Episode 7 Dragons' Den

These are the Dragons.

Wealthy, well-connected, innovative,

and influential.

Each week, they make or break

the dreams of dozens of budding entrepreneurs.

I'm irritated. Yes, I'm blinkin' irritated.

It's rude.

-Currently, it's valued at £1 million.

-£1 million, yeah.

I just... I couldn't believe my own maths!

Oh, guys. I don't know what to do.

I'd give us a load of money, if I were you.

If you'd come to my office with this, I think, by now,

I would have security escort you off the premises.

I'm just going to leave it there because if I carry on,

this is going to get messy.

I think you've got huge potential. I'm going to make you an offer.

Leisure and marketing expert Deborah Meaden,

telecoms giant Peter Jones,

and hotel and health club owner Duncan Bannatyne

have between them struck deals worth more than £7 million in the Den.

But ready to fight for the next shrewd investment

is the creator of her own world-renowned interior design brand, Kelly Hoppen,

and Cloud computing pioneer Piers Linney.

The multimillionaires will give entrepreneur

just three minutes to pitch their idea and then interrogate them

on every aspect of their business.

To face them takes nerve and vision,

so who will leave with the Dragons' money?

Welcome to the Dragons' Den.

Tonight, the Den reopens its doors to a fresh batch

of cash-hungry entrepreneurs. The stakes are high.

Succeed and they secure the backing of a multimillionaire investor,

fail and they leave with nothing.

And we start with an inventor

who wants to bring the bath into the 21st century.

Will the Dragons tap into his vision?

LIFT PINGS

Hello, Dragons. My name is name is Fredy Vasilev

and I'm here to offer you 20% share of my company, Unique Automation,

in exchange for £1 million of your money

and an undefined amount of your passion for success.

-Did you say one million?

-£1 million.

Being a serial inventor, I, Fredy Vasilev,

set out to create the ultimate modern home.

There was nothing to automate the bath.

Nothing.

You don't go to your email room to check emails,

you do it from your phone.

Why should you run a bath and wait for it to happen?

Over the last seven years, I spent one million of my own money,

my time...and genius

to set up the bathroom standard of the future.

So, with your money, we can start the bathroom revolution in this country.

Thank you.

An evangelical pitch from Bulgarian entrepreneur Fredy Vasilev.

Having requested a massive £1 million investment,

it's essential that Fredy's claims stack up.

Duncan Bannatyne is keen for him

to put his automated bath tub through its paces.

Let's see a demonstration, now then.

Here's an example of a bath, which is sliced, to show how it works.

If I press the button here, the system will take the instructions

and will deliver the perfect bath for Duncan.

The system monitors the true activities of the bath,

so it knows how warm and how deep it is at any moment of time.

-Perfection is achieved every time.

-That's genius.

That's genius.

Thank you.

Genius, it may be, but Peter Jones

is not convinced that Fredy's latest invention is unique.

I've got a self-fill bath in Portugal.

And I can set it exactly the same as yours, on my iPad.

What does yours do that's different to that?

There is no other product on the market.

Hang on, I want to clarify this.

There is no other product on the market

that will automatically fill a bath?

OK, the first product I heard of was in 1999.

There was a company that did it on timing,

but working on timing, does not remember presets.

No, no.

-There are other products.

-Thank you.

-I could have told you that cos I know there are other products.

-Yeah.

Only because I've got one and it's not complicated.

And yes, it was ridiculously expensive

and I did it in a whim, I kind of regret even buying it.

Do you use it?

-I don't use it, actually.

-Nobody does.

I build houses for very rich people. Big houses.

Not once in the last five or six years has anybody asked me

to have a system like this installed because they're ridiculous.

It takes five minutes to run your bath.

Kelly Hoppen has cast serious doubt on the worth of Fredy's product.

And Piers Linney is eager to test the logic underlying his valuation.

You spent £1 million and you value the company at £5 million.

How many have you sold?

200 systems at a price starting from £5,000.

-You've actually got orders for those systems?

-We've sold them.

-To who?

To rich individuals.

Fredy, you said you're a serial inventor.

What have you previously invented?

I've invented...new ways for many things.

Is there an invention that you've invented, completed

-and then you've sold it, on the market?

-No.

-No, OK.

So you're not a serial inventor. You're still inventing.

-May I leave this with you. This is...

-Deborah would like to have it.

Ah, here you are.

Now, this is another product. It's called the Wow Switch.

-Fredy, does this do anything, or is that just...?

-Just to get a feel...

So it doesn't do anything, it's just...

At the moment, it's just a mock-up.

Wow Switch is just the interface, it's on one of the other products,

-but it's all based around the same technology.

-It's not a product.

It's a piece of plastic with some icons printed on it.

The product you're holding is a development kit.

You've put a serial port in here. Well, this does nothing, does it?

It's not a product, this is one of your fantasy inventions.

Piers, there is no fantasy in what I do.

