Now I’m only a teenage scribbler (as chancellor Dominic Lawson as soon as described Metropolis analysts) but it surely appears to me that if I used to be CEO of such a venerable Savile Row shirtmaker as Hawes & Curtis, I might use my weekly primetime telly slot to indicate off a distinct shirt every week.
Not so, Touker Suleyman.
The Hawes & Curtis boss appears to put on the identical shirt each week. Now, this troubles me. Both (a) Touker solely owns one shirt or (b) like Andy Warhol, he has a wardrobe filled with precisely the identical shirt or (c) like TV interviewer David Frost, he breaks into a brand new shirt every episode and throws away the packaging. Both approach, the Fourth Property calls for a solution.
Anyway, on with tonight’s present…
First by means of the raise doorways was entrepreneur Annie Mitchell and her Bottleshot chilly brew canned espresso. Perky American Annie wished £80,000 in change for a 2 per cent stake in her espresso model.
However Deborah Meaden pulled a face when really tasted the brew. “I don’t get pleasure from this in any respect,” she grimaced. “This tastes weak.”
“In my opinion, it tastes watered down,” agreed Touker.
However Annie batted away Deborah’s style considerations, citing blind-tasting analysis which gave her cold-brew espresso a heat reception.
It was the enterprise’s £4m valuation that gave Touker the jitters.
“You’ve come right here with a ridiculous valuation,” he mentioned. “It simply doesn’t stack up.”
Having already raised £1.3m in funding with assist from espresso trade consultants, it wasn’t precisely clear precisely why Annie wanted any extra dragon money. I think the actual cause why Annie had come on TV was to get primetime publicity for her model, not dragon gold.
Ultimately, 4 of the dragons gave her chilly brew the chilly shoulder.
It was solely Peter Jones who perked up, supply all the cash for 10 per cent of the enterprise – 5x extra fairness than she was providing.
“I’m going to be the man who will help you make this an infinite model globally,” he pronounced.
Ultimately, Annie accepted Peter’s supply and left filled with beans.
Subsequent by means of the doorways had been Farhad and his companion Tibo, who had been flogging their biodegradable plant-based packaging idea.
The pair had been asking for £150,000 for a 7.5 per cent stake of their model, which, as eco warrior Deborah Meaden identified, is the “holy grail” all people is searching for.
It was Peter Jones who rained on their parade, declaring that the plant-based buying bag let in water – after which their pitch collapsed as rapidly as their luggage.
Flogging the idea was actually the phrase because it turned out the pair didn’t really personal their very own IP; they had been simply a few not-very-good salesmen who stumbled over any technical questions.
Unsurprisingly, all 5 dragons binned that individual gross sales pitch.
Third by means of the doorways tonight was Steven Murr, bike store gross sales assistant and inventor of the TurboRocks indoor biking plate. Principally, this was a wobbly platform you strap your racing bike onto indoors to recreate the texture of highway biking.
Steve wished £90,000 for a 5 per cent stake in his enterprise, which he ran out of his backyard shed whereas nonetheless working part-time in his native cycle retailer.
Would the dragons inform him to get on his bike?
Steven Bartlett questioned his namesake’s dedication to his start-up enterprise whereas nonetheless working part-time and he pedalled rapidly away.
“What you want is a enterprise companion, not an investor,” Sara Davies assured the unworldly inventor, providing all the cash in change for 35 per cent of the enterprise.
Touker, who owns on-line second-hand bike market Bikesoup, then joined the race for funding.
Sara and Touker provided to separate the £80,000 between them in change for 20 per cent of the enterprise every, which received Steven the yellow jersey.
Hopefully Steven’s backyard shed is sufficiently big for the three of them.
Final by means of the raise chugging the dragons had been Matt and Melody, whose Toucan app aimed to revolutionise charitable giving. The pair identified that since 2017 millennials have grow to be the largest charitable donation demographic in Britain.
The co-founders wished £85,000 for a 3 per cent stake of their app, which allows givers to separate a single month-to-month donation between totally different charities.
“Fairly good,” admitted Steven Bartlett after the pair completed rattling their tin. “You guys are a fairly impeccable crew.”
It was Touker who advised that what the couple actually wanted was all 5 dragons to speculate, which they might every then promote. All 5 dragons pounced on this one, providing to share 2 per cent fairness every in change for the £85,000 – so 10 per cent in all.
Who says cold-blooded dragons aren’t heat hearted?
Not fairly believing his luck, Matt then tried to nickel ‘n’ dime the fiery 5, pushing down their fairness stake from 10 per cent to 7 per cent – at which level, each dragon other than Steven turned tail.
The ethical is, by no means attempt to lowball a dragon.
