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What’s got the Dragons fired up?
Dragons’ Den is back – and this time its stars say it’ll be no holds barred
Hindsight is a curious thing, in business as in life. Nick Jenkins, one of the newer Dragons on Dragons’ Den, is assessing how he would have fared had he gone on the show to pitch the business that went on to make him a multimillionaire. In true Dragons’ Den style, his verdict is blunt. While moonpig. com, the online personalised greetings card company he founded, became a phenomenal success (in no small part because of the irritatingly memorable TV advert), it was touch and go for a while. Had he had to stand there and come clean about the figures (particularly in the period when the company posted losses of £1.1 million), he’d have been shown the door. ‘I’d have been laughed out of the room,’ he admits. ‘ They’d have looked at the figures and then Peter Jones would have spat his dummy out.’
Which would have been a mistake, obviously. The brave souls who did take a punt on Nick’s company were rewarded with a return that would make the toughest Dragon weep. ‘They put in £3 million and got back £120 million,’ he points out. Still, it sounds like a gamble. ‘I was in the right place at the right time. These things are a bit like catching a wave when you’re surfing. You can do everything right, have all the best training and the best equipment, but it’s about timing too. And it worked out for me. For many, it doesn’t. For every Facebook there are hundreds of companies that would have seemed equally strong on paper. Why does one make it and another doesn’t? It’s the eternal question.’
And one which they will be publicly pondering again as the 14th season of Dragons’ Den kicks off. Last year the programme got the biggest shake-up in its history when three new Dragons – including Nick – came on board. Stalwarts Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden were also joined by retail guru Touk er Suleyman, and Sarah Willingham, who made her fortune in the restaurant business. Alas for those of us who like our TV judging panels to be of the more explosive variety (we’re thinking the glory X Factor days of Sharon Osbourne and Dannii Minogue, when water tended to get flung along with the insults) they all seemed to gel nicely. ‘The producers would probably prefer it if we didn’t get on so well,’ says Peter, a man who understands the TV industry as well as he does the business world.
Today, as we catch up with the Drag- ons, it’s all very happy families, with them swapping stories about hanging out together (Nick and Sarah have actually been on holiday together – since they’re both millionaires, boats were involved rather than caravans in Skegness). The nature of how the show is filmed (in blocks over an intensive period, and in Manchester) means they spend every evening together while it’s being made, which means, Deborah says, ‘we go out for dinner together. We spend more time together than most colleagues do. I see more of them than I do a lot of my friends. But make no mistake, once we’re in that Den it all goes out the window and it’s every Dragon for him or herself. It’s hugely competitive. It has to be.’
They all talk about how last year’s series saw the new Dragons finding their feet – and contestants (not to mention the audience) getting the measure of them. The newbies insist that they don’t feel as ‘new’ now. ‘No one is holding back this time round,’ says Touker. ‘Not that they did before, but I think there was a bedding-in period, learning how the other Dragons operate, how to predict what they’ll do.’
Obviously the dynamic between the Dragons is all-important. Put five egodriven, high-achieving competitive
‘No one is holding back this time round’
TOUKER SULEYMAN
souls in the same room and sparks
should fly. Is there a pecking order though? Four of the Dragons fall over themselves to say absolutely not, every Dragon is equal. Ask Peter Jones though – the richest, longest-serving and (by a mile) tallest Dragon – if he’s the boss and he whispers, ‘I couldn’t possibly comment, but yes I am, simply on the basis of having been here the longest. I see it as my job to keep the others on their toes.’ He’s the grandfather of the panel then, the sage voice of experience? ‘Don’t say grandfather,’ he cringes, that boyish face becoming alarmed. ‘The Godfather maybe. Let’s just say the others look up to me in more ways than one.’
They’ve just finished filming the new series when we meet, and it sounds as if there are some belters among the wannabe Richard Bran- sons. Peter says there are some ‘very slick and impressive’ business pitches. Hurrah, though, for the other end of the scale, where you find, as Nick puts it, ‘the ones who are like those X Factor contestants whose mothers have told them they can sing’. These are the poor souls who find themselves on national TV pitching a dud product, trying to convince the panel it’s the best invention since sliced bread. ‘They’re so enthusiastic about their product. Their friends and family have told them it’s great and they’ve spent years on it. They’ve applied for intellectual patents in North Korea – but we’re all thinking, “Why?” Those are the ones that make great TV, but just don’t stand a chance.’
Still, the reason the programme is still going is that amid the sea of duds there’s always the chance of a gem.
SPeter Jones says he goes into every series ‘hoping to find the next Levi Roots’. Levi, of course, is the show’s big success story. He won investment for his range of Caribbean cooking sauces – and is now a mult imillionaire himself. Peter Jones, who leapt at the chance of investing in his company, isn’t doing badly from the deal either. How much money do the Dragons really make from their investments though? Peter says his Den investments make up only about 10 per cent of his business interests. ‘I still very much have a day job,’ he says.
The newbies haven’t yet been buying Ferraris on the profits from their investments either. ‘I was talking to Deborah recently about this,’ admits Sarah. ‘And she reckons it takes four or five years to start to see any return. We’re very much in the early stages.’ till, the rewards they get aren’t always financial. No slouches in the self-promotion stakes, all the Dragons are aware that their status as business experts soars because of their involvement with the programme. Sarah says she had been quite wary of signing up, fearing that it would upset the work/life balance she’d worked so hard to achieve. ‘I had carved out a lovely life,’ admits the woman who went it alone in the first place, turning the loss-making Bombay Bicycle Club into Britain’s biggest Indian restaurant chain, because she realised that, with four children, she’d struggle to work her way up the ranks as an employee. ‘There was anxiety there. Would I upset the apple cart by going on TV? But actually it’s been wonderful. I do get recognised a bit but it’s still quite low key.’ She gets recognition from all the right places, too. ‘I think being on TV does open doors. I went to Buckingham Palace recently to talk about my work. Would that have happened without Dragons’ Den? I doubt it.’
For Peter Jones, the doors that have opened include the famous black one at 10 Downing Street. ‘I’ve advised two former prime ministers. Would that have happened if I hadn’t been on Dragons’ Den? Absolutely not.’
When Sarah joined the panel the headlines focused on her Superwoman credentials, and her ability to make her fortune while having four young children. Interestingly, the same kerfuffle never unfolded around Peter Jones, who has five children. He’s delighted to be asked how he juggles parenthood and a high-powered job. ‘I actually think having the kids around – as I often do while I’m working – is helpful. Mine are always in and out of the office. Two of them work for my companies, and the younger ones are itching to get started. My daughter Izzy, who’s 11, was in a boardroom the other day and said, “Where’s my seat?”’
Can you make multi-million-pound
‘At 28 I had nothing. I was sleeping in a garage’ PETER JONES
decisions with kids under your feet, though? Apparently so, and not just if you’re a ‘mumpreneur’ at the kitchen table. ‘Yesterday I had to make an incredibly important phone call and while I did it the kids were pulling faces through the window at me,’ says Peter. ‘I think it was helpful. I was laughing, I was relaxed, and I’m sure that came across. There are people who divide their home and work life, but I’ve never been one of them.’
The question of whether having children is a help or a hindrance is one that crops up with several of the Dragons. Nick Jenkins points out that he probably wouldn’t have had the success he’s had if he’d trodden a more traditional path. Firstly, he says, if he’d been more successful at school he’d probably have ended up being a doctor or a lawyer, rather than working for himself. ‘If you’re academically successful, you’re kind of encouraged to go into the professions,’ he says. ‘When you’re on a career track like that it’s more difficult to step off it. I get a little suspicious of people who are looking for investment but won’t give up their day job, but at the same time if that job is as a lawyer, you can see their point. It’s the same if you have children, and responsibilities like school fees.’
Sarah and Peter, meanwhile, argue that children can be a motivator in themselves. ‘I wouldn’t have set up on my own without mine,’ says Sarah. ‘It was a practical step because I wanted to work and be a hands-on mum.’ Peter references the ‘dark chapter’ in his life, when he ‘lost everything’ aged 28. Just as his first marriage ended, his business went bust, leaving him homeless and jobless. ‘I had two small children and I had absolutely nothing. Everything went – the house, the cars. I ended up sleeping in a garage. But it was the idea of having to provide for the kids that spurred me on to get a job. I took one – the first time I’d worked for anyone else – because it paid £30,000 a year and it gave me a chance to rebuild my life.’
What do their respective families make of their TV careers though? While Touker’s two teenage daughters think it’s the height of cool that their dad is on the telly (‘although they have their moments. Often I’m still just embarrassing Dad’), Sarah says her children have watched it with horror. ‘They got upset on my behalf if I didn’t win a pitch. They also got confused. They’ve met Nick. We’ve been to stay with him – they’ve been snorkelling with him! He’s great with kids. But they couldn’t understand why we weren’t friends in the Den. At one point the camera cut to Deborah, who was giving me daggers. They were saying, “But Deborah’s nice, Mama, why is she looking at you like that?”’
As they’ve made clear, in the Den it’s every Dragon for themself. Dragons’ Den, tomorrow, 9pm, BBC2.