Dragons' Den

Catching up on iPlayer.

Fat Lad at the Back -- dunno. Quirky name good for initial business but maybe Dragons are right that it limits future sales. I'm surprised no-one invested since the brand name is easy to change and they've already sold a few.

Nanotechnology -- so tied up with the dodgy contract details I've forgotten what the product does, apart from you stick it on, erm, something -- replays start of pitch -- actually, that is the product -- it is the stickyness. She's in Wilkinson's so you'd have thought a bank loan would be better. Really, she needs Theo, who (a) could stick it straight into his shops, and (b) would know how to renegotiate the agreement. Deborah would surely have been a better bet than Duncan given she has the contacts.

Drinks holder on umbrella in case you want to drink and use a phone in the rain -- solution in search of a problem imo. Otoh, it would not have surprised me if Peter had signed them up as product designers because it was a nice prototype.

Keepy-uppies with oversized badminton shuttlecocks -- I can see it as a 1-year Christmas craze, and maybe developed for schools as a sort of cheap PE lesson. Whether either will make enough money, I doubt, but the schools market might be worth a punt.

Walking stick gizmo -- too vulnerable to existing manufacturers adding lights to their sticks. They'd already have the contracts with hospitals, physiotherapists and so on. I'm out.

Marshmallows -- I've ordered posh marshmallows over the web so there is a market. Trouble is, I do not think it is a very big market. Peter offered more money than was asked for: has that ever happened before? Silly entrepreneur was too hung up on the percentage rather than the size of the whole.

they should do a sponsorship deal with ukip

Huskies -- good that they know what they want to do with the money. I don't like dogs so I'm out. Peter Jones (and Theo) bought out the Red Letter Days events company from Rachel who went bust early on, so might have some knowledge. Shame the accountancy let them down.

Hot chocolate -- they are in the supermarkets; they know their numbers; why are they there? Leaving aside the doubts over their contract and management structure, what did they want?

Computer game -- dominated by the big boys unless you get very lucky. £1 million for a company that has no income?

Vase/greetings card mash-up -- I'm not sure Peter understood it.

Dog stuff -- see above.

Bike visor-wiping glove -- how have they spent £100,000 on this?

Plasterboard fixing gadget -- DM invested. Well done.

i missed the start of the radiator gizmo, what does it do exactly?

Grip It Fixings
http://www.gripitfixings.co.uk/

According to what presumably is his local paper:

Jordan came up with the idea for Grip It in 2008 whilst putting up curtain rails with his then 74 year-old grandfather Stan. Having difficulty installing the railings via traditional methods, the pair spent the rest of the afternoon in his grandfather’s garden shed figuring out a more effective mechanism.

Aided by his grandfather’s engineering background, it took the pair just a matter of days to come up with a prototype for the fixings, and, following months of testing, they applied for a patent in 2009, when Jordan was 14.

Makes you wonder how the inventing was divided between the 14-year-old and his engineer grandad. It is like those stories, "teenage genius makes cancer breakthrough", and then you read on to find mum is professor of molecular biology at the local university.

But fair play to him because it looks like he is taking his mates along for the ride:

Making up the Grip It team with Jordan are 11 of his friends, all aged between 17-19 years old, who look after various areas of the business, from accounts and production to packing and distributing. Jordan’s girlfriend Laura is in charge of sales.

hes gonna be a very rich young man

Wanted a dragon. They'd already got free tv advertising of the product by appearing on the programme.

@King of Dubai I bet he pays his buddies a fair wage, unlike the slaves at the diamond mines that earn his 'pocket money' for him.

Wrong question. Start-ups normally have low wages but share options or the like. You see occasional headlines to the effect that Google or Facebook have bought a company whose receptionists are now millionaires. So the question is: has he given his mates a fair share of the business?

i dont get the drinking chocolate thing. what are the dragons on about again?

@sideshowbob -- i dont get the drinking chocolate thing. what are the dragons on about again?

If you look round any big supermarket, there are umpteen upmarket and sometimes exotic varieties of hot chocolate (and tea and coffee). Apparently this is one of them.

I'm not really sure what caused Deborah to change her mind so abruptly, tbh, and can't be bothered to watch it again to find out.

piers linney is a complete waste of space dont think iv ever seen him invest unless theres another dragon to go into partnership with

cheers ram,have to say i dont watch it every week,maybe hes just been lying low on the programmes iv seen,he never seems to make a surprise offer like some of the others though,looks like if one of the other dragons slag a pitch off hes immediately out

i thought i watched it every week, but i dont remember ANY of those! 

Debroah improving sort

How much is scripted ?

If you mean the dragons talking, probably none, and you will notice most of the biplay between dragons is between Peter and Duncan, who have been there longest, with Deborah third and the relative newbies Kelly and Piers least of all.

It is heavily edited, of course.

Pants On Fire - another delusional valuation

I thought tees were usually plastic - and are cheap as chips

Piers point about the umbrella getting mouldy was the first thing that occurred to me. Not a bad idea though, in the context of getting into a car

She's a bit nervous - too tense