Move Over Apprentice here comes the Dragons Den

Hi Sowpubbers,

Have any of you seen the T.V show called The Dragons Den?

This show has just aired its first episode in Toronto Canada last Wednesday.

However, it appears to have aired in the U.K previously.

I have watched a couple of back episodes from the U.K on Youtube.com and this show is a must watch for Entrepreneurs. I like it much better than the Apprentice.

Basic Premise of Show:

Inventors or business owners looking for outside investment get an opportunity to make a Pitch to a group of Angel Investors (the Dragons).

There is no real winner or loser, the Dragons individually listen to the pitch and decide if they are going to invest their money into the project or not. This is done on an individual basis not as a group.

KEY POINT OF INTEREST:

- These are real people, looking for real money
- Notice the TYPES of questions that the Dragons ask
- Notice the FLAWS in the PITCH of the people asking for money

One key thing I noticed is that a lot of the pitches LACK a fundamental understanding of MARKETING. They are very PRODUCT focused and NOT Market focussed.

Examples.

I Listened to this guy try to Pitch his project for almost 10 minutes,
and I still have NO CLUE what the product is and neither do the Dragons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gF0ihonnEQ

This is another guy that has a website http://www.storycode.com/

He was looking for funding from the investors, and they RIP him to shreds.
He argues vehemently for his project. Listen carefully to the lady Dragon and what she says to him

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDczb...elated&search=

If you want to see an upcoming show checkout this site

www.insidethedragonsden.com/ it airs this Wednesday in Toronto Canada.

To view the original show from the U.K go to

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/about.shtml ( there are a LOT OF TIPS and GREAT ADVICE HERE TO)

I think anybody that been around SOWPUB would know how to give a better pitch than these folks.

Has anybody else seen this show??

Any lessons learned?

Duane Adolph