The Online Dragons Den has become so successful that it is going offline… to BBC2.
The Online Dragons Den is the same concept to the Dragons Den we know and love but is much more accessible to pitchers. Anyone can submit a video to the Online Dragons Den asking for an investment of up to £50,000 and the best pitches are selected by the BBC and the entrepreneurs are invited to pitch to the online dragons Shaf Rasul and Julie Meyer.
Edinburgh based Shaf has made his millions in property and computers. His E-net Computers business is worth £35m and has other interests in Dubai and property.
Julie Meyer
American by birth and European in spirit, Julie came to Paris in September 1988 and has been working with technology business leaders and entrepreneurs ever since.
Episode One
The BBC2 show is hosted by Dom Bryne who presents the highlights from the online pitches. This week the show includes Graeme and Tom Hill’s Mpod and Victor Scott’s commuter-friendly trolley trike. Plus Brian Loughborough’s economical haircare solution and Christine Turner-Crowe’s Hay Hammock.
Graeme and Tom Hill’s Mpod never got as far as the dragons, it was a large sack with the words SOS on it which you put over yourself to signify the need for help if you break down on the motorway. All very Odd.
Marcus Reoch http://www.dragonsineurope.com did get into the den, dressed like a court jester, he was looking for £50,000 for 15% in “the Chinese dragons club” teaching afterschool mandarin to children. Marcus was questioned thoroughly in typical Dragons Den style. The dragons first discussed the concept of the company and then went on to discuss financials. Julie was out because she didn’t feel Marcus was hungry to grow and increase revenues. She felt this was more of a lifestyle business for Marcus rather than an investment. After Julie was out Marcus revealed more to Shaf to try and get his investment. Shaf just couldn’t see how he could get the investment to stack up and make a return so he was out also.
Lisa Penn and Matthew Penn were next to make it into the den with their cosy shopper baby blanket. They wanted £20,000 for 15% for their business and gave a positive pitch, however the dragons felt the couple weren’t committed to giving enough time to the business.
Family fridge limited http://www.familyfridge.co.uk, is a free website the invention of Alexi Deak who wanted £20,000 investment for 20% in this free website. The website is a free planner, it includes calendars, pictures, gift lists and more, everything you might stick to the fridge! (as soon as the pitch started the Family Fridge website went down!). Alexi struggled to really articulate what family fridge did. Shaf has website investment experience and felt the return might not be their from advertising. Alexi revealed that he was nominated for young entrepreneur of the year. Julie offered the £20,000 for 30%. Shaf matched the offer but highlighted that he was an entrepreneur not just an investor and would work closely with him. Alexi accepted the offer from Julie.
Summary
An interesting start to BBC Two’s Online Den. Some of the “raw” pitches are a little cringe worthy but it is fascinating to see the smaller investors getting the chance to pitch. Since the Den, Marcus has published several Chinese books, the cosy shopper is available at several retailers, and Alexi’s Family Fridge is growing fast.
Geeks.co.uk has popped up on my radar several times in the last few months. I first came aware of the site after a couple of their posts popped up on the social bookmarking site Digg.com. Soon after this while researching my Dragons Den posts I found Online Dragon Shaf Rasul from the online Dragon’s Den had invested in Geeks.co.uk. Finally just the other week Geeks.co.uk announced that they had brought in 7Thingsmedia to “implement a branding and commercial strategy which will support the site in realising its ambition to become the most popular lifestyle gadget site in the UK.” 7Thingsmedia is managed by Chris Bishop one of my former work colleagues.
So I thought it was time I took a closer look!
Geeks.co.uk was formed in July 2009, it was around this time that online Dragon Shaf Rasul invested in the company. Shaf has become well known after starring in the Dragons Den online den where anyone can pitch a video to him asking for investment. He has an extensive portfolio of property and technology investments and is no stranger to website investments, which include Vuru a social networking site for entrepreneurs and Boffer a daily deal website.
Geeks.co.uk is run by a team of eight writers, who test and review the latest in gadgets, tech and games. The site is split into News, Lifestyle, Gadget reviews, Game reviews and forums. The site is quite an intuitive blog / magazine layout with the main page featuring the latest stories and the categories displaying a “feed” of posts in chronological order.
Site review
Clearly the site is still finding its feet, it has a message in the header saying it is in development and to report any issues, the design feels quite basic and at odds with it’s geek audience, I would have expected something more polished, also I found the drop down menus were very temperamental on Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer 8 – If I hover on one of the menu choices such as lifestyle but then move the mouse down to click on the menu, the menu disappears before I can click.
The articles are well written, I particularly enjoyed the “Geek World” articles such as “The top 50 Geekiest TV Shows” – a classic Top xx list which provokes debate and conversation in the comments stream. If your wondering I only watch 20 of the top 50 – though I could name a few shows which should make the top 50!
Equally the game reviews were good for giving an unbiased look at the pros and cons of the game. However I was disappointed by the gadget reviews I read, this is where I think the concept of the site is at odds with itself, the site is called “geeks” but the content is very mainstream, if I am a Geek I know where to find the best niche sites for all “geek reviews” eg AV forums is a brilliant resource for TV reviews and indepth details, but the geeks.co.uk reviews that I read didn’t even contain a full list of features.
I was also confused by the forums, there was a forum thread for every post, this left me confused, should I leave a comment on the post or should I write in the forum?
Overall though I think the site is fantastic for one that’s only three months old, there is obviously a lot of growth potential and in just three months they are already receiving an estimated 4,600 visits a day. Obviously they still have some way to get to the traffic level of wired.com and engadget who I would consider their competitors, but I would love 4,600 views a day on any one of my sites!
However once I sat back and forgot about the word Geek, I realised it’s a really fun site that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and while still small I can see it building a great community of constructive and engaged fans in the forum, whereas some other sites you feel scared to comment for fear of sounding stupid!
Charles’ 3 things
If I were running Geeks.co.uk here are three things I would do (partially with my consumer hat on and partially with my eCommerce / monetisation hat)…
1. Become an affiliate – Most of the posts on Geeks.co.uk relate to a specific product or are a top 10 list (which tend to drive most of the traffic to sites through social media). I would become an Amazon affiliate and link to those products on Amazon or other sites and make a small commission off of each sale – eg Top 10 Cameras, or Top 50 Geekiest TV Shows, link to the cameras or link to the boxsets, your readers will actually like that you are providing more information and a means to purchase and won’t mind / won’t know that you are making a small commission.
2. Revisit the site template design – there are a few frustrating things like the drop down menus not working which need to be sorted out now while the site is small as they may prevent users from coming back. (since writing this I have interviewed 7Thingsmedia Managing director Chris Bishop (see below) and discovered that this is also at the top of their list to do.
3. Don’t have a forum thread for each article, this is what the comments are for, having a forum thread aswell only confuses me as to where I should post, but the forum is great asset to see what your users are interested in and discussing to help form future posts.
Interview with Chris Bishop of 7Thingsmedia
As I previously mentioned Chris Bishop founder and managing director of 7Thingsmedia is a friend and former work colleague of mine, so when I heard that 7Thingsmedia had been brought in to boost the Geeks.co.uk Media strategy I asked if he’d be able to answer a few questions.
Can you tell us how you came to be involved with Geeks.co.uk?
It was via a personal referral to BBC Online Dragon, Shaf Rasul. He was passed my details and we’ve starting discussing several of his projects including his own businesses and some of his investments one of which was his investment in geeks.co.uk. A flight to Edinburgh, a speedy transfer in a Aston Martin and a quick meeting with Shaf plus the wider team led to us all agreeing on a set plan to achieve our goals.
Geeks.co.uk has strong competition from other sites such as Wired.com, and more specialist sites such as AVforums (in my opinion), what do you think differentiates it and makes it stand out from the crowd of geeky / tech blogs?
Our initial objective is to create a fun consumer resource that allows every day gamers and gadget users to create fun debate on the gadgets and technology we use very day. The website is in its infancy at the minute, but we are looking to quickly scale this with a goal to become a lifestyle portal and the most successful of its kind in the UK.
We are thriving in the early commentary and feedback from our early adopters; we always aim to reply and want to build a platform that will empower our audience to fully engage in their interests – the aim is to create a trusted news source with a knowledge opinion mixed with a dash of wit, charm or an element of a stand out experience – we are all aware to be successful it’s for our users to fall in love with us, not for us to sell it to them!
You’ve been brought in to “head the strategic development of the magazine” what does this mean? What does it encompass?
Geeks.co.uk is the first website property on the books at 7thingsmedia and part of the advantages of being a digital start-up is the degree of agility the business can have. We are onboard to set the online marketing and commercial plans for the website – we are currently in a process of making recommendations to the team and starting to build the ties with various media agencies and directly with brands.
Naturally the aim is to build a profitable trading website to ensure the online magazine can become a set above the rest in its genre – both in it’s reach and quality content, whether that be basic style & copy or new technologies such as augmented reality.
Can you give us a sneak preview of anything coming soon?
Our first priority is to review the current skin of the website therefore we are currently reviewing version 2 of the site and aiming to release a new look shortly with the aim build the geeks.co.uk brand, improve the community elements and customer experience whilst offering advertisers a range of opportunities linked to our members’ interests and passions.
Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
The one area which we love at geeks.co.uk is participation and discussion – I’d personally love to see a Charles Barsley article and/or a Barsley Brief reader writing an article for the online magazine or involved in a passionate debate on the forum – we are all know the web is the perfect vehicle for the joining of opinion and also discussion – so I’d to welcome the floor to all consider a contribution and contact Ally – ed@geeks.co.uk with your idea.
Thank you Chris for taking the time to answer these questions. I look forward to seeing version 2 of the site, and continuing to read the great articles, you never know there might be a Charles Barsley article there one day, if I can just find something inspiring to write about.
I’d love to hear your thoughts of the site, this review (my first site review) or any other sites you think I should look at and review. Please leave a comment.
Well the Den is closed for another season, but don’t worry for all is not lost as now perhaps the best bits are on TV. It’s all very well seeing entrepreneurs go into the den, but often what I want to know is what happened next. This season the BBC doesn’t disappoint with 5 episodes of “Dragons Den: on Tour” following the Dragons as they tour the country visiting entrepreneurs both who they invested in and turned down to see where they are now.
Today in Episode one the tour heads south, featuring the colourful father and son team behind Ladderbox, the opening of pop sculptor Guy Portelli’s exhibition, and olive oil enthusiast Michael North, who dared to take on Deborah Meaden during his time in the Den.
Peter Jones catches up with one of his investments, Rachel Watkyn from Tiny Box Company, and the Den Destroyer Theo Paphitis drops in on the man behind one of the most popular products not to get investment – Rob Law’s Trunki – to find out if he was wrong to not invest.
Below I’ve covered some of my favourite bits from the episode.
The program starts showing the Dragon’s Den On Tour Bus, I find it hard to believe that they would all travel together on a bus.but you never know.
Rob and Geoff Hill came onto Dragons Den in 2008 wanting £100,000 for 15% equity. They were quite an entertaining pitch but ultimately didn’t get investment in the den. The company had been in place quite a while and Duncan Bannatyne felt they had come to Dragons Den to bail them out as they couldn’t sell them.
A year on Duncan Bannatyne, their harshest critic goes to visit them. The pair are keen to show him the newest product in their range, but it’s an odd start as they chauffeur him to the house in a golf cart. They had lost £93,000 on the Mk1 Ladder box, but invested a further £50,000 in development of the Mk2 Ladderbox with paint roller. Rob and Geoff think it will take another £40,000 to get it to market. Duncan believes they should just give up. However the pair have a licencing deal on the table which will mean they don’t have to put in any more money and they’ll get £1 per unit. If they can sign this Duncan thinks this is the best way. However he still believes fundamentally it is a bad idea, do date they have not signed a contract.
The Tiny Box Company produces ethical recycled packaging boxes for the gift and jewellery boxes. Duncan was disappointed with the quality of the product, even Deborah “the ethical dragon didn’t invest”. But Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones were interested, they invested together for 40% total and £60,000. The other Dragons were surprised.
A year on and the Tiny Box company have a new warehouse, and Christian has left the tiny box company leaving Rachel alone despite giving Peter the assurance that he was committed. Peter Jones visited the company and is very pleased with the progress so far. Rachel has a great business but Peter Jones isn’t convinced if it will ever become a big business.
Rob Law is the creator of the Trunki, perhaps the most popular product to be turned down by the Dragons three years ago. As ever Theo tested the Trunki to breaking point and snapped the strap, this stopped most of dragons from investing or asking for a large equity stake. Theo went as far as saying he was wasting his time in the den.