2,000 units of the Wow Switch

have been specified on a key iconic building in Central London.

Which one?

Centre Point.

What's in Centre Point?

My office is next-door to Centre Point.

-It's a new development.

-Who's designed it?

HE SIGHS

-It's a big design, architectural design company.

-Who?

Conran?

Conran Estates are developing this property.

-Let me see the order. Show us the order.

-He doesn't have an order.

2,000 will be specified on the Centre Point, which is...

But you haven't sold them, then?

-I haven't sold them, no.

-OK.

We're working on it.

Nothing that you've said has made me feel confident

that if I gave you £1 million that you would make money.

Not only do I think it's a ridiculous invention,

but I don't believe you.

-You think I'm lying?

-You talk in riddles.

Something is not ringing true.

I'm definitely not investing in your product. I'm out.

It's a portfolio of more than five products.

-I've only told you of one.

-Thankfully.

A clearly exasperated Kelly Hoppen has heard enough.

But Duncan Bannatyne wants to find out how the Bulgarian bath tub

entrepreneur intends to dispose of any potential investment.

How are you going to spend my £1 million...?

Your £1 million will be spent on, um... A large chunk is marketing.

Marketing? How much?

About...almost £200,000.

200K. OK, keep going, then. What are you spending the rest of on?

-Um... We need a new office because...

-How much is the office?

-Well, I'm thinking of an office in the Shard.

-An office in the Shard?!

You're going to need more than that!

Let's get through the whole thing first.

-I have good reasons for that.

-Fredy,

I don't know if you're absolutely and completely bonkers

and off your head,

or if you're just a little bit bonkers and off your head.

But you're certainly not...in my opinion, worthy of any investment

of my money, not a single penny. So, I'm out.

I'm pretty dumbfounded.

Have you ever...? Actually, I'm fascinated, I'm sorry...

How many people have handed you a £1 million cheque?

Somebody from here will be the first time.

-Oh...

-SHE CHUCKLES

I wouldn't hold your breath...

..because I don't hand out £1 million cheques.

I make investments.

And when I invest in something, I expect somebody to give me

the respect of explaining to me what their product is,

what it does, why it has a market and what you need my money for.

Turnover in the first year, after the investment, will be £3 million.

Of course it will(!)

The second year, it will be £10 million.

Absolutely.

The third year,

it will be in the range of 50 million.

You don't believe me?

Why would I believe you? I'm irritated.

Yes, I'm blinking irritated.

It's rude.

-Please accept my...

-And the day I come to you

and ask you for £1 million

I absolutely promise you I will show you the respect of explaining to you

why what I've got is worth the money.

I apologise for the negative feelings I've created.

I guess you can understand that,

after that little conversation from me,

I would find it very difficult to invest in you.

I'm out.

Three Dragons have now bowed out.

Time for Peter Jones to have his say.

If you'd come in here with less of a,

a sort of...almost a sort of a religious speech,

I think you might have got a lot further.

And if you'd had a little bit more humility,

I think that might have worked as well.

I can't invest in something like this, or you,

so I'm going to say I'm out.

But I do think hopefully it's a learning curve today.

Fredy, if you come to my office with this,

I think, by now,

I would have had security escort you off the premises.

You don't know your numbers. You don't know your products.

You don't your market. And you want £1 million.

I have been around a roundtable of the global players in this market,

with the top ten companies in the world,

from Japan to America,

I've been sitting and discussing their future products.

Some of the reflections you see in their products

may be influenced by me.

Listen, I think you just... It's just unbelievable, actually.

I'm just pretty upset, but I'm just going to leave it there,

because if I carry on it's going to get messy.

So I'm out.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

So Fredy leaves the Den with his prospects of investment

having disappeared down the plughole.

Far from impressing the Dragons, his pitch simply irritated them.

Delusional.

'I'm a visionary. We are on the forefront of technology

'in the bathroom. So we're unstoppable.'

The future is bright.

The future is Unique Automation and bath-o-matic.

An overcomplicated product rarely goes down well with the Dragons,

who would rather keep things simple.

-That's almost over-engineered.

-I just don't understand it.

I can't get excited about it

This is the most over-engineered way of holding your pen.

Duncan Wood was seeking £100,000

in return for a 20% stake in his company Big Waves.

Hello. My name is Duncan Wood. My product is an LED face mask.

It means we can offer colours which are beneficial to the skin

and not harmful.

Duncan believed that his beauty product

offered a hi tech solution to some age-old problems.

Peter Jones and Piers Linney

were quick to put his face mask to the test.

-That looks so weird.

-That's the stuff of nightmares.

So what is this doing now to my skin?

The red colour is useful for cell regeneration.

It also stimulates collagen and elastin within the skin.

It can get rid of fine lines and wrinkles.

LAUGHTER

What's so funny?

Now the blue light is used basically to kill bacteria on the skin,

so it is used as a treatment against acne.

