Member Article

Turning down Bannatyne investment pays off for Linkee founders

Wetherby entrepreneur Dean Tempest has hit the business big time with his trivia game creation, Linkee, despite walking away from BBC2’s Dragon’s Den empty-handed in an episode screened last week on BBC2.

Earlier this year, Tempest, together with his co-inventors Tristan Hyatt-Williams and Ben Drummond, turned down a £50,000 investment from veteran Dragon, Duncan Bannatyne, and has since had orders from numerous nationwide stockists, including John Lewis, Hamleys, Beales, Lakeland and Firebox.com.

Linkee, which is all set to be a top seller this Christmas, is a simple quiz game with a twist. You don’t win by answering the questions but by working out what the answers have in common. For example, if the answers were John, Paul, George and Ringo, the Linkee would be, The Beatles.

Tempest said: “We like to think of Linkee as the ‘black sheep’ of quiz games, so in a way it’s not surprising that we walked away from the Dragon’s Den empty-handed – by choice.

“Duncan’s offer was generous but we weren’t prepared to hand over so much of our business in return for his help.

“As it happens, even though none of us is from the toy industry, we’re managing to make Linkee a massive success without the backing of a Dragon.

“Linkee now has pride of place on John Lewis shelves nationwide as well as being stocked by Hamleys and online giant Firebox.com and a wealth of independent toy stores across the UK.”

Over a third of the questions in Linkee are written by people who have actually played the game, so they’re ‘topical, relevant and fun’.

Players can also put their heads together to create their own questions and visit www.playlinkee.com to submit them for the next edition, potentially winning themselves prizes in the process.

Six months after manufacturing its first game, Linkee entered John Lewis stores and other major retailers followed.

Tempest added: “Linkee proves that you don’t necessarily need a Dragon to succeed when you have an outstanding game that’s destined to become a household name.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .