{"id":98187,"date":"2017-05-12T14:41:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T13:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startups.co.uk\/?p=98187"},"modified":"2023-11-27T15:55:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T15:55:55","slug":"how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/","title":{"rendered":"How to pitch to a Dragon: Deborah Meaden shares 5 quick-fire investment tips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The longest-serving female dragon in the Den, serial investor Deborah Meaden has graced our television screens for over 10 years now, hearing countless <a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/strategy\/successful-elevator-pitch-examples-and-how-to-write-your-own\/\">investment pitches<\/a> along the way &ndash; and her appetite for investment shows no signs of stopping.<\/p>\n<p>An entrepreneur from a young age, Meaden made her fortune in the travel and hospitality sectors, leading a management buyout&nbsp;of family holiday park business Weststar Holidays in 1999. After growing the company to provide holidays for 150,000 people every year, Meaden made a partial exit in 2005 in a deal worth &pound;33m, before selling her remaining shares for a reported &pound;83m two years later.<\/p>\n<p>Having made a little over 50 investments on the series since being introduced in season three, Meaden, who also appeared on <em>Strictly Come Dancing<\/em> in 2013, certainly has an investor&rsquo;s eye.<\/p>\n<p>While the thought of entering the Den and pitching in front of five dragons ready to rip apart your business plan would be enough to convince any start-up to stay at home, luckily for us, Meaden isn&rsquo;t shy when it comes to offering advice.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on stage as part of Sage Summit UK, the business mogul shared her five quick fire tips for start-ups looking to enter the Den &ndash; and come back out with a Dragon on-board&hellip;<\/p>\n<h3>Think about what the investor wants<\/h3>\n<p>Having run the gamut of pitches in her time on the show, Meaden says that nearly all unsuccessful applicants to the Den make the same mistake; they don&rsquo;t think about what the investor actually wants and how they would make a return on investment.<\/p>\n<p>Meaden argues that entrepreneurs are prone to&nbsp;overloading their presentations with superlatives, spending too much time talking about how marvellous and wonderful their product is &ndash;&nbsp; when all an investor wants is cold hard facts.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;An investor wants to know &lsquo;<em>why me<\/em>?&rsquo;. Why would I want to get involved in this business? Why am I the right investor for you?&rdquo;, she explains.<\/p>\n<p>The Somerset-native, who&rsquo;s invested in the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/dragons-den-success-stories-magic-whiteboard\/\">Magic Whiteboard<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/startups-100\/2015\/45-zeven-media\/\">Zeven Media<\/a> and MyDish.co.uk, says entrepreneurs just need to think about things from a dragon&rsquo;s point-of-view:<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I often say to people, pitch from your side, and then listen to your pitch from an investors side. Make sure an investor knows they&rsquo;re the right fit and why they should be as excited as you are.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h3>Don&rsquo;t worry about making mistakes<\/h3>\n<p>Over the years, viewers of the hit BBC Two show will have been treated to some amazing ideas, but also, some calamitous pitches.<\/p>\n<p>A tense room with a lot at stake, it&rsquo;s not unusual for entrepreneurs to fluff their lines, freeze on the spot or even be reduced to tears.<\/p>\n<p>However, like any good entrepreneur, Meaden says that even mistakes can present start-ups an opportunity to showcase their commitment to their cause.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The best pitches are often the ones that go wrong. I want to see someone who really understands their business. Even if they make a mistake, it proves they haven&rsquo;t learnt it by rote&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<p>Meaden recalls how an 18-year old Jordan Daykin entered the Den with his plasterboard fixing start-up <a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/dragons-den-success-stories-gripit-fixings\/\">GripIt Fixings<\/a>&nbsp;&ndash; a pitch that skirted disaster but went on to become one of her most successful investment.<\/p>\n<p>Whist showcasing his product to seemingly interested Dragons, Peter Jones decided to take a more &lsquo;hands-on&rsquo; approach to determine the suitability of the business and yanked the fixings clean off the wall.<\/p>\n<p>However, a seemingly disastrous development was turned on its head by Daykin, who quickly retorted that wet plasterboard was the real offender, not his product, and this was the clincher for Meaden.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;At that moment, I thought &lsquo;you&rsquo;ve got something. You didn&rsquo;t panic. You&rsquo;ve got absolute competence in your business.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Investing &pound;80,000 for a 25% stake in the business, the Dragon&rsquo;s intuition has certainly payed off &ndash; with GripIt Fixings becoming valued at &pound;17.5m just 18 months later.<\/p>\n<p>Sure fire proof that entrepreneurs need not panic if everything doesn&rsquo;t go entirely to plan!<\/p>\n<h3>Run the businesses yourself<\/h3>\n<p>Taking over from <a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/dragons-den-rachel-elnaugh\/\">Rachel Elnaugh<\/a> in August 2006, Meaden admits that over the course of her tenure on the show, she&rsquo;s actually changed her mind on what type of person and business she&rsquo;s looking to invest in.<\/p>\n<p>Originally investing solely because of product, the 58-year-old says that she now needs the right attitude and personality, before she&rsquo;ll part with any cash &ndash; and doesn&rsquo;t want to waste anytime &ldquo;bolstering the human side&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I need calculated risk-takers, I need to understand they have a basic understanding of the mechanisms of business. I kind of assume they understand what P&L is and why cashflow is important.