The Real Dragons' Den
Just been reading an interesting alternative perspective on Dragons' Den
The winning contestants expect a meeting afterwards to discuss their deals in more detail and sign a contract… but their wealthy new backers often slip into their chauffeur-driven cars and drive off without a word.
The brash Dragons suddenly become very difficult to contact and cash promises are broken, according to winners.
The article mentions 12 businesses that were promised funding by the dragons that was never recieved, including the Nuts Poker League, truck wash service and Bedlam Cube.
Obviously you can't expect every deal to go through successfully, but I was pretty suprised about just how many don't work out.
Comment by trek — September 28, 2006 @ 3:20 am
Just goes to show in business, always expect the unexpected and always always have a Plan B.
From the article it appears that a lot of the winners have gone on to succeed in their businesses regardless of the judges so maybe it wasn't that bad for the winners from a publicity point of view.
Comment by burt — September 28, 2006 @ 4:57 pm
I firmly believe that these Dragons don't have a great deal of liquid assets with which to fund entrepreneurs…
I believe that a vast majority of their "worth" is tied up in share-hooding, company assets, property and so on…
Perhaps a real Dragon would be able to take a million pounds and put it into escrow, so that the producers can give out the cash when the contracts/legalities are out of the way?