Archive for February, 2010
Episode 1, “Money for Herbie”
Hi hope you enjoyed the first programme in series 2 of Dragons’ Den. On my blog here each Monday Morning and Thursday night I am going to give you my story on what you are seeing on the show.
Herbie Porshe
The best moment in the show tonight was when Herbie Porsche came out with that phrase “Money for Herbie”. Earlier today, Thursday the 25th, I had a celebratory lunch with Herbie Porsche (what a name) in his favourite restaurant, the Unicorn, off Merrion Row, in Dublin. Herbie used to be in the restaurant business years ago and is good friends with George one of the proprietors. Herbie had just seen the show at a press preview earlier in the Shelbourne. He later headed back to Donegal to watch the show live with family and friends.
Bad Boy Sauces
Ok onto the show. Jenny Lind Lee of Bad Boy Sauces was a superb presenter but I can’t believe she didn’t take my offer at the lower percentage equity. But her reason seemed a good one. She felt she was getting the expertise of two Dragons rather than one. Sounds like a good reason but my experience is that when two Dragons are involved the mentoring falls between the stools. However Niall and I have worked very well together with www.henparty.ie and Sean and I have also had good joint success with www.pedigreecattle.ie. But if you are in the Den and you have an offer from one Dragon versus two or more my advice is always go with one who will be focussed on you.
What to present
Next up was the Marilyn Air Drier. On the edited programme this one appeared to get a rough ride but in the Den it was given serious consideration by myself. I thought it was interesting. The mistake made was bringing in the clothes horse. Had Daniel Bradfield just come in with the device that blows ambient temperature air through the clothes I believe he would have got a better reception. It is always difficult to decide to use a concept prototype or a production prototype. The former is usually a lot rougher but I believe gives you more wriggle room when you are being questioned. You can always say,”Yes we are going to address that issue in the next prototype or in the production model.”
Don’t have information dragged out of you
If a pitch is featured on the programme it gets between eight to ten minutes. However the pitcher may have been in the den answering questions for an hour and a half. The lads who came to pitch www.greenflame.ie seemed to be holding something back. The Dragons had to drag it out of them after a guts of an hour that they had 35 shareholders. Had they come in and said, “we are a famers’ co-operative but we’d love to have a Dragon on board to assist our marketing and invest capital of €200k”, then I believe they may have done better.
Others that featured
Poor Gerard with his website for B.E.R. Cert’s got short shrift and actually that was no reflection on his presentation. He pitched it very well. It is simply down to the fact that none of the Dragons like this whole B.E.R. thing where we all have to go out and get cert’s for buildings. Business people hate this type of compliance for compliance sake.
Eezitfit Blinds the idea presented by Cathal McKinney at first very much grabbed Niall and Sean’s interest. I went back and checked my notes during the programme tonight and I see I was not sure there was robust enough patent protection on this product and I feared it could be easily copied so I passed on it as the rest of the Dragons did.
Urfavrit wasn’t Sarah’s favourite. When she doesn’t like something she tells you straight.
Finally we had Herbie.
Herbie Porche – www.toiletpipecover.com
All I can say is I was so right to invest in Herbie. I just thought it would be fun and he would be great gas. Well I have been working very closely with Herbie and his wife Maire, who is the real brains of the operation, and they are a delightful couple.
Listen out for Herbie on Ryan Tubridy tomorrow morning on RTE radio 1 at 9:05am. Check out the www.allaboutbusiness.ie website to get to see unseen footage from the Den.
On Monday, in my next update, I will tell you a few amazing stories about Herbie Porsche and how we are going to make MONEY FOR HERBIE.
Next update will be Monday – find out all about Money For Herbie!!
But before we start, Congratulations to The Apprentice
Eventually after we congratulate Shinawil for winning the IFTA for best Television entertainment programme for the Apprentice, we all fall quiet and the programme starts. Expect a new opening sequence. There are no longer shots of Dragons and helicopters but we are now seen in a working environment. I believe this is a big improvement and is more reflective of the way we actually spend our working days.
Things to watch out for in programme 1.
- Watch Bobby and Niall go on fire. Think chicken vindaloo, then turn the temperature up.
- Three dragons will bid early in the show for one business but who wins I can’t obviously reveal.
- Check out Sarah’s new hairstyle, she looks even better this year.
- Later look out for Sean getting really annoyed with two guys who are looking for a €100,000 investment but haven’t put any money in themselves.
- Make sure you watch the show to the very end because you do NOT want to miss the former German Jet Fighter pilot with a very famous German name. Also you will hear what could become a catchphrase, “money for H—–“.
Anyway I hope you enjoy it this Thursday night the 25th at 10:15pm. My next update is immediately after the show on Thursday at 11:15pm. Bye for now.
Peter Jones of the BBC Dragons asks are we funnier?
Yes we will always be compared. And after viewing the first show we all felt the team has done us proud. Interesting story, Sarah was talking to Peter Jones (The BBC Dragon) last Friday and Peter was saying, “I hear your show is very good and is it true it is much funnier than ours?” There is that difference between the two shows I think we, the Irish Dragons, banter amongst ourselves much more than they do on the BBC show which is a little colder and more clinical perhaps.
Producer Eugenia Cooney has done a brilliant job
As we watched the show we all had a good laugh slagging one another but I think we were all struck again by the professionalism of Eugenia Cooney, the Producer and her team and just how wonderful the show looks. Andrew who does the lighting and Molly the designer and of course all the camera crew shoot it so beautifully. It looks warmer than the BBC Den.