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Dragons' Den digest - Week 5
Dragons' Den digest - Week 5
August 10, 2010
Week 5 of Dragons' Den signals the halfway mark in the current series.
If you missed last week's, catch up here and below you will find the highlights of episode five.
Quote of the Episode: “I never used to use salt until three years ago. Then I discovered rock salt” Duncan Bannatyne
Idea 1
Product: Black Nut Iberian Pig Feed - Manufacture of pig feed for rare species of pig
Investment sought: £100,000 for 20 per cent
Handling: Handled questions well but his answers were his undoing. Pitched as 'Organic' when it was not.
Outcome: No investment.
Verdict: Beyond the bizarre idea, this is also a weak business plan and more of a whim.
Idea 2
Product: Tree of Knowledge - Educational play resources
Investment sought: £100,000 for 10 per cent
Handling: Educational products often do well in the Den. Nice genuine and down-to-earth pitch but didn't do enough to convince more than one Dragon wholeheartedly to invest.
Outcome: Peter Jones offered £50,000 for 20 per cent. No Dragon would match his offer and Dragons' Den rules require full value to be met for an investment.
Verdict: Good pitch but fell just short of being a 'Wow' product.
Idea 3
Product: Zigo - A combined buggy and bike invention
Investment sought: £225,000 for 6 per cent
Handling: Theo was shocked by the valuation of the business. The owners said this was due to the $400,000 invested into the business three years previously and further questioning revealed the Dragons' investment would be to cover a loss this financial year.
Outcome: No investment.
Verdict: Peter Jones saw the bigger picture. The product design, although aesthetically pleasing, was not practical.
Idea 4
Product: WedgeWelly - Stylish wellies with heels for festivals
Investment sought: £65,000 for 20 per cent
Handling: Name-dropped a few high street retailers and high-end fashion names to lure the Dragons. A weak grasp of their figures and need some astute business direction but they have a great product.
Outcome: James Caan offered the full asking price. Deborah offered the full amount but sought an additional 30 per cent. Theo offered the same and on the same terms as Deborah. WedgeWelly went for their Dragon of choice over retaining company stake: in the end they negotiated hard to get Theo down to 22.5 per cent. Theo countered with 25 per cent.
Verdict: Fun fashion product and a great deal secured for the business.
- You can replay the episode on the BBC's Dragons' Den micro site
What did you think of the episode?
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Comments
Personally I did not think much of the products last night but I can see the WedgeWelly being quite popular. It is something that my girlfriend would probably buy and wear.
Sean @ http://www.frontlinecom.co.uk/
I'd have to agree with imageandprofile. A very weak week.
I saw a huge flaw in the pig-based pitch, that didn't seem to be mentioned. Surely the reason the meat is so expensive (if it actually is), is because it is such a rare type of meat. If you start actively breeding them, and making food for them to increase their numbers, they won't be as rare, and thus will get cheaper.
I'd also imagine there's a lot of science involved in creating processed food (even for animals) in hygiene, testing, verifying correct nutrients, etc.
He seemed to be very much at the start of the process.
The educational game just seemed to be techniques I've seen a lot from other places, but then presumably they didn't give away their best training for free on tv.
The buggy and bike was quite mad. It never ceases to amaze me how much money some of the contestants can throw into products that very few people need/want, or where a better product exists already.
Or how people can value a company with huge debts, no orders or return customers, at such massive sums.
Personally, I didn't think much to the wellies either, but it was definitely the best of a bad bunch.
Didn't think this was all that good.
The pig pitch was a 'joke'. I live in Spain and believe you me, the farmers would not want to pay for a food subsitute, even if they understood what it was. Also to get hold of 500 pigs to experiment on would cost him far more than he was budgeting for.
I really didn't understand the Tree of Knowledge concept, and the exercise/game they used, I was using as a management trainer 10 years ago.
The prambike was the product of a mad American, who never let his partner say a word, and when he finally did, they contradicted each other. Got off lightly methinks.
The wellies were a fun item, but not sure that they had any market USP over many other similar wellies. The girl did well to field the questions though.
All in all, not one of the best weeks in the Den
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