These are some of them.
Revolutionary brush
In 2007, Shaun Pulfrey took part in the programme. On a daily basis, he worked with hair dyeing. Since he had long been annoyed that there were no good hairbrushes on the market that could handle long hair full of small knots, he developed a brush himself.
He set about developing the product with saved funds and a £25,000 loan he got from the bank against a mortgage on the flat.
So he took a chance and signed up at Dragon’s Den to show off the brush to the investors. They were visibly unimpressed, and declined to invest £80,000 for 15 percent of Pulfrey’s company.
WORTH MILLIONS: The brush Tangle Teezer has become a global sales hit and the inventor Shaun Pulfrey very rich. Photo: TANGLE TEEZER
Today, they probably regret bitterly that they did not jump at the idea and the offer. When the program was shown, sales took off at record speed.
The brush called Tangle Teezer is now sold in over 70 countries. Ten years after its launch, Pulfrey’s company has sold over £100 million worth of brushes. He has also developed a series for brushing the fur of animals.
In 2021, a British PE firm bought a majority stake in Pulfrey’s company, a stake they paid in excess of £70 million for.
Ironically, the former hair dyer from England now has a greater fortune than any of the investors participating in Dragon’s Den.
Great value for small suitcase
The year before investors turned down the brush Tangle Teezer, they also turned down another invention that has taken the world by storm.
Then the designer Rob Law appeared on the program with a small curved suitcase attached to a strap. It had rather large wheels, came in many different colours, and almost looked like a small pet that you took for a walk.
The suitcase was designed for children, so they could either drag it behind themselves or sit on it, while mother and father dragged the child and the suitcase behind them at, for example, airports. Trunki named the designer the product and asked for £100,000 for 10 per cent of his company.
SUITCASE FOR THE LITTLE ONES: The Trunki suitcase was rejected by investors in Dragon’s Den, but has since become a global sales success that has since been sold to other investors for £12m. Photo: TRUNKI
But none of the investors bid on the offer. One of those who wanted to test the product rubbed the strap so hard that it smoked. That made the investors skeptical about the quality of the suitcases. One of them said bluntly that she saw no business opportunity for the product. Although everyone was skeptical, one investor was still open to betting on the suitcase era. He was to make £100,000 available, but then against half of the company’s shares, not 10 per cent. Law declined that offer.
Today, he is perhaps just as glad that the investors did not join his venture. Ten years after he entered the program and was told his company was worthless, he passed three million Trunki cases sold. That figure has since increased quite sharply.
In 2013, Law sold a small share of his company, which was then valued at £12 million. Last year he sold the rest of his shares. He then owned 60 percent. It is not known what the new owners paid, but according to The Times, his holding company had risen significantly in value since its valuation ten years earlier.
Never got to participate
It is not just inventions that are presented in the program Dragon’s Den. Various products that you can eat and drink are also launched. There are many of them, and several of those who want to be on the program are refused participation by the producers.
The two fellows James Watt and Martin Dickie from Scotland experienced this. They had been making beer in the garage for two years, a beer that many people liked. So they thought they wanted to grow and then Dragon’s Den could be a nice program to showcase the beer they were so proud of. But they never got the chance to introduce themselves to the investors and offered them 20 percent ownership for £100,000 in 2009.
CROWDFUNDING: The founders of Brew Dog opted for crowdfunding when they were not allowed to participate in Dragon’s Den. In connection with a possible IPO later this year, the company is valued at 1.8 billion pounds. Photo: Bloomberg
Being rejected already in the screening process by the producers of the program was a hard blow for the two beer brewers, but they did not give up. In 2011, they invested in crowdfunding instead and received two million pounds in exchange for giving up eight percent of the company’s shares.
Today, their beer is known worldwide as BrewDog, and in 2016 the two founders sold 22 percent of their shares to a PE firm for £213 million.
Sold after only five years
A food company the investors in Dragon’s had the opportunity to inject money into, but turned down, is called Pasta Evangelist. Three guys who loved pasta, and strongly believed in selling fresh pasta in the grocery store, were met with a cold shoulder by the investors. This despite the fact that one of those founders, Alessandro Savelli, said that the pasta they made was based on his Italian grandmother’s recipe and that it could not be easily copied.
One of the investors said that the idea was not unique, that it could easily be copied and that it was no use influencing their willingness to invest with Italian charm.
Now it wasn’t that the pasta was not to their liking, which caused the investors to turn their backs on the three founders, but it was primarily the pricing of the company. The three asked for 75,000 pounds for just 1.5 percent of the company’s shares.
The investors were told that the founders were to make money from 2020, and obtain distribution with large chains. Despite this, they received a clear no from the investors. By the way, in 2020, Pasta Evangelist had a turnover of 14 million pounds and they were inside the counters of fashionable Harrods in London.
In 2021, just five years after its inception, Pasta Evangelist was bought by the world’s largest pasta producer. The price tag the three founders could split between them was £40 million.
