Dragons’ Den star reveals fury after ‘brainwashed’ contestant’s disastrous pitch

A Dragons’ Den star has called out an entrepreneur for appearing to be ‘brainwashed’ by their own sales pitch.

The BBC competition is returning for its 22nd series with Touker Suleyman, Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones, Steven Bartlett and Sara Davies being joined by Joe Wicks, Emma Grede and Trinny Woodall as guest investors.

Ahead of investing in some new inventions and creative businesses, the Dragons revealed which disastrous pitches have clearly left a mark, with Strictly star Sara recalling a ‘brainwashed’ contestant who left her ‘blood boiling’.

She told Metro and other press: ‘The worst, I don’t actually remember what the business was, but I remember it was a young girl, she had pink dungarees on and she was so full of herself, she just couldn’t see that we were trying to give constructive feedback on the business… it was like she was brainwashed.

‘And I remember trying to get through to her, and we all gave her this fantastic feedback, and you could just see she was sat there thinking, “Well, you guys have clearly no idea what you’re on about, and I’m just brilliant, and I’m just going to walk out of here and that’s the end of that.”

‘And I remember it boiled my blood at the time thinking what an opportunity you’ve missed here.’

Deborah, one of the programme’s longest-serving Dragons’, behind Peter who has been a part of the show since its inception in 2005, remembered one pitch that’s been ‘burned in [her] brain’ since her first year as a Dragon.

She said: ‘I know my worst one, absolutely burned in my brain. It was my first series ever, and I remember sitting there thinking, “Oh dear, I’m in trouble. If this is what we’re going to be pitched, we’re in trouble.” It was the guy with the false fingernails for cats… that was pretty bad.’

Thankfully, it’s not been all bad for Deborah, though she did recall another in her ‘worst pitch list’ that she branded ‘absolutely brilliant’.

She explained: ‘Two guys who came in with their idea that you go to the beach, there’s never any sun beds available, so what we’re going to do is we’re going to put a sunbed inside a suitcase, and you’re going to take it on holiday with you so instead of going to the beach and packing your normal stuff, you’ve got to pack all of your luggage and you’ve got a suitcase almost the size of this table to drag with you on holiday.’

‘There was a stunned, “Is that a sunbed in a suitcase?”‘ Deborah laughed, remembering the Dragons’ reactions.

On the other end of the spectrum, there have been several pitches which have left the Dragons emotional, and even inspired them.

Podcast host Steven recalled one particularly memorable one that was ‘really inspiring’, when an asylum seeker who fled their country and had no family arrived in the UK and ‘built a really, really remarkable business against all of the odds’.

He went on: ‘Sometimes in the Den when we speak about something being memorable, it’s just a real reminder of the essence of what it is to be a human fighting for your life in every sense of the word.

‘When I say every sense of the word, this person is fighting for their country, they’re fighting for themselves, and those moments really remind me of so many things about what it is to be human. It’s love, it’s tenacity, it’s perseverance, it’s overcoming and then it also makes me as a Dragon feel so unbelievably privileged to get to create these moments for them where you can support them in that mission.’

Sara, who joined Dragons’ Den in series 17, before Steven in series 19, shared: ‘A friend texted me and said, “Have an amazing time changing someone’s life today,” and I thought, “That is what we do, we get to change people’s lives.”

‘We will only pick good businesses, this is not a philanthropic show, it’s not a charity, we aren’t here to dish out money to be nice to people. We’re here to find people who we believe that with our mentoring and support, as well as our money, can go on to create some real prosperity. And it’s that opportunity to get to do them [that’s] such a privilege.’

Reflecting on ‘changing people’s lives’, Peter admitted Dragons’ Den has ‘become almost cult-like’ because of the impact it can have.

He said: ‘I can’t think of anything else where it’s has become almost cult-like in terms of the change that it makes.

‘I feel like a dream maker when I sit in the chair. That’s the reality, because that’s what we’re doing. Ultimately, it’s making dreams reality.

‘I do feel like a dream maker, because you sometimes have a business that’s pitched to you, and then when they go on the journey with you that business completely changes and pivots, and that’s exciting.’

And while they’re the ones changing contestants’ lives, there’s something the Dragons gain from their role too.

‘Changing people’s lives is important, but there’s more than that,’ Touker began. ‘For me personally, it’s education, to learn about businesses that I’ve never dreamt I’d learned about.

‘I started off in fashion, and I didn’t know what gluten-free was before I came to the show years ago, so it’s the education as a Dragon, you combine it all together, it’s a package.

‘It’s not one specific thing, it’s several things put together. That’s what makes me want to come back.’

‘I don’t feel like this is my career, I feel like this is my hobby,’ Sara added.

‘To Toukers’ point, I’ve learnt so much from these other people, my life feels enriched from being able to work with these people, both professionally and personally.

‘Being a part of someone else’s success story gives greater reward than building your own success story, and I’ve learned that through doing this job, or this hobby.

‘So I keep coming back because of the kicks that you get from seeing somebody else succeed and knowing that you’ve contributed to that, and I don’t think there’s another platform where you could achieve that than what we do here.’

Each year, the Dragons are left stunned by the new inventions brought into the Den, but having come along way since the show first began nearly two decades ago, they’re expecting even more advances in technology this year.

Speaking of what would be new this season, Steven said: ‘The most important thing I think about every year before I come up here is – especially because the rate of change in the world is so quick – I wonder if Dragons’ Den is going to keep up with the rates of change in the world.’

He went on: ‘Obviously one of the big changes we’ve had in the last 12 months is the rise of AI in culture and in every tech company in the world.’

This year, he’s keeping track of how many pitches talk about AI, after there were few last year, and at the time of the interview, there had already been nearly 10.

‘Last year was pretty much zero,’ Steven continued. ‘So for me that’s really, really nice because it means that this show keeps up with the pace of change in the world.

‘So real entrepreneurs that are building real businesses are going to look at the show and go, “Yes, that’s the world that I’m living in as an entrepreneur and therefore, I can learn from this because what I’m seeing on the screen is what I’m going through in my office.”

‘Funny, when I first arrived it was all like hand sanitizer and antibacterial because of Covid, and now, there’s a lot of AI in tech. So yeah, it’s a reflection of the world which I love.’

It’s not just keeping up with the rate of change in the tech and business world that has impressed the Dragons, but the way in which diversity in the Den has changed.

When Deborah joined in 2006, she was the only female Dragon in the Den, and continued to be so for seven years.

‘We’ve come a long way, a long way,’ she reflected.

Sara added: ‘This is my sixth year, and if I look back, there’s been quite a dramatic change in the six years that I’ve been coming here, in the people that come into the Den and you know, we are the BBC, we have a responsibility to represent, and the teams work so hard in making sure we have that breadth of representation.

‘When I came it was predominantly men, we’d get the odd token female entrepreneur coming in, but it wasn’t equal, and now the diversity that we get, and the amount of people who speak to me afterwards – we had a lot of it last year as well – and say, “Well, I see people coming in and starting businesses that look like me.”

‘People with disabilities, people from ethnic and racial minorities, the diversity there, and it’s the most inspiring thing, and to know the impact that that’s having, and that’s not us. We don’t do the casting for the show – that is all the work that the team do here to bring us that breadth of businesses.’

Peter added: ‘Yeah, I think [Dragons’ Den] has definitely broken down those barriers. But it’s broken them down quite fiercely like a dragon would.’

Dragons’ Den returns to BBC One and iPlayer at 8pm on Thursday, January 9.

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