Dragons Dented
Fiery scenes as new investor Steven clips wings of fellow entrepreneurs
THERE is fire in the Dragons’ Den this week as the new investor has bust-ups with his TV rivals when trying to buy into the businesses.
Marketing mogul Steven Bartlett, 29, introduced as bringing “funding and fire”, clashes with Peter Jones, 55, while trying to take a huge share of a promising business.
Duo Edward Hancock and Richard Simpson want £150,000 for 3% of their cheese subscription service Cheese Geek,
Peter offers them the money but wants 15% of the business. In response to that Steven says: “I’m not going to suck the blood out of you, like Peter just did. I’m going to offer you all of the money for 7.5% of your business because I think that’s fair.” Steven then calls Peter a “vampire” outright during another pitch.
In a preview of other pitches later in the BBC series, he clashes with Touker Suleyman, 68, who says to him: “What do you know about business?
Oh come on!” He responds: “What do I know about business? I built a £300million business at 28 years old.” And Sara Davies, 37, who danced on last year’s Strictly, also gets wound up by him saying: “You little so-and-so.” In response he gives her a cheeky wink. Steven has become the youngestever member of the Dragons’ Den panel, which also includes Deborah Meaden, 62.
■ Dragons’ Den returns tonight on BBC1 at 8pm.