Dragons’ Den Game

Dragons’ Den Game

There are many people who come up with an invention but, to move further, financial backing is very important and for that the product should be market friendly and tangible. The most important thing is approaching the investors for the product. The idea has to be strong through the monetary feasibility and practicality. The inventor should have done a thorough and provable research to establish that there is a niche in the market that can be filled by that particular product and gradually it will make profit. As the time has changed, this type of negotiations has also vanished. Today economical strain is capturing the entire world and in this market it is very difficult to find out people who want to invest in stocks or to back something up that might work or might not. The idea may or may not make profit. But, the exciting fact is it is still possible if you have strong belief in yourself and a strong idea in your hand. Dragons Den game show is the platform where you can make your dreams come true with right path. The entire concept is taken from Japan where the theme is owned by Sony Corporation. The main theme of the programmme is celebrities or high profile companies look for new companies for investing into their business. They sit in a panel and they have a designated amount of money in their mind that they are going to invest into a new venture. Dragons Den game show is hosted by Evan Davis in UK. Dragons Den game show allows various entrepreneurs to present their varying ideas for business to the wealthy investors sitting in a panel. The investors are called as “Dragons” in the format of the Dragons Den game show. The pitch to approach the dragons should be clear and technically strong.



First of all, make a clear idea about the format of the Dragons Den game. The contestants of Dragons Den game show are those who have potentially profit able business idea but they do not have enough funds for their business and they need additional funds for expansion of business or promotion. The inventors need to specify the amount of money they need from the dragons as the opening of their speech. The rules of Dragons Den game stipulates that if they are unable to raise the amount from one or more than one dragons then they have to leave the show with nothing in their hand. The inventors have to provide something to the dragons in exchange of their investment. It might be the equity of the business or percentage of business etc but it has to be specified. If the dragons in Dragons Den game see any potentiality in the business then negotiations might take place with the amount of the equity they are offered and the contestants are also allowed to take further negotiations. They can accept any offer if they want or they can simply walk away.

Dragons in Dragons Den game can also offer certain percentage of the money to the inventors if they do not want to invest the full amount of money and they can leave other dragons to invest on the business. It will help the contestant to get financial backing from multiple dragons and they will get wider range of expertise. But, in this case the contestants have to give up larger share of their business they have planned before. If a Dragon does not want to invest has to declare “out” which means that he/she is leaving the discussion. This might be taken as the concluding phase which might range from few minutes if the Dragons do not recognize the plan of the business as credible, to the time when the complex conditions of the business are negotiated. The Dragons frequently ridicule the inventors present in Dragons Den game show. They do such for over-valuation of their respective businesses. The Dragons Den Game show was nominated for two most valuable awards, one is BAFTA and another is Royal Television Society awards in the year of 2007. Eight Dragons Den game show has been screened so far and the current Dragons have approximately £875 Million in their hand. In order to the wealth the Dragons are Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones, Theo Paphitis, James Caan and then Deborah Meaden.



There was another Dragons Den game show which was called as ”Junior Dragons’ Den” was broadcast on 16th November 2007. This show was all about the ideas of children and teenagers. The items included in this show was a “Look for loneliness” pack with various types of stickers, trophies, and various branded friendship stops. There were guinea pig houses and hamster houses too.

In the year of 2010, BBC aired a Dragons Den game show named “Dragons Den: What Happened Next”. Huge numbers of entrepreneurs, both, who gained in business and who failed to do that, were showcased in this game show. The Dragons offered various types of ideas for inventors of both the scenario. Each of the episodes was made with the ideas of each of the Dragons. The Dragons detailed their success of their investment in the Dragons Den game show and they also did review and re-negotiations with the entrepreneurs who succeeded without the investment of the Dragons.

If we look the statistics of the main Dragons Den game show then we can see that, Peter Jones did 35 investments, Duncan Bannatyne 24 investments. These are the top two numbers of investments in Dragons Den game show so far.

Sunday Mirror newspaper did an investigation in September 2006 which reported that most of the deals made in the show were shot. They claimed that the Dragons pulled out the deals after the end of the show. But, it was proved false later. According to a BBC spokesman, “the show is not about any cash prize. It is a matter of life of a person. So, nothing fake was done in the show”. Dragons Den game show became very popular within very short time after it was screened.