I feel like a traffic light.

Duncan's futuristic face mask

was a source of some hilarity in the Den,

but the laughter stopped as soon as the Dragons began to question

the science behind the product.

You made a lot of claims there.

I want the medical proof that one of those lights helps to cure acne.

Well, there's a whole... There's lots and lots of documents and, er...

lots and lots of researches have been conducted over the years.

The Greeks were using light...

But, Duncan, it wasn't the Greeks

that were stood in front of me making the promises. It was you.

-You made the claims.

-Yes.

I'm asking you to back up the claims that you made.

The beauty entrepreneur's lack of hard evidence

had troubled Duncan Bannatyne.

And Kelly Hoppen was concerned by some of the steps necessary to obtain soft skin.

I have facials and a lot of the places I've been to have facials,

they have a red light which, strangely enough,

they never put as close as you're putting it to Peter's face.

Yes, it is feeling quite hot.

I think I'm done now.

Peter, you look fantastic.

While Peter Jones's appearance might have attracted praise,

the look of Duncan's product certainly didn't.

People spend a fortune designing products

so people actually want to use them.

It's not just that something does a good thing,

you've got to produce it in a way that people will actually use it.

And that, I have to tell you, it looks dangerous.

The range of...that we are applying to the light is not dangerous.

But we would advocate that people shouldn't be exposed to it

for more than 20 minutes.

Sadly for Duncan, all of the Dragons agreed -

when it came to achieving the perfect complexion,

his face mask was a stretch too far.

There is no scientific proof that this cures acne for definite.

And very little to say that it even helps it.

I've never said this before. Duncan, I'm out.

OK, well, thank you. Thank you all.

Next into the Den is backpacker Aurora Tyas,

who recently returned from a round-the-world trip

with what she believes is a money-spinning idea.

An item of clothing designed to make life easier

for her fellow travellers.

Hello, Dragons. My name is Aurora.

I'm looking for a £65,000 investment for a 20% stake in my business.

Pop&Go is a brand of travel and outdoor clothing and equipment

and its launch product is a new concept of quick dry travel underwear

called Pop&Go Knickers.

Pop&Go Knickers is the only quick-dry travel underwear

with fasteners on the side.

So you would simply unclip...

remove the pair,

pop a fresh pair from your carry pouch...

..just clip it back on the sides.

The knickers are currently stocked in 12 independent travel

and outdoor retailers across the UK.

Women can go backpacking, hiking, skiing

and be sure of staying comfortable whilst living their lives to the max.

I look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you.

An intrepid pitch from globetrotter Aurora

who's seeking £65,000 in return for a 20% stake in her company.

But Peter Jones is struggling to get his head around her product.

How do you take them off without pulling your trousers down?

In this case, the way I've just demonstrated it,

you would just lower your trousers to under-crotch level.

That's if you're in a dirty toilet cubicle in a plane.

So you would have to be in a toilet cubicle

so you could pull your trousers down to your knees.

-Just this much and then you unclip and reclip it.

-Right.

And if you are in a situation where privacy is really an issue,

then you can actually change by just opening the buttons and the zip

and sort of sliding it from the front of your trousers,

reaching under your crotch and then clip it on the side. That's possible.

So you've got to just put your hands down your trousers and...?

It depends on the situation.

You won't do this in Sainsbury's car park. You would get arrested.

I spent lots of time outdoors and sometimes I'm mountain biking,

and with ladies on bikes, and I'm just trying to picture

when they'd actually want to use these,

because typically they will...surreptitiously change.

That's right.

You can, but obviously it's a lot more involved

if you have to remove everything, balance on your shoes,

try not to drop anything on the floor, and obviously risk anyone,

if you are in the outdoors, actually risk having anyone spotting you.

-If you're climbing Kilimanjaro and you're on a trek for five days...

-Come on,

climbing Kilimanjaro, the last thing you're thinking about is changing your pants.

-Excuse me. I've climbed Kilimanjaro.

-You have?

-Yeah.

-Everybody who climbs Kilimanjaro stays in a tent.

-Mm-hm.

So you get changed in the tent in the evening.

-It's as simple as that.

-Yes.

But the day is a long day. It's a long day.

When you're backpacking or climbing,

you don't have the luxury of changing from head to toe.

Talk me through the assumptions

that you've used to build up your business model.

There's around four million young adults

who take a gap year every year.

And there's around 40 million adults who take an activity holiday.

Which chunk are you going to be able to sell to?

In year one, I'm targeting to sell 850 packs per month.

That's across the whole travel and outdoor, military and health and care.

I get the military.

If every female soldier was equipped with your underpants,

then there's a market for it. How far are you down that road?

I've got someone trialling the products with the troops directly.

-So it's early stages for that.

-Yeah. There's something there.

-I can see somewhere people might want to use this.

-Yes.

I'm trying to work out how big the opportunity actually is.

Piers Linney may be intrigued

by some of Pop&Go's possible applications,

but Deborah Meaden is unconvinced by the target markets

that Aurora has identified.

Even if the military are interested,

you have completely overestimated the amount

from dot to even 850 a month.

Yes, but I have had a lot of interest already

from all these different areas.

Travel and outdoor, we're already there.

-It's just a matter of selling...

-But you're not already there.

It's certainly not going to get you to the millions of pairs of knickers

you're going to have to sell

to give an investor a return on their investment.

Anyway, I could go over, I'm just going to keep...

I am in touch with Blacks as well, so they might be...

Being in touch with somebody is very different

to getting it in their stores.

It does take time. I am obviously aware of this.

I'm going to tell you exactly where I am very quickly.

I don't think the retail market will work.

I think the military market is going to be, if it happens at all,

a very long and slow burn,

and there are plenty of products

that I've tried to get into the healthcare market

that I would rate way above this,

so I won't be investing. And I don't want to waste your time. I'm out.

OK.

I get the concept, but,

even if there is a tiny market within a tiny market...

-Why tiny? Why tiny?

-Because...

I'm just thinking about all the large outdoor stores.

It's tiny because the number of people that will look at that

and think, "That's a great convenience product,"

the reality is they're not concerned

that actually they can pop their knickers

and pull them between their legs and put new knickers on.

What I've found is that these people are actually always on the lookout

for the latest gadget or accessory that is going to make a difference.

Aurora, I actually don't believe in it.

So I not going to invest in something I don't believe.

I'm going to talk and go.

I'm out.

Two Dragons have now walked away from the deal.

Will Duncan Bannatyne prove any more willing to make Aurora an offer?

-I honestly don't believe there's a market there.

-I think there is.

I have sold to the trades.

I have sold to individuals who have given me feedback.

But to sell to the trade,

it's when you sell the second time and the third time

and they place more orders

-that you start to get an idea...

-That's right.

..of how many of your product they're going to sell per year.

But when they take a trial set, the minimum,

and they don't come back and reorder,

then selling to the trade hasn't made any dent at all.

-It hasn't.

-That's right. It's part of the process...

Let me finish. Let me finish. You're not listening.

You really, really, really need to listen.

You might think I'm being pretty arrogant, but believe me,

-I'm trying to help you.

-Mm-hm.

This is not going to ever be worth £65,000, let alone four times that,

so, for that reason,

-I'm not going to invest my money and throw it away. So I'm out.

-OK.

You have this thing where somebody's talking

and you don't even let them finish the sentence

and you're already talking. It would be good to listen.

You might be better off selling this on a shopping channel on TV,

-you know, where you're literally...

-That is also my plan.

..there selling it yourself where you can talk

and not have anybody talk over you,

-but it's definitely not something I want to invest in. So I'm out.

-OK.

Four Dragons have now declined the opportunity to invest.

Only Piers Linney is yet to state his position.

Aurora, I don't really mind this tunnel vision, in a way.

I quite like it.

You are the embodiment of an entrepreneur.

I think I'd invest in you if you had a different idea probably.

I'm not going to invest in this.

So I'm out. What I am going to do

is connect you with a chap who is a friend of mine,

he owns the UK's largest outdoor retailer.

Go and sit down with them. Listen to them.

And then at least take that feedback on board,

even if you don't take our feedback on board.

OK. Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity.

Aurora leaves the Den without the £65,000 she was seeking,

but with the promise of a valuable industry contact.

Someone with whom she can discuss her Pop&Go range.

So far tonight, nobody has succeeded

in parting the Dragons from their hard-earned cash.

I'm going to leave it there,

because if I carry on, this is going to get messy.

Will any of these entrepreneurs be able to deliver a winning pitch?

I think you've created a great product.

And I'd respectfully ask that all four Dragons immediately say

that they're out so that I can continue a negotiation with you.

Absolutely not.

OK, you've done Glastonbury, Reading, the Isle Of Wight,

you've had T In The Park. What next? The world.

That's what our next entrepreneurs hope, with a niche holiday business

aimed at those who want a taste of festival action somewhere in the sun.

Good afternoon, Dragons.

My name is Rob Tominey and this is Aden Levin and we are here today

to pitch for £100,000 for 10% of our company Mainstage Travel.

Mainstage Travel is a fully bonded tour operator

and has been operating for two years.

The internet and low-cost airlines have seen the demise

of the traditional package holiday model of flight plus accommodation.

Our packages are different.

The bottom line to our business model is to sell holidays at a lower price

than if the customers were to buy each of the elements individually.

Mainstage owns the fastest-growing youth clubbing brands.

We operate Magaluf Takeover, Ayia Napa Takeover

and we co-operate Awaken Ibiza.

One September we launched our ski festival Snowboxx

and by January we had completely sold out.

The festival happened in March and was a great success.

Later on this year, we'll be launching our new website,

weareski.com, which is set to take the skiing industry by storm.

