Dragon's Den contestant

Dragon’s Den gains business valuable publicity…

Budding entrepreneurs who go on Dragon’s Den might leave the den with nothing, but they will have advertised their product to millions of TV viewers. Dragon's Den contestant

We do wonder if some of them actually want investment from the dragons – one entrepreneur on last night’s show got an offer but would only give away a maximum of ten per cent of her business. The business – a new sort of salt that dissolves ice but does not leave a residue – was so high risk that Theo Paphitis said he could only take it on if he got 50 per cent. Which left us wondering if this particular entrepreneur primarily went on the show to advertise the stuff. Whatever, it is entertaining…

Another entrepreneur, who also left the den with nothing last night was Sussex entrepreneur Brian Smith. He didn’t get investment because despite liking his product, the dragons could not see how they could make enough money out of it.

However, he has been savvy enough today to send round a press release about Pop-ettes, his origami characters.

TV dragons questioning Sussex entrepreneur Brian Smith on BBC’s Dragons’ Den found themselves facing an amusing paper-folding challenge as they made their own images into finger puppets.

Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones,Theo Paphitis and Deborah Meaden enjoyed folding the specially created ‘Pop-ettes’ in the show.

The latest Pop-ette characters come from Henfield creator Brian (author name Philip Craik), publisher of “The World of Popagami” – a fun activities book for children, packed with a dozen easy-to-fold colourful animals (folded from a single sheet of printed paper).

Brian Smith is a former chemistry teacher and engineer and is a science technician at Ardingly College in Sussex.

“I created special sheets of the Dragons themselves for the show,” says Brian. “I think they were surprised by the whole business idea and had some useful advice.

“We have had tremendous success with the book of Popagami characters,” he says.

“The Dragons’ Den characters have been added to the range and the folding instructions are easy to follow.”

The World of Popagami is on sale at just £4.99 and available both online and in some major bookshops, including branches of Waterstones.

The TV Dragon sheets are available in packs of 10 – two each of five characters: Peter Jones, Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meaden, Hilary Devey and Theo Paphitis. The packs cost just 99p.

Visit www.popagami.com to see the full range of Dragon characters.

PR: Oakfield Media

Have you been on or applied to go on Dragon’s Den? We would love to hear your thoughts on your experience – let us know about them here: Contact us.

Alison Smith-Squire

Alison Smith-Squire is a writer, journalist and media agent selling exclusive real life stories to newspapers, magazines and TV. She owns the sell my story website Featureworld.co.uk, which was set up to help ordinary people sell their stories to the press.

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