Theo “the destroyer” goes back three years on to meet Rob in Trunki Towers. Theo Paphitis says he now sees them everywhere when he goes to the airports. The company has expanded from Trunki’s (now on the Mark 3), to saddlebags and rucksacks which convert into booster seats.
The company is has an annual £1.4 million turnover, but fairly low profits. Theo said it is imperative to ensure he has the cashflow to go forwards as he was worried about the low profit margins and wished Rob the best of luck.
Guy Portellis offer was an unusual one, he was offering 25% of 100 of his Pop art sculptures which he would display and sell for an investment of £70,000 at a large exhibition. The dragons were interested and this sparked a bidding war. Guy Portellis got Theo Paphitis, James Caan and Peter Jones for £80,000. A key point of this was that this would give him three guest lists.
In Royal Tunbridge Wells James Caan visited Guy in his studio, and admired the range of pieces Guy had already produced. A year later the sculptures have been created and he is ready to exhibit. With the dragons help they have a impressive guest list at the exhibition, but would people buy? Since the exhibition 4 pieces have been sold for a total of £60,000 and guy is now touring the pieces.
Michael is passionate about fresh seasonal olive oil. His company was an olive oil club giving his club members 12 bottles of olive oil a year of fresh seasonal olive oil. He annoyed Deborah in the den after contradicting her and none of the dragons chose to invest.
Deborah Meaden went to visit Michael a year to see how he was getting on. Deborah has bought one of her favourite oils and asks how old it is, and he correctly tastes it as a 2007 olive oil. They go on to taste several of Michaels newest freshest oils.
Michael isn’t making a product from the olive oil clubs but he has other products which he now sells, including a Balsamic vinegar spray, for instant salad spraying! Deborah is sceptical that Michael has no unique selling point and he has not spoken to any supermarkets. Deborah feels he needs a business partner to focus on the business side while he focuses on the Olive Oil side. Deborah feels she was right not to invest.
Dragons Den is back again next Sunday at 9pm on BBC2
Every series in the den it seems an entrepreneur gets a second chance against the Dragons, and this series is no exception. Tonight one of the entrepreneur’s from a previous series is returning to try again.
Samantha was pitching for £120,000 for 20% of her company. This is here second appearance in the den showcasing the latest addition to her crime prevention range a electric blind closer and opener.
Here is a clip of Samantha’s first visit to the den. She is the first to pitch and shows her FakeTV invention.
Unfortunately the clip stops half way through Samantha’s pitch so here is the continuation
Since the above program was aired Samantha has developed the FakeTV into a retail product and it is now available to buy for just £27 on Amazon.co.uk.
Back to today in the den though! Not the best start when the BBC announcer (at the end of the previous show) said she was one of the worst pitchers of the previous series. This episode she was pitching her latest invention an electric blind closer. As with previous products this is an “occupency simulator” so when you are on holiday the blinds or curtains will automatically open.
As with all great dragons den technological demonstrations, it didn’t work! The curtains she was demonstrating with failed to open. Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis were shocked that it was around £70 for each set of curtains. Deborah Meaden just didn’t like the product.
Theo Paphitis questioned what she was there for and Samantha admitted she wanted help. James Caan felt she hadn’t moved forwards enough in a year and become commercially viable so he was out, Theo Paphitis was also out but felt she would be successful with a different product.
Peter Jones though said don’t come back! He was out because he didn’t feel the idea was any good.
Deborah felt Sam would be successful but not with this. Duncan Bannatyne was torn but declared himself out, the idea just wasn’t good enough.
I wasn’t sure whether this was a good idea or not. I used to have automatic opening track curtains and this is certainly a inexpensive method of doing a similar job however I would have liked to have seen the curtains close again (I don’t know that they would of. If you are on holiday you need them to open and close daily not just once.
Ronan wanted £108,000 for 10% in his shoe shine company. The Spit n Polish Shoeshine company’s key selling point is their modern shoe shine booths which include a mobile phone charger, TV (for sponsors), mug holder, the day’s papers etc. I wasn’t convinced this could be profitable but after seeing the Apprentice this season make an absolute killing from shoe shining I didn’t want to underestimate Ronan, that said I don’t think the Apprentices had to pay rent!
Ronan gave a solid pitch and demonstration and had already got locations in a couple of BAA airports. James had his shoes shined and Deborah got straight to business, wanting to understand the business model.
Ronan struggled to get a number out of Ronan but managed in the end. The booths cost £5,000 to make and should generate £55,000 a year. Ronan went on to give impressive profit projections to James.
