The CBC show, Dragons' Den, is in serious danger of getting the same tarnished image that tinged the British show - the Dragons will not close the deals they agreed to do on national TV. There are all sorts of excuses.
Again, after the Uno letdown, Brett Wilson is left alone holding the bag to finance a great product, Ecotraction, and finally, this is getting noticed by the newspaper journalists. Mary Teresa Bitti, Financial Post writes, "all five (Dragons) agreed to put up a combined $500,000 for a 25% stake." They blame their change of heart on the market collapse.
That's a convenient excuse.
There are two types of investors: those that do it for a living and those who have made it, and invest their own money. The Dragons are supposed to be in the later category. Surely, they can afford $75,000 each on a product with guaranteed sales? Or maybe not?
I have a spread sheet tracking deals declared and deals done. Email me if you want a copy to see how much these Dragons are actually putting into our Canadian entrepreneurs. CBC should be asking Arelene Dickinson and Brett Wilson if they have any buddies who want to be Dragons and kick out the others who don't cough up the dough.
5 comments:
Isn't Dragons' Den about venture capitalism...is that the same thing as private equity?
yes - private equity means money held privately. so Venture Capital is done by individuals or funds using private money.
Public money is on the stock market.
Do you work for the show?
I blog for Dragons' Den and am a huge fan of it.
It is a great showcase for entrepreneurs and Canadian enterprise. The Dragons are terrific too.
This seems a tad unfair As far as I've seen and heard it sounds like they've done a few deals already this season...and since when does a hand shake constitute a cash handover? I don't doubt the dragons can "afford" the investment, but there's terms and fine details that must get worked out and potentially cause problems compared to the original agreement?
I read on the DD site all about due dilligence, and some of the deals have even said themselves that they couldn't make it through due dilligence, or in the end THEY walk away from the deal because all they really wanted was exposure and had no intention of giving up 50% of their business.
As far as I know, the objective of this show is to provide a forum for entrepreneurs to pitch, get feedback, get exposure, and potentially get a deal. Isn't all of this still true? It's only with the addition of Mr. Wilson this year that we've actually seen deals, in the past seasons the deals closing don't always make it into the show.
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