Episode 7 is the penultimate episode of this 8 episode season, looking at the BBC preview it’s set to be an interesting one. Including one of the highest investment requests I can remember!
Michael Oke – Bound Biographies
http://www.boundbiographies.com
Michael wanted a £75,000 investment for a 20% equity stake in his company Bound Biographies which offers a personal biography writing and production service. The business is a franchise scheme and Michael is looking for the money to expand this. He spoke a lot of the emotion of the job but not much regarding the actual business.
Deborah Meaden had experience of people who had made their own biographies and spoke very passionately that she didn’t like the principle as they end up spending more money than they expect.
Michael didn’t seem so strong on the figures side, spouting several numbers. Peter Jones was out as he felt Michael was “completely uninvestable as a business concept.”
James Caan questioned the growth of the company with less than one franchisee a year over its 18 year history, for this James was out.
Duncan Bannatyne didn’t feel it was a business and was out, as was Theo Paphitis. Michael left without a deal.
Kay Russell – Physicool Ltd
Kay Russell was seeking £100,000 for 20% in her company Physicool which offers a reusable sports and medical cooling bandage. Kay started strongly highlighting the worldwide sales and the unique selling points of the products but she didn’t say what she needed the money for.
Once again James Caan was keen to volunteer himself to test the product. Former tennis coach Peter Jones was quick to point out that the concept of a cooling bandage was not unique. Kay was quick to point out that this is the only reusable product on the market and that the coolant was patented / copyrighted.
Kay was very knowledgeable on the figures which showed strong growth. After Duncan’s questioning she revealed that there was a second company which sold the same product for horses but this wasn’t on the table for the dragons to invest in.
James Caan was particularly disappointed by this and declared himself out. Deborah Meaden agreed they were separate products (you wouldn’t want to think you use horse bandages!). She offered the full amount but for 30% of both businesses.
Theo Paphitis didn’t want to compete with Deborah and declared himself out, Peter Jones agreed that it is an incredible offer, Duncan agreed and Kay accepted Deborah’s offer for the full amount.
Stephen Voller – Bee Automobiles
Stephen was seeking an impressing £2.5 million for 30% in his company Bee Automobiles. Bee Automobiles is looking to produce the next generation of electric cars. I was shocked when I read this by the amount Stephen was seeking. Obviously I would expect this is nothing close to the cost of developing and producing cars but Dragons den rarely sees a investment request over £300,000 and I personally cannot remember any of a million or over. If you can leave a comment with the details!
The BBC commentator (in the adverts before the show) confirmed that this was the biggest investment request ever in the den.
Stephen gave a good but slightly stuttered presentation, covering areas of the design team, patents and the market. Peter Jones asked about Stephens background, who was the UK managing director of Netscape. Stephen went on to give details of an impressive track record.
James Caan said he would give the £2.5 million if he could be convinced it would be successful. Stephen answered James questions strongly but Theo Paphitis asked how this could be possible when all the car industries are working so hard to produce alternative fuel cars.
Theo seemed to get quite worked up that he couldn’t find a new unique selling point which would make this car sell out, with the car taking 2 years to come to market he felt it would be outdated and declared himself out.
Deborah Meaden felt this was a guaranteed failure with the competition of the market place and was out.
Duncan agreed with Theo and declared himself out.
That left James and Peter, James asked how they would market the car, he didn’t feel this could be done for the low marketing budget and declared himself out.
Peter Jones too felt £10 million wasn’t enough to create and market a car so declared himself out.
Michael Pritchard – The Anyway Spray
Michael wanted an investment of £125,000 for 5% in his company the Anyway spray. This Invention allows every last drop of liquid to be used in multi-directional household product sprays as Michael explains in this short clip.
As I research this I have a sneaky suspicious that Michael will get funding as in the last week he has really started to market the company, with several You Tube videos, a Twitter account and a brand new website (did he have dragon help?), but lets see if I’m right!
He gave a good demonstration presenting the product. His business plan was to licence the product for a royalty of 1p per use. Michael shocked Theo Paphitis that the patents were only pending and he had no idea whether they would be accepted.
Deborah liked the product but was not happy with the lack of a patent. Duncan felt the product was worth nothing unless people bought / licence the product from him. Duncan was out as he felt it was more effort for a manufacturer to integrate the Anyway Spray into their products.
James Caan couldn’t see the need for this product so was out. Deborah felt it was a “wild gamble” and was out.
Peter Jones didn’t feel that a manufacturer would want to use this because of the extra cost of using them, but he offered half the money for a massive 20% because of the lack of patent.
Theo Paphitis matched Peters offer.
The full amount was on the table but for 40% not 5%. Michael tried to negotiate down, the dragons offered to each give 5% back after making their money back. This would take the investment down to 30% but Michael wanted to hold onto more of the equity.
He negotiated down to 10% for each dragon with a money back guarantee (I didn’t fully understand how he would afford this!)
Summary
In a lighter moment in one of the in-between clips an investor creating luxury Tudor playhouses wasn’t able to get an investment but did make a sale to Peter Jones!
The Bee Automobile was possibly one of the most interesting pitches of the series for me. Britain has a long history of independent car makers. It would have been great to see him get this investment but I have to say I agree with the dragons, I can’t see how they would produce it and market it for the £10,000,000 budget.
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