Duncan Bannatyne questioned where the shoe shine station would be as he knows the shoe shiner at Heathrow who can barely make a living. Duncan felt Ronan’s projections were unrealistic to get 7 customers an hour etc and was out. Peter also went out.
Deborah found Ronan exasperating and was out. Theo Paphitis was out too.
This just left James Caan, who liked the model and the booth but felt it was a tough way to make money. He made an offer of £108,000 but for 40% of the business. This is a lot more than Ronan wanted to give away. James felt this was a completely theoretical business with no testing so 40% was what he wanted. Ronan chose not to negotiate but to leave with nothing as the offer was so far from the original 10%
Ian and Peter were seeking £120,000 for 15% of their company Grillstream which produces an easy to clean grill tray that collects and stores the fat from sausages and other meats. To look at it is a ridged baking tray but much thicker, much like a George Foreman the fat runs down the ridges. However the difference is that like a grill, there are open bars with gaps between them, the fat clings to the bars and rolls to the front rather than sticking to the grill pan.
Deborah questioned whether it would work if it wasn’t put together correctly and it did work. Theo Paphitis wanted to know what they would do with the money. They didn’t have a clear answer of how they could use the money. They seemed to want to launch the two products but didn’t have a clear idea of how much different things cost.
They felt they would make £350,00 after tax profit in year one despite their current business which one had been working in for 17 years only making £50,00 this year, James was out.
Deborah wasn’t convinced by the product, Duncan felt the offer was too steep, if they just needed help they should have asked for less money or even nothing and was out as was Deborah.
Peter Jones didn’t want to be the face of the grill, the next George Foreman so he was out!
Theo Paphitis felt they had a great product but the only way to make money was offer it built in and licence it to manufacturers. He asked what they would do with the money and they said develop new products (not licence it)
They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and left with nothing!
Jason Roberts – Tech 21
Please leave a comment with the web address!
Jason from Tech 21 wanted £150,000 for just 5% of his company which creates Impact Protection cases for mobiles and PC’s. I had already heard of Tech21’s products before the iBand for the 3G iPhone and they also have similar products for the iPods but I hadn’t heard of the company. However I felt their offer of just 5% was particularly low.
He gave a rather nervous pitch but once he got into it he covered the key points.
I felt it was a little odd that he is only licensing D3O the technology that the products use, so is reliant on them for the future of his company.
Theo Paphitis want to hear about Jason’s career. He had worked in the bag industry for a long time but wanted to go alone. Theo questioned the 5% but Jason gave some strong revenue figures but maybe not strong enough. Jason revealed he had future possibilities to work with the mobile phone manufacturers to put the technology directly in the phones.
James asked probing questions with regards to current accounts but Jason wasn’t able to answer. Both James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne declared themselves out.
For £100,000 Jason would be the exclusive user of D3O for 3 years. Jason then revealed he had a long term contract for 1000’s of laptop sleeves a month from one PC manufacturer (but is this a real contract in the dragons eyes?)
Peter Jones offered half the money and with his past mobile and technology experience wanted 20% this is 4 times the amount for half the money!
Theo Paphitis was impressed but felt it was very risky, he matched Peters offer. This gave Jason a full offer but for 40%.
Deborah offered half the money for 15% of the business, she would add value in her own way but agreed Theo and Peter were better for the mobile, technology investment for a quicker launch.
Jason thanked Deborah for her offer but took the higher offers from Theo and Peter for 40% off the company.
This was the first episode of the current series not to have 2 deals! I was shocked! However I did feel this week had some of the most “normal” and commercial products of any episode.
I was forwarded this You Tube video by a Dragons Den fan and loved it. You may remember Josephine Buchan from episode 3, who came into the den pitching “Dusty : A Life in Musical”. Well Bracetower on Youtube has re cut the pitch in what he has entitled “Awkward Silences: Dragons Den”. Note that the sound is not the original from the show (in case you didn’t see the show they did sing much better!) Anyway I don’t want to give away too much so enjoy and leave a comment with your thoughts!
Edinburgh based Shaf has made his millions in property and computers. His E-net Computers business is worth £35m and has other interests in Dubai and property.
American by birth and European in spirit, Julie came to Paris in September 1988 and has been working with technology business leaders and entrepreneurs ever since.
