Member Article

Den opens its doors again

The BBC’s popular investment pitch programme, Dragons’ Den, is seeking entrepreneurs to feature in the next series. The show is in its fifth series and continues to offer entrepreneurs from across the country the funding to make their business dreams come true.

The entrepreneurs can ask for any amount of investment in return for equity in their business. However, they must get the amount they ask for or they will walk away with nothing. The Dragons are prepared to listen to a pitch for any kind of business but they must be convinced that it will make money. As demonstrated by the investments in the last four series, ideas, businesses and products that meet some or all of the following criteria stand a good chance of securing the Dragons’ interest:

• The Unique Selling Point: a product that serves a need like nothing else
• Scalability: something that can be up scaled to make real money
• Route to Market: the clear way the product can be sold and marketed
• Mutually Beneficial Arrangement: just what will the Dragons get out of it?
• Exit Strategy: a plan of how the entrepreneur/Dragon will exit and make money

Last series 10 entrepreneurs received investment from the Dragons’ Den, the most famous of which was Brixton based Levi Roots, who secured an investment of £50,000 when he serenaded the Dragons, convincing them that his Reggae Reggae Sauce deserved funding.

The BBC is currently searching for entrepreneurs and will be auditioning throughout over the next few months. Application forms are available at www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .