Dragons’ Den Theo Paphitis Talks about Business Suggestions
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010Theo Paphitis is an investor on Dragons’ Den and also on the board of Smarta. So we asked him to reveal his views on final night’s episode, and what it’s been like to be a Dragon throughout this season.
As the last episode of series eight of the Dragons’ Den pitches comes to an end, there is only one question left. where did the final 10 weeks go? Could someone please tell me?
Given the feedback from people on the street, this season has been much more lively and entertaining than they have expected. Yes, Dragons’ Den is about businesses but businesses ought to be fun also.
The frostiness between Duncan and James at the start of the series mellowed as time went on. Our extremely own Mr Whippy, Duncan, or ought I say ‘Doucan’ (thank you washing line inventor John Jackson) became highly animated. This was amusing for us and for viewers. Never have so many strident exclamations of incredulity been delivered by somebody with such a smooth forehead. Duncan really is made for HD TV.
I love sitting next to Deborah for the five weeks of filming. She is brighter, funnier and much more caring than all from the rest of us Dragons put together, but she is edited extremely harshly. The fantastic factor is the fact that she is confident and bold enough to take it in her stride. She’s some lady!
Recently saw Adam Philips pitching his company My Baby Limited. The word ‘fabulous’ spelled out my first impression of the pitch, but that quickly gave way to ‘confusion’ simply because of the massive number of misunderstandings that came to the surface.
JP and Selina Edwards had a mobile text tracking device that looked interesting but had a venture model that had no value of its own right as Peter Jones described that other networks would adopt the initiative as standard. I’m with the tall fella on any thing telephone techie. What that man does not know about telecoms could fit on a mini sim card.
The funny thing about the Den is that we are all very competitive. So in tonight’s programme Duncan ignored a hot gloves invention simply because he had tried them in Canada, so they weren’t new. Peter could not let slip that he’d tried them in Switzerland. We all assumed it was St Moritz but didn’t ask.
Two of my favourite investments this year have been the fashion footwear business WedgeWelly and the antiques valuation site, ValueMyStuffNow. Both are fantastic business suggestions, however it is the people who have the brains behind the enterprises that make the propositions so fascinating.
If Dragons’ Den teaches us something, it is that patents are essential but it is the power of personality that usually wins the day.
Tempted to go up against the dragons? Find more information about Business Ideas
Legend of the Seeker viewers will not yet give up. As their next move to revive the Seeker, they are converging on the People’s Choice Awards to be the latest platform to rouse new interest in the show. This campaign doesn’t have much of a chance yet this fandom has a pretty good record of accomplishments.