'professional business' you don't go to a TV show
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Why not?

If you are company that is already trading and making money, you may want exposure. This program is the perfect platform to give you that exposure. Even if you don't get funding, other investors may come on board, simply because they saw you on the show and liked your ideas.

There have been plenty of companies that I've seen on Dragon's Den, which have been trading and making money and end up getting investment from the dragons.
 
Having just watched it I think you came out of it pretty well britboy4321, you seemed articulate, charismatic and there have certainly been a lot worse inventions on there. Well done for doing it, it must have taken some courage!
 
I don't think your product is a million miles away from something workable, as there are a few Cyclotrainers (quite expensive) out there which you put your bike on and then can be connected to a computer or tv and then give you a video or 3d ride.

The real clincher for them I think would simply have been if it was designed to just work with a TV that could easily be in a gym room in your house.


As for filming with a single camera.
Bare in mind that this was the first series I believe and Dragon's Den has grown a lot since then, I'd imagine they use more than one camera now to get the better responses, especially from what I can tell.
 
britboy4321 said:
That's right. I got 135000 hits on my website within hours of the show broadcasting .. and as dragons den was sold (and shown abroad) -- lots more hits. These generated plenty of sales (well over 100 at £100 a pop within 5 hours of initial broadcast )-- Don't get me wrong -- the product was still a failure - but because of DD I was way > £10,000 closer to getting back into the black -- just because of the show).

It's amazing how much total hate email I got after the show came out. >200 hate emails. People writing as nasty stuff as they could imagine -- thinking it would somehow 'get to me'.

I just LOLOLOLed through the lot of them. Wrote back to a lot of the 'haters' which really threw most off their guard (when I was reasonable back to them -- amazing how many wierdly wrote back again this time being kind of respectful! ). Printed the best hatemail (read 'worst!) out -- took them to the pub to read to my mates etc. which we all loved over a beer or three. It was great - a real insight into people. These people had such venomous hatred towards me -- it was just wierd reading the emails! Apparently soap stars CHARACTERS (not the actors) get similar hate mail. Writing to a fictional character about how much you totally and utterley hate them? There are some wierd folk out there ....! Interesting stuff..
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Very strange - what were they trying to get out of it :confused:
 
About an hour ago I was watching my wife & daughter playing on the new Wii Fit Plus and they were cycling around the Island.
One of them actually said wouldn't it be a good idea if you could fit it up to an exercise bike and everytime I go on my treadmill I wonder if it would be possible to fit that up to a Wii (and not just using the controller bobbing up and down).
However, I reckon Duncan knows his stuff and it wouldn't be long before I just put my normal TV back on.
 
One thing you have to remember is that just because those 4-5 dragons think an idea wont take off, it doesn't mean that this is a fact. I'm sure in their lives they have passed up many opportunities that went on to become massive.
 
sunama said:
One thing you have to remember is that just because those 4-5 dragons think an idea wont take off, it doesn't mean that this is a fact. I'm sure in their lives they have passed up many opportunities that went on to become massive.
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Ofcourse they have. They often say that a product is likely to be big but the investment deals wern't good enough, not high enough returns, had too much risk or it would be too much work.
 
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