To think the bar is set very high in Dragon’s Den?

[Watney]

Just watched the first episode of the new series earlier - and omg - the Dragons are very ‘exacting’ aren’t they ?

People present what sounds like a very good business idea - and the Dragons critique it to the nth degree ..

personally I think the contestants that appear on that show are amazing .. as well as the Dragons themselves

If they are investing their own money, they should and do query patents, numbers etc, and not knowing your stats is never going to fly, that should be at your fingertips. Apparently each pitch is about 2.5 hours, we just get edited highlights and then several fall apart in post show meetings....

Love watching it though. And having the cojones to go on in the first place is impressive.

Loved the repeated shots of Peter Jones trying to peel that supplement thing from the roof of his mouth.

Oh yes Peter ! 🤣

I was just wondering tonight actually how much of it was edited

Some of them don't seem to know the basic numbers. I only watched a bit at the end and the contestant didn't even know what the target profit was for 2025. I know our financial position off by heart always as a director of a small organisation and I'm only a salaried employee not the owner operator. If it was my entire livelihood I'd know it to the penny.

We get about 10 minutes for anything up to 3 hours.
A friend of a friend was on one of the very early series, got an investment for something that tidied cables or some such. Did well out of it. But there were tons of follow up meetings post pitch before it happened.

I'm sure a few years ago someone did an AMA on it, I think she'd done something re suncream for kids, I can't recall exactly, it was really interesting though.

Ah thanks was also wondering what happened post pitch

They need to show more updates on past shows.
They need to change meaden and jones now.
Why have they been on since 2005 with no change?

They're not going on for a pat on the back and some free cash. They're going for an investment.

A good idea does not always equal an investment idea either. The dragons want to make a return on their investment and in a reasonable time. If the dragon invests 30k and the business makes 40k in profit, it doesn't mean the dragon is all paid off. If they agree a 10% stake...they got 4k back in a year...still 26k down...it would be 8 years before the dragon saw a profit, assuming it remained stable.

Definitely the dragons have said this - that they can see it being a nice little earner, but it's just not going to bring it hard and fast enough to be worth it.

I do think they're great. And even the arguably shit ones are still better than I'll ever be...whether it's a rubbish product or just no idea about their market, numbers or business.

It's entertainment. Any business that happens is largely incidental...

It's getting too sentimental like a lot of shows. It was quite hard nosed business in the beginning.

I'm not keen on guest dragons as it all then gets on one theme related to them. I like a mixture of mad things.

Yes me too

Things have progressed since the days of Duncan Bannatyne and that old armchair as a gym thing.

Did anyone see Trinny last night? Her lip fillers looked very strange. Seems like a savvy businesswoman though.