Have you or anyone you know ever been on Dragons Den?

[EnterTheDragonsDen]

Someone close to me has applied to go on there.

Anyone have any experience of this?

I think I recall a post in AMA from a poster who had been on, with a really great product 🤔

I don’t recall the name of the person or the product sadly, but worth having a search in that topic! Or maybe the poster will see this thread 🙂

I know someone who went on but they were headhunted to go on rather than applying. They didn't get an offer and filming went on for hours.

Yes, one of dc teachers.

Someone I went to school with went on there with a disability aid. As far as I recall she didn’t get investment.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/AMA/4500739-I-was-on-Dragons-Den-AMA?

Thanks for the AMA link!

Interesting that they head hunt people. It doesn't surprise me. Also the person I know has had to provide SO MUCH detailed financial information that it amazes me that anyone can get in front of the dragons and not know the difference between their net and gross profit, for example. I'm not sure how those people even get through the selection process from what I've seen of it. It's incredibly rigorous.

My theory is that they must use some people as filler to pad out the programme and the production team know which people haven't got a good enough grasp of their figures, or have massively over-valued their company but they put them through anyway. But assuming everyone has to go through exactly the same intense and lengthy selection process and are asked similar questions, I am amazed that so many don't seem to know the answers to some of the most obvious things when asked.

I agree. I think they probably have three streams of people that they look out for: the dynamic entrepreneurial go-getters with amazing businesses and impressive balance sheet figures who will almost certainly get the interest of two or more dragons; the ones with a decent enough situation who need to convince the dragons and it might go either way; and the utterly hopeless, clueless ones who are never going to stand up to the remotest scrutiny and - sad to say - are primarily there for viewers to laugh at.

Like on The X-Factor: for every Leona Lewis or Alexandra Burke, there are probably 30 people who can hold a tune OK-ish but nothing special, and 10 Chicken-Shop Guys who come on to sing Barbie Girl!

Yes X Factor is the exact analogy I used when I was discussing it with this person!