Our marketing is smart and our operation is slick.

This year we will have over 5,000 people going on holiday with us

and we have a huge plan for future growth.

I'm now going to hand you out our brand portfolios

and I'll be happy to take any questions.

A no-nonsense pitch from Rob and Aden,

who are seeking £100,000 in return for a 10% stake in their company.

But Kelly Hoppen is keen to establish precisely what

sets their business apart in a crowded market.

I go to Ibiza a lot, not to club, but I love the place.

I'm trying to understand what's the difference between your brand

and, say, the under 20s or over 30s -

-what was it called?

-18-30.

-18-30s.

Everything done by the existing large travel agents is SO outdated

and they just don't get the current market at all.

Ours are more festival holidays. So they're more of an actual event.

-They are going...

-So it's music related?

It's much more music-led.

It's essentially the clubs and outdoor events are our stages

and the hotels are our campsites. They are essentially festivals.

And that is what people want at the moment.

The festivals are... There's a common experience.

Do people feel as though they're all going together?

There's a mixture, really, because some people are coming

just for the deal, and some people come

because they want to be part of the trip.

Young people especially want to go on holiday

where there's going to be people of the same age there.

Great start. What's the plan?

Yes, basically we'll be taking the Takeover brand

that we've developed to other clubbing destinations,

but the main thing that we're going to do for the summer things,

is expand on our current capacity.

So last year we had four weeks in Magaluf. This year we've got eight.

We've got so much potential to increase that to the full summer,

to increase the numbers and capacity per week.

We've already seen our passenger numbers increase by 4,000 from last year.

How are people behaving in this market?

Do they keep going back to the same place or do you find them moving between your products?

There's a lot of people who move between the products,

so it would generally be, Magaluf would be the entry point

and then they'd go to Ibiza and then Snowboxx.

But we have had quite high rates of return customers.

The rate of returning customers suggests that if people

do want to come back to these places, they want to come back with us.

We have also experienced it ourselves, not being past this age -

past the clubbing holiday age - too far. Er...

-You're not suggesting I am, are you?

-No, I'm just suggesting that maybe three years ago,

-I might have gone on it.

-Cos that could be the moment I just declare myself out.

Deborah, if you want to come to Ibiza, that's fine. You can come.

My mum came to Snowboxx.

Maybe I won't. Thank you very much for the offer. I might sit here!

A relaxed response to leisure-industry expert Deborah Meaden's questioning.

Now Duncan Bannatyne wants to get to grips

with the business's bottom line.

What do your accounts to October 2012 show?

-Our accounts show a £60,000 profit.

-What about the turnover?

Turnover - 247.

And what are they going to show...

What's your projection for this year?

This year will be £1.4 million turnover

and the lower-bound estimate of the profit would be £257,000.

Hm. That's very interesting. You've done very, very well.

-Thanks, Duncan.

-How old are you?

-I'm 24. 25.

-25.

I knew I wanted to run a business after uni

and we just said we'd do something together

and, er, yeah, this is what we did.

The Dragons are clearly impressed

by the young travel entrepreneurs' progress to date.

But Peter Jones is concerned that some of their claims

are simply too good to be true.

You're running at nearly 20% margin,

when the whole of the package-tour industry runs at about 10, 11 average.

And I'm trying to get to understanding,

how have you done that and still saved the customer 20% to 30%?

I guess we're just great at getting the deals.

We've got really low overheads.

Our model is, kind of, to go for areas where there's, er,

things with high fixed costs, low variable costs.

So, for example, club tickets and lift passes.

When we're buying them in bulk, we can get such great discounts on them.

By packaging that in, we're able to offer that great deal.

You'll have to go back to his office and show him how to run a business!

So far, Rob and Aden have stood up well

under the scrutiny of the Dragons.

But some of the detail they've revealed has troubled Kelly Hoppen.

In my mind, I'm seeing all these gorgeous young kids

dressed up as hippies in these wonderful fields,

and up on the top of the mountain.

I think my imagination of what I consider your business to be isn't what it is,

in terms of where people are staying and where they're going.

Don't let the price fool you. We have everything from two-star to four-star hotels.

The four-star hotel, including ski pass and festival ticket,

will be from £350, and the two-star will be from £199,

-including lift pass and festival ticket.

-Do you get a bed for that?

-You get a bed.

-It all seems fantastic.

The reality is, if there is a disaster of some sort,

how are you going afford to be able to put that right?

That is why we require to have 5% of turnover as free cash flow,

so if one of our hotels does have a catastrophe,

then we will put on a different hotel somewhere else.

I don't think I could sleep easy at night.

I just think the responsibility of something going wrong,

with that many people booking holidays through you...

I think you're very brave and I want to wish you luck

-but I'm afraid I'm out.

-Thanks a lot.

-Thank you.

A blow for Rob and Aden who, despite an assured performance,

have now lost their first Dragon.

Will Duncan Bannatyne be prepared to offer them the cash

which will allow their travel business to truly take flight?

I've got a great picture of the business. That's why I want to make an offer.

Er... My offer...

..is subject to the company making £257,000 net profit this year.

-You've got your out, then!

-Yeah, I've got my out. Of course I have.

If they make 50, then the offer isn't worth it. If they make 257...

-That's completely fine.

-There you are.

He's got total confidence in his figures.

-So the caveat is, you must make 257,000 this year.

-Fine.

So, subject to that, I'm going to offer you half the money,

which is £50,000,

but I want 12½% of the company.

OK.

Oh, guys! I don't know what to do.

I'd give us a load of money if I were you!

Guys, I...

I have a real...

bugbear, and that is that I can't quite get myself over the line

with regards to the profitability.

But that's not to say that it's not a business to invest in.

I would match Duncan's offer

of 50,000 for 12½%.

I think you are very good.

I'm going to make you an offer

and I'm going to offer all of the money,

and I want 25% of the business.

OK.

Rob and Aden now have three competing offers to consider.

But accepting any would mean giving away 15% more equity

than they were originally offering.

Time for Piers Linney to show his hand.

I don't know if you know my background

but I used to be involved in a business where we ran

some of the world's largest DJ management, record label

experiential events with big brands in Ibiza and all round the world.

Oh, wow!

The question is, getting somebody excited about 10% - that's the thing.

You know, actually, sort of, getting out of bed

and trying to help you do these things that you have to do.

We don't need much. We just need to be pointed in the right direction.

Oh, OK, I'll make you an offer.

So...

£100,000,

but for 15%.

OK.

-PETER:

-Flipping hell!

-DUNCAN:

-Wow! You really undercut us, didn't you?

-Didn't he, Deborah, eh?

-Was that 100,000 for 15%?

-Yeah!

Piers Linney's highly competitive bid

has caused a stir amongst the more established Dragons.

But will it be enough to secure him the deal?

We'll just have a little chat.

THEY WHISPER

Er, right. Well, one of the two Dragons we wanted has offered us

the lowest percentage, so we're going to go for that one.

-DEBORAH:

-Excellent. Well done.

-PETER:

-Well done!

-Thanks a lot.

-Cheers, mate. Nice one.

-Excellent.

Party on!

-DEBORAH:

-So, which was the other Dragon you wanted, then?

-You, Deborah.

-Damn!

-Thanks a lot, guys. DUNCAN:

-Thank you, guys. Good luck.

When you realise that Piers isn't very good, just call me.

I'll help you anyway.

So, success for Rob and Aden, who depart the Den with £100,000

and one of the Dragon investors they were seeking.

Terrible, Piers. You undercut us all there.

-You had to undercut to get it. It was the right thing to do.

-Otherwise I'd never get it.

The only mistake they made there

is they did not come back to renegotiate.

Because if they'd wanted something, they'd probably... But good.

'The main thing that we have from here is opportunity.'

That's what Piers has given us and so, yeah, we'll see where it takes us.

Every entrepreneur who enters the Den

hopes to savour the sweet smell of success.

Woo-hoo!

But the Dragons often find themselves confronted

with a more varied range of odours.

Brother-and-sister duo Stuart Kirby and Helen Morris

were seeking £70,000 in return for a 7% share in their business -

a new take on the pooper-scooper.

Simply grab from the garden, place over the waste,

swiftly push the lever. Whilst clearing,

it simultaneously sprays a garden-friendly sanitising fluid

over the affected area, preventing the spread of some of the 23 million bacteria

-contained in dog waste.

-Dragons...

the future's bright - the future's brown.

Stuart and Helen were optimistic about their business future.

But Duncan Bannatyne was keen to discover

whether that optimism had any basis in fact.

Let's go over the first year's trading. Tell me what happened then.

The turnover for year one was 30,000. And a net loss of 29,000.

You've valued this company at... what?

Currently, it's valued at £1 million.

£1 million, yeah. I just... I couldn't believe my own maths.

Duncan, I'm surprised that you're...

It is an everyday product.

There is a need for a device

that clears waste in gardens more effectively.

The pet-accessory entrepreneurs believed that their product

was a boon for the conscientious dog owner.

But given a price tag of between £50 and £80,

both Piers Linney and Peter Jones

felt there were issues with the dooup's design.

Your handle should be up here.

So what market are you going to put it into?

Are you going to sell it Lilliput first or something?

We tend to lean into the product like that.

If you're bending down almost to the point of picking up the poo anyway,

you may as well do it with a carrier bag and you're done.

-PIERS:

-Once I've used it a few times

around my garden, this is not going to be pretty, is it?

Well, remember, it stays out in the garden.

Then your kids are in the garden playing with this.

-Yeah, right.

-The dooup monster.

Though it wasn't the dooup monster

that was giving Deborah Meaden cause for alarm.

Often, the consistency is not as tidy as you had down there

and it doesn't matter how well you try and pick it up -

there is residue.

-Your spray won't deal with that residue.

-You'd be surprised.

I mean, you'll see that it does actually clear softer waste

a lot more effectively than, say, any other pooper-scooper type device.

I would be that customer

and I'm sitting here thinking, "I wouldn't pay that money."

When it came to Stuart and Helen's pimped-up pooper-scooper,

the Dragons were all in agreement.

It simply wasn't that super-duper.

Have you ever...

thought about looking in the mirror and saying,

"Stuart, you need to have a reality check"?

-It's ridiculous and I'm out.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

I'm really, really surprised.

I guess it's just about proving them wrong, isn't it?

There are 83 million mobile-phone subscriptions in the UK.

That's more than one for each person.

And it certainly means that one hazard of modern life

is that of damaging a mobile handset accidentally.

Well, our next entrepreneur believes he has a solution.

Hi. My name's Oliver Murphy and I'm here today

looking for an investment of £50,000 for a 15% equity stake

in my company Reviveaphone,

a repair kit for water-damaged phones.

The reason I started the company was after seeing on Twitter,

there was a post every minute about someone damaging their phone with water...

..losing all of their e-mails, important contacts

and all their personal photos.

I'll now show you how easy it is to use the repair kit.

Remove the phone from the water and turn off immediately.

The quicker you can turn the phone off,

the more chance you have of repairing the phone.

Carefully cut the top of the pouch with scissors.

Place the phone inside with the Reviveaphone solution for seven minutes.

Seal it up and leave.

Remove the phone and dispose of the Reviveaphone solution.

Place the phone back into the pouch with the sachet for 24 hours.

Once the 24 hours is up, remove the phone from the pouch

and power up the device. It should be fully restored.

I have so far had a high success rate with the kit,

selling 1,300 in the first 10 months of trading.

From a £400 start-up cost,

I've turned over £20,000 and taken a net profit of £3,000.

Thank you for listening. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

An intriguing pitch from Oliver Murphy,

whose product demonstration certainly appears to have caught Deborah Meaden's eye.

Oliver, I feel like I've been watching a magic show.

That's amazing!

DEBORAH CHUCKLES

If only I'd had that about a month ago, when I did exactly that thing,

which was drop my phone, and I've had to transfer everything.

Like I say, it looks like magic to me but I'm sure it's not.

It's not as much magic as it seems. I, er...

Basically, I wanted to fix water-damaged phones and, er...

I decided that I'd investigate it a bit more

and see what caused the damage.

It's not actually the fluid itself that creates the damage.

It's the contents of the water, cos water isn't pure.

So it's the minerals attaching themselves to the phone's components.

When I was at my villa a couple of months ago

-and I jumped in the pool with my phone in my pocket...

-Yep.

..and I got out of the pool and dismantled my phone

and left it on the side to dry. Was that a stupid thing to do?

If it didn't work at all, there's a chance it would have short-circuited.

You obviously tried to turn it on afterwards.

-It came back on but it just did silly things.

-Yeah, yeah.

Like I say, those connections need to be cleared.

You're putting it in another fluid - is that right?

-Yes, that is right.

-So, you are literally...

That solution is literally washing away...

Yes, it cleans the minerals and excess... Whatever's in the water.

I saw the back of your package and lots of warning signs

-and yellow triangles and skulls and bones.

-It's highly flammable.

I just said to myself in my head,

"This is what I would buy at an airport to take on holiday,"

-but you couldn't.

-No.

It's a massive flaw.

I'm really upset about that.

Oliver's product might not be joining the travel plug

or the inflatable pillow as an airside essential

but the Dragons still want to discover more

about the young entrepreneur behind Reviveaphone.

Oliver, what else have you done? I'm not suggesting that...

You can't have done a lot if you only left school two years ago, but what else have you done?

-In terms of... What, like, business-wise, or...?

-Yeah.

No, what have you done? You're hiding something there!

What have you done?!

I'm not asking if you've been naughty. I'm asking whether...

You know, what else have you done in terms of business? Any other ideas you've had?

When I was younger, I used to buy wholesale items

and then sell them on. That was a little thing I did.

Then with the phones, I used to buy them broken

-and then sell them on eBay.

-So how did you fix them?

I'd buy the parts in...

-PIERS:

-How did you know how to fix them?

Er, trial and error, pretty much.

How big is your market?

How many people are dropping phones in the toilet

or jumping into the pool, like Duncan likes to do?

There's lots of facts around saying 10% of people damage their phone with water.

They say in the UK there's been 860,000 dropped down the loo a year.

And, for instance, on Twitter there's constant posts about people

damaging their phones with water or iPods with water.

I think you've created a great product.

Thanks.

And I respectfully ask that all four Dragons immediately

say that they're out so that I can continue negotiation with you.

-KELLY:

-Absolutely not!

-DUNCAN:

-Is that because you're trying to get it cheap, Peter?

Peter Jones isn't the only one in the Den with a sharp eye for a deal.

The generous margin on Oliver's phone-repair kits

has made the Dragons eager to find out more about their manufacture.

-Where are you getting them made?

-I make them myself.

-Oh, right.

So you're at home in a room somewhere,

with a big bucket full of chemicals and these pouches,

tipping in there in plastic gloves?

In my mum's utility room!

If you went into a proper premises, manufactured this properly...

You've got a very nice margin but you won't be able to maintain that.

It won't be the same in large volumes, no.

Have you worked out - if I bought a unit and manufactured it properly...

At scale...

-Roughly.

-£2... £2.30, maybe. I...

-I don't want to give you a figure...

-No, that's fine.

-The answer is, "I don't know."

-Yeah, I don't know, to be honest.

Is there a whole world out there who repair water-damaged phones?

There are... There are repair services that can repair phones,

but it's a bit more inconvenient going to the repair store

and you need to trust them, obviously, with your expensive phone.

If you're a phone repairer, it's your business.

-Is this how they fix water-damaged phones?

-Yes, they may do that, yes.

-So you've made a consumer...

-A consumer product, yes.

So this process - you can't protect it in any way?

-This is used in lots of big repairers already.

-Yes.

My view is, the product itself I'm not entirely convinced by,

because it could be replicated.

This is a bit too, sort of, early-stage,

not entirely sure what the next step is.

Good luck with it but I'm out.

A setback for the young entrepreneur

as a first Dragon declares himself out.

Will Deborah Meaden be any more willing to strike a deal?

I think you will make some money out of this and I suspect

this will be a stepping stone to your next big product.

But right now, my instinct is saying this isn't the big one.

-So I'm afraid, Oliver, I'm out.

-Thank you very much.

-I believe in you and I think you're going to do great.

-Thank you.

In about 20 years' time when I'm in a nursing home,

reading the papers about you being halfway up the rich list.

But I'm not going to make you an offer.

I don't really think there's anything I can add.

So for that reason, I'm going to say I'm sorry but I'm out.

Thank you very much. Thanks.

Despite praise from Duncan Bannatyne,

Oliver's chances of securing an investment appear to be slipping away.

Will telecoms giant Peter Jones

be prepared to back his initial enthusiasm for the product

with an offer of cash?

Hmm...

It's a tough one, Oliver.

Lots of people come up with some great ideas

and the ones that succeed, they succeed for two reasons.

One is that they've not only got the right idea

and they know how to take it to market.

-Or their idea is protectable.

-Yep.

This is something that you...

You need a little bit more in terms of...

the protectability against your idea, and there are -

including me - people out there that could do this at speed.

So I'm going to say, Oliver, sadly, I'm out.

OK. Thank you.

So a change of heart from Peter Jones

spells further disappointment for Oliver.

His chances of securing £50,000 now rest with Kelly Hoppen alone.

I take on board everything everybody's said in this room

and yes, it can be replicated.

But as an entrepreneur, you invest in people.

I think you're great. I think you've got huge potential.

And I might be mad but I'm going to make you an offer...

..for the full amount,

er...

for...

..25%.

OK. Thank you.

Wh-What could you bring to help?

I'm sure that I can get this into big supermarket chains

and other stores around the world.

And I can also bring fantastic PR to the table and get it out there.

Er...

And I know I'm asking for more of a percentage

and you might decide today

that you just want to go away and you can do it on your own.

I don't know what to do!

-Would you be able to come down to 20% or...?

-No.

-I think I'd like to accept the offer.

-Yeah!

-Wahey!

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

I'll now go and drop my phone down the loo and see if it works!

-Well done.

-Thank you.

So, a positive result for Oliver,

who leaves the Den with £50,000 and a promise of the backing needed

to potentially crack the high street.

I did think I was going to have all of them at one point

and I was hoping for Peter Jones and I didn't really...

I didn't really know much about Kelly, so I was a bit,

"Am I happy, am I not?" I didn't really know.

But it all went well, so I'm very happy.

-Well done, Kelly.

-Yeah, good one there, Kelly. He's great.

He's a smart... Great guy to invest in.

-I'd better get on with that idea quick, then.

-You bloody dare!

The end of another incident-packed day in the Den.

You might have spotted the common thread -

our three successful entrepreneurs are relatively young.

A triumph of youth over experience.

They'll soon get plenty of experience

and probably some grey hairs, too.

The conversation about all of tonight's pitches

continues on Twitter, using the hashtag:

Next time in the Den...

I don't think this is in the slightest bit commercial.

I think it's ridiculous.

You're saying it's a natural product. You don't get that feeling.

It looks like drain cleaner.

What?!

People are paying £1,500 for THAT?

I'm just trying to get to the understanding of why you think

putting some handles on a blanket is worth half a million pounds.

I'm going to make you an offer.