Dragons Den Revealed

Mullingar Crystal applied for and were sucessful in getting on to the Irish Version of Dragons Den.
Our pitch: to get €50K to enter the corporate awards market in the US.

We were unsucessful in our pitch but I genuinely have no problem with that.

We entered the programme based only on having watched the BBC version and having been a fan of the programme for years.

I was barred by contract on saying anything about Dragons Den until my episode had aired which it now has.
I, as an Irish Entrepreneur, having set up and sold 5 businesses am disgusted at what Shinawil productions and ultimately RTE have done with the Dragons Den franchise.

Larry Bass, the MD of the production company, in an interview last Sunday said that he wanted to give Dragons Den a uniquely Irish feel and thus filmed the programme in a pub. Mr Bass went on to speak about there being more chat in the Irish version. He just stopped short of Arran Sweaters and a few pints of Guinness.
Ireland is second in the world with the number of businesses per capita.
However, Dragons Den has more of a “freak” show feel to it.
While first and foremost, I understand that Dragons Den should be entertainment, this appears to leave the sound business ideas on the floor while going to air with the “freaky” people, many with quit silly ideas.
I would be worried if RTE decided to sell this programme on, where people in other countries would be laughing at the stupid Irish.
I also have a big problem with the quality of the dragons themselves. I would question whether they actually have the cash. In fact, at least one is going through the courts at the moment for non payment of rent! The token female, Sarah, seems to have a derogatory comment for everybody and also pulls an excuse not to invest. My information is that she actually makes no investment whatsoever in the first series.

In the current climate, it is agreed by most commentators that it is business and ultimately exports that will take us out of recession. The business ideas that are being backed by the dragons are colloquial, lack real imagination. Specific examples include a light for a handbag at a cost of €25 to manufacture and the guy does not make handbags. The Dragons were falling over to back the guy. Why? Because it meant they could tick the box of “having invested”. It is obvious that they could pull out at a due diligence time which was sure to happen in this instance. Anybody with any knowledge of the handbag industry will tell you that they are predominantly made in china, so forget patents etc.

The precursor to today’s Dragons Den was of course The Late Late Show. The guy from Stira still has “as seen on the late late show” on all his advertising material and that must be 30 years ago. If Stira were to appear on Dragons Den, he would guaranteed to be told, “You missed the Celtic tiger”. Others that spring to mind are Ballygowan Water and of course the guy from Tuam with the buckets for calves. His name, John Concannon, who now runs his business, JFC, still based in Tuam with an annual turnover of €40 million. If John Concannon were to arrive on Dragons Den, he would have no chance.
However, he is the kind of guy we need as a Dragon. There are many other names around, real people, self made and most importantly real millionaires with real cash and not a fictional amount of what their property was worth at the height of the boom.

Dragons Den on the BBC has proven itself as a great format. It could and should work here, but not in its current state.