Archive for the ‘Dragons Den Series II’ Category
We hate Being Told We’re FAT!
One of the most talked about issues this summer has been the Stop the Spread Campaign from Safe Food, the State’s public health promotion and monitoring unit. Safe Food has boldly stated that two out of three of us are unhealthily overweight. In previous summers when they spent tax payers’ money politely and meekly telling us to make sure we cooked the food thoroughly on the barbeque, they were great folks.
But this year they have had the audacity to tell us to measure ourselves around the middle and for women, if you are over 32 inches, or men over 37 inches, this indicates you are probably harming your health through being chronically overweight.
Some journalists have questioned the one measurement fits all approach sanctioned by the WHO, the World Health Organisation. But is this further proof of our denial. Do we simply hate to be told we are FAT?
When the WHO recently pronounced that mobile phone use is injurious to our health not one journalist questioned it. But because we are in denial about our weight some of the journalists have even questioned the independence of the WHO.
So let’s be clear what the WHO says, and in turn, what safe Food is promoting. They are asking us all to measure around our middle. That is not what we commonly call our waistline. So, measure around your middle at your navel or bellybutton. If a woman measures more than 32inches or a man measures more than 37 inches, that means there is an indication that your belly is protruding because so much fat has already built up around your heart, lungs and intestine that on top of that it is now forcing your tummy to protrude.
Now we can continue to deny it all day and all night long but they are the facts according to the WHO. With that much excess fat around your internal organs you are more likely to suffer coronary disease, diabetes or cancer. One third of all cancers are weight related.
But because of our state of denial we start claiming, “I have heavy bones” or “I retain a lot of water”. When the WHO stated brain tumours can result from excessive use of a mobile phone no one was daft enough to say “but I have heavy bones, my skull has an above average thickness so the electro-magnetic field won’t get through my thick head as much”. However these are the very arguments many of us use to resist accepting the fact that we are overweight.
Unbeknownst to ourselves our nation and our children are getting fatter and fatter. Safe Food has stuck to its guns and told us to measure ourselves as instructed. It is merely an indicator and if you are over the 32 or 37 inches but you believe you are not overweight, the best thing to do is to go to your Doctor and get that verified. If your doctor, who will also take into consideration your age, fitness, height etc, tells you you’re not overweight isn’t that fantastic! Keep up the good work but don’t attack a public health agency when it is merely trying to draw our attention to a serious and costly health issue for our population.
What actually happened tonight? Programme 1
Hi and welcome to my Dragons’ Den blog where I will give the real inside story from the Den revealing what actually happened? This Blog will run throughout the series and then STOP! Yes I am tweeting, face-booking and everything else for the next three months to give Dragons’ Den fans a view from my seat in the Den but after that I am going back to my normal business life.
I won’t be tweeting you this summer from my holidays as I believe you have better things to be doing that listening to the old guff and gossip that usually goes on in the blogosphere.
I will definitely upload twice a week. Thursday nights I will preview the upcoming show and then, like tonight, as soon as the show finishes I will tell you my reaction.
So tonight’s show?
What do you think of our new female Dragon, Norah?
I think she is going to be a big hit. Of course I lost out to her tonight but I had won a few investments ahead of her before this one. Because she is the new on Dragons Den they wanted to introduce her on the first show making an investment.
She is a shrewd dealmaker.
Am I sorry savvy bear got away from me? Well John and Sandra Joyce are a lovely couple. I only met Sandra very briefly at the launch on Wednesday and I had met with John earlier and he is a really sharp guy.
So Norah has invested in a great couple John & Sandra. I always believe the people behind the project are as important as the idea.
But I have to be honest; it would not have been worth my while at less than 30%. Let me explain that. To market a game like this internationally takes not just money but time. To part with €80,000 and to get a return on that would mean a big time commitment.
This week I am in London from Thursday through to Tuesday on TanOrganic business. The 100% natural, organic tan, invented by Noelle O’Connor, featured on Dragons’ Den, series 2 on 18/3/2010, is taking off in the UK.
On Thursday we are meeting buyers. On Thursday evening I am in the Irish Embassy as key note speaker addressing the London Irish Business Association. Then on Friday I am in talks with three big celebrities who want to endorse TanOrganic and become brand ambassadors. I fly home Friday evening but return on Sunday morning to go to Wembley for the League Cup Final, Arsenal V Birmingham and then onto the British Beauty Industry Awards Show that night. I am speaking at the Beauty Spa Association Conference on Monday and later present to the top 50 beauty bloggers in the UK. On Tuesday morning we are meeting with one of the big department stores to see about installing a TanOrganic Spray booth.
The point of all this is to give you an idea of the time commitment to building a rand like TanOrganic. But I know every day spent on this product pays handsomely for myself and partner Noelle.
Back to tonight’s show. When Niall and Norah made a joint offer at 24.5% I could not match it and certainly could not better it so I offered the full amount of €80k for 30%. I was hoping John Joyce would go with a Dragon with a proven track record rather than take a chance on a new Dragon who has not brought any such product to market.
I had given him a tough time in the Den and that probably affected his judgement. He also was apparently impressed that Norah’s kid played Club Penguin. John made his choice.
On the upside though, as I have gotten to know Norah, I think she will be a good backer and mentor. I hope it works out for them and I urge you all, if you have eight to ten year olds encourage them to check out www.savvybear.com.
I think Sean and Bobby made a good investment in Grow Rings. I really liked it but it didn’t fit in with the suite of investments I have in the DIY area so I bowed out.
Bobby is gone to New York with the family this weekend. Norah is off on a family mid term break and Sean just got back from a romantic weekend with his lovely wife Trish. We missed not having him on the Late Late Show with us on Friday night. You can check that out on the RTE Player.
It is good to be back with series 3 and I hope you enjoy it and the insights here. Please do feel free to make any comments. They are always welcome.
Gavin.
The Year That Was..2010
Independent Group Local Newspapers 29/1/2011
This week I am going to look back on 2010. I am so conscious of what an awful year it was for thousands – many losing their job, others losing sleep about their mortgage and their mounting debts and, this Christmas, so many looking at the prospect of losing members of their family to emigration in the coming year. So I feel almost guilty that I have had such an eventful and productive year. The Editor has pointed out that there will be a fuller review of all the year’s international, national and, of course, local news here in the paper but has asked me to write a personal log of my year.
January started with me beginning to write this column. I have thoroughly enjoyed it and thank you so much for your most positive feedback! Like me, you too are fed up with the constant negativity of the national media.
In February I inadvertently made the headlines. The Irish Daily Mail ran two pages of photographs of me meeting, on a street in Dublin, with Sean Fitzpatrick, the now disgraced former boss of toxic bank, Anglo Irish. The story sarcastically suggested I was probably meeting Sean Fitzpatrick to see would he invest some of his pension money in my Dragons’ Den products. Though it was a chance meeting, I still had to inform the media that I had never met Sean Fitzpatrick before (or since) and I had never been a client of Anglo Irish. Eventually the story petered out, but for the first time in my life I knew what it was to be “paparazzi-ed”.
In March, during the run of Dragons’ Den on RTÉ, I hit the jackpot! Noelle O’Connor walked in to present her idea for a healthy, non synthetic, non smelling, 100% natural, organic sunless tan. In the first three months in pharmacies over the summer, TanOrganic generated over €1m in sales. It became the number one selling tan in Ireland. So, despite being in the middle of the world’s worst recession, the point was proven again – if you have a good Irish-manufactured product, regardless of the economy it will sell and sell.
At the end of April Gerry Ryan died. We now know this was probably as a result of cocaine use. I would never condone substance abuse but I am not really qualified to comment because I am one of a tiny minority in Ireland who has never drank alcohol or smoked tobacco and has certainly never tried any form of drug. I do have many vices just not those more common ones! What Gerry did was wrong. But I worked with Gerry and I will always remember him as one of the greatest radio presenters.
In May I was asked to go on the Late Late Show for the finalists in the Transition Year Young Entrepreneurs competition. One student had a brilliant idea, “The Wrap”. It is a little plastic thing for wrapping up and avoiding tangling of the wire of your earphones for your phone or I-pod. I was delighted the following week to introduce him to Vodafone, and now his concept is now a real product out there on the market. It proves yet again that our schools are teeming with boys and girls with great business ideas.
In June I started my summer-long involvement with Celebrity Bainisteoir. Definitely one of the highlights of my year was the warm welcome I got from the Roche Emmets football club and its community. I still feel the team and I let ourselves down, and that such a great club deserved to go further in the competition, but I loved every moment of my involvement. The experience reaffirmed for me what a great contribution the GAA makes to local communities across the country.
On the 11th July the nation witnessed the greatest daylight robbery ever. Sports fans from all over the country agreed that Louth was robbed of a deserved Leinster title and Meath also suffered ‘winning’ what became a sullied championship. We simply have to introduce video evidence into these key games.
In August I was asked by RTÉ Radio 1 to fill in for Ryan Tubridy, who was moving over to 2FM, before John Murray was available to start the programme. I hadn’t presented a radio programme for well over a decade and if the truth be told enjoyed it far too much. It was a pleasure to work with Annmarie Power, Aonghus McAnally and their team in Donnybrook.
In September I was doing the job interviews for the Apprentice for TV3. One of the final four and the eventual winner was Michelle Massey. On her CV it stated she had done some modelling so I had to ask her was there anything in her past that could embarrass a future employer. She then revealed her dalliance with Playboy TV. I can tell you now I was never, ever expecting that one. I had to keep it all secret until the programme aired in December.
In late October my fellow Dragons and I really felt the pressure when RTÉ informed us that for 2011 the programme was moving to a prime time slot, 9:30pm on Sunday nights. We were all concerned that in the recession people might not come forward with good ideas. But when we did get to the Den for recordings, we were mightily relieved at the high standard of business ideas. It is television, so the producers will still feature the wacky ideas, but this year there were plenty of sound business ideas. Also RTÉ confirmed that there will be a follow up series looking back on many of the people who featured in series one and two.
In November we had the ‘good’ news that it was in the ECB’s interest to come to our nation’s rescue and bail us out but at a price. Personally I was delighted with the development, because I see it as the turning point on the road to recovery. The media kept pushing a line that we should default. We can’t default but we must restructure our debt in approximately 18 to 24 months from now. So we take this deal and in two years time after Portugal, Spain and maybe even Italy have required ECB/IMF assistance then we can, as a group of countries availing of the bailout, force the senior bondholders to restructure our debt. They will be forced to write a large percentage of it off. Of the group, which country has the strongest exports? Yes, Ireland. I assure you we will eventually come out of this valley of tears and our little nation can be great again.
In December Noel Dempsey followed his cabinet colleague, Dermot Ahern, and announced he wouldn’t contest the General Election. Dermot Ahern would have got re-elected but Noel Dempsey was doomed. He claimed he was doing it because he is over 55 years of age. The facts are party sources in Meath-West were forecasting that he could only muster, at best, 2,000 votes. Worse again his running mate, Deputy Johnny Brady, would poll better. So Dempsey, a former poll topper, couldn’t face the ignominy of being eliminated in an early count and bowed out on a fat pension. We so badly need the New Year’s General Election to draw a line under all the fall out of the Celtic Tiger and start on the road to recovery. To you and yours, a Happy New Year and all the best for 2011.