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, businesses seeking investment in the Den should be looking for a hand-up not a hand-out and Meaden is clear about what her side of the bargain should entail.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I should be spending my time helping them grow the business, not run the business. They [business owners] don&rsquo;t need to be right, they just need to show they&rsquo;ve got the ability to learn right.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h3>Keep it simple<\/h3>\n<p>It&rsquo;s a hard truth to take for some, but after the TV cameras turn off normal life resumes for both successful and unsuccessful contestants on <em>Dragons&rsquo; Den &ndash; <\/em>with no guarantee of a happy ending. Indeed, even start-ups fortunate enough to receive investment can end up folding.<\/p>\n<p>Meaden says that businesses can sometimes forget why their customers even love them in the first place and lose sight of their actual purpose and end-goal.<\/p>\n<p>Deviating too much from their original pivot, businesses wind up in no man&rsquo;s land &ndash; and few are able to make it back to where they once were.<\/p>\n<p>Urging businesses to remember what really matters, Meaden says start-ups need not complicate the process.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Business is simple. Do not over complicate it. I really admire people who take what appear to be really complex issues and boil them down so they know exactly what they want to do.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not easy, it&rsquo;s very hard. But it&rsquo;s simple if you allow it to be simply.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h3>Make sure your business is better not different<\/h3>\n<p>For many aspiring entrepreneurs still waiting for their lightbulb moment, identifying sector trends can prove fruitful on determining what type of business to start.<\/p>\n<p>Meaden says that while our fundamental needs such as eating, drinking and having fun haven&rsquo;t changed, the delivery of such is changing rapidly &ndash; and this presents huge opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;For me, it&rsquo;s less about sector and more about the innovation behind that sector. Our expectation of delivery is growing&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While the pressure is certainly on for the next big tech start-up, &lsquo;the Queen of the Den&rsquo; says that start-ups shouldn&rsquo;t confuse something being different, for it being better &ndash; and should always remind themselves what the real value of their product actually is.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Is it smarter? Faster? Cheaper? What is it that makes it better? If I can understand that, then I&rsquo;ll want to get involved with that business.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><em>For more advice and inspiration from Deborah Meaden click <a href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/dragons-den-deborah-meaden\/\">here<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The longest-serving female dragon in the Den, serial investor Deborah Meaden has graced our television screens for over 10 years now, hearing countless investment pitches along the way &ndash; and her appetite for investment shows no signs of stopping. An entrepreneur from a young age, Meaden made her fortune in the travel and hospitality sectors, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91469,"featured_media":88336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4293,3051,2993],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n<title>How to pitch to a Dragon: Deborah Meaden shares 5 quick-fire investment tips - Startups.co.uk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to pitch to a Dragon: Deborah Meaden shares 5 quick-fire investment tips - Startups.co.uk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The longest-serving female dragon in the Den, serial investor Deborah Meaden has graced our television screens for over 10 years now, hearing countless investment pitches along the way &ndash; and her appetite for investment shows no signs of stopping. An entrepreneur from a young age, Meaden made her fortune in the travel and hospitality sectors, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Startups.co.uk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/startups.co.uk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-12T13:41:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-27T15:55:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/images.startups.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Deborah-Meaden.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"390\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Startups Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@startupstowers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@startupstowers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Startups Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Startups Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/b79c62a7ab4db88c1f4e6447ccddaa60\"},\"headline\":\"How to pitch to a Dragon: Deborah Meaden shares 5 quick-fire investment tips\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-12T13:41:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-27T15:55:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/\"},\"wordCount\":1191,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/images.startups.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Deborah-Meaden.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Dragons' Den\",\"Investors\",\"Raising finance\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2017\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/startups.co.uk\/funding\/investors\/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden\/\",\"name\":\"How to pitch to a Dragon: Deborah Meaden shares 5 quick-fire investment tips - 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