Entering the Dragon’s Den

Dragon’s Den, or “Shark Tank” as the format is known in US territories, is fearsome. Essentially an interview panel arranged for broadcast TV, it is the kind of speaking situation which would challenge any communicator. As a stutterer, I couldn’t wait to try it out.

Application was straightforward, and I appeared on the programme in 2018. My pitch to the BBC was based around a funding application I’d written for my Dad’s business a couple of years earlier. That process ended prematurely, when George Osborne cut the scheme. However, it meant I already had all of the documentation in place to apply to Dragon’s Den. The BBC don’t let just anyone on the programme – there is a need for a business plan, projections, risk assessment, due diligence, and so on. Reams of paperwork.

The BBC asked me in for a screen test at Salford Quays Media City. I remember pointing out to them that I stutter. I was not expecting the BBC to care about stuttering, and was happy to find that they did not care. But I also did not want them to misunderstand what was happening when I stuttered. In therapy, we call this “self-advertising” or “self-disclosure”.

The show runner, Josh, was terrific. He gave us lots of tips for structuring our presentation, manufacturing props (the BBC are really good at making props!) and generally getting ourselves in order. We discovered that the Dragons are not briefed before entering the Den. Questions and reactions from the Dragons are genuine.

I began to discern the profile of my appearance. At some time during the recording, I would get stuck in a stuttering moment I could not get out of. I would then self-disclose. Doing so can act as a “get out of jail free” card for stutterers. Self-disclosure goes down really well with listeners. It is a great way to reduce any awkwardness around stuttering. A bonus for me is that it can magically eliminate stuttering – at least, for a little while. However, it is only possible to play the self-disclosure card once per encounter. I would need to pick my moment.

The show was filmed on the old Coronation Street sound stage, at the former Granada Studios in the centre of Manchester. We had the surreal experience of parking up outside the Rover’s Return pub. Preparations for filming started at 6 am, and involved a lot of hanging around in the “green room”. This build-up was quite stressful – not just for me, but for the other contestants as well. There were a lot of nerves. The production crew eventually called for us around 2 pm.

Dragon’s Den takes place in a pretend warehouse fashioned from plywood. The bricks, the massive iron cogs, and the view of a post-industrial skyline are all fake. There is no elevator either – contestants walk into the Den on the flat, and the effect of a lift moving is created by a BBC technician turning a crank. The only real thing is the view of the stern-looking Dragons which greets you as you exit the elevator. That bit is exactly how it appears on the TV. It is fairly terrifying.

Early in the recording, we demonstrated our product using a prop. We directed leaf blowers through the air vent we were promoting, and a standard louvred model. We had rehearsed this many times, and it worked spectacularly. During the recording the demonstration did not work at all. I could hear the Dragons murmuring, “there is no difference”. After a while, Peter Jones came over to help. But he could not make the demonstration work either. It was a disaster. Dragon’s Den is not filmed live, so I knew that editing could clear up some of our difficulties. However, I could not think of a way to edit which would not make us look ill-prepared. I had been confident about our chances coming into the Den, but our pitch was unravelling.

The Dragons told us to keep on going. They started asking questions about the business plan. An early exchange was promising. There are two simple ways for investors to value a business. In one, the amount of investment requested is divided by the fraction of equity offered. So, we were looking for £40,000 in exchange for 20% of the equity, valuing the business at £200,000. I knew the Dragons would have made this calculation early on.

The other method multiplies together various sales projections and profit margins. This valuation involves juggling many numbers. Peter Jones had started asking about profits and projections. I could answer his questions off the top of my head, but he kept on going as if it was an exam. Suddenly I saw where it was heading. I also realised, a few seconds before Peter Jones, that the calculations he was making on his notepad would value the business at exactly £200,000. The two estimating methods tallied exactly. It was perfect. Peter Jones would be impressed, and would have to offer us some money.

But he did not look impressed. Instead, the entire exchange I have just described would be cut from the broadcast. Peter Jones paused for a moment, before saying “Let’s do this another way”. At that point, I knew it was over for us. But I did not yet know how. What you see in the transmission is the subsequent line of questioning from Peter Jones. He works out the total profit available in the UK market, which is £4 million. He then says that £4 million is not enough.

I was stunned by this, as was my Dad. We had both felt that £4 million profit would be plenty for everyone. And it wasn’t even the major play – that would be the EU market. We had an EU patent, and the original business plan (the one I had prepared for the George Osborne scheme) showed that the EU market was 20 times larger than the UK market. You can hear me trying this line in the broadcast, when I say “That’s just for the UK”. However, the Dragons were already in a post-Brexit world. It was hopeless.

The next Dragon to ask me questions was Deborah Meaden. She was kindly looking for a way to salvage our pitch, and began to ask questions about pricing. I could answer them, but I was fairly exhausted after the earlier questioning. What is more, the Dragons had by now identified my Dad’s reluctance to contact major sales outlets as being a difficulty for our proposition. I knew that we did not have retail packaging in place, and that this would hardly help us. I then began to stutter more than I had previously been doing. Everything seemed to be going wrong. It was time to play the stutter card.

Happily, once I said that I stuttered, the mood of the room lightened markedly. It was as if a curtain had been lifted. My favourite reaction was from Tej Lalvani. He opened his hands wide as if he was about to clap, glanced round at the other Dragons who were not acting similarly, and then returned both hands to his lap. I loved him for that.

Deborah Meaden was a sweetheart as well. She gave us a load of unsolicited advice, which was cut from the broadcast but was really on point. In fact, all of the Dragons were lovely. The stern and scary demeanour is largely an act for the cameras. Once the pitch is over, there is a bit of time for free form chat. They then film you on the walk of shame, before the debrief interview in a separate studio. The entire recording session is about half an hour with the Dragons, and 15 minutes for debrief. This is all cut down to 10 minutes for broadcast.

We had to wait about three months to see ourselves on TV. The BBC called a week before we were on, and we watched on BBC 2 at the same time as 2 million other people. Happily, the BBC had been generous in their edit. The order of questioning was switched around to make us look as good as we could have done. And our leaf blower demonstration miraculously worked!

I was most pleased of all with the way the BBC portrayed my stuttering. Switching around the order of questioning positioned the self-disclosure at an appropriately central point. But what is most delightful for me is how the stuttering is not the focus of the appearance. This can be a difficult balance to get right. If there is too much of an emphasis on stuttering, then a TV show can become “about” stuttering. Yet, too little emphasis on stuttering, and viewers can fail to realise that the stuttering even happened. The Dragon’s Den appearance is in the middle of this spectrum. It contains obvious stuttering, and the stuttering is discussed. However, the appearance itself is not about stuttering.

As I mentioned, 2 million people watch the original Dragon’s Den broadcast. It then lives forever in syndication. With this level of exposure, public feedback is unavoidable. What happened for me? I will reveal all next time.