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20 Most Successful Pitches From Dragon’s Den of All Time (Updated 2022)

20 most successful pitches and businesses from dragon’s den of all time.

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Dragon’s Den is a British television series which allows several entrepreneurs to pitch their varying business ideas to a panel of five wealthy investors or Dragons, in the hopes of securing a financial investment while offering a stake in their business in return. The show is presented by Evan Davis.

If you have ever watched an episode of Dragon’s Den, you can understand why the series is so popular. Watching the different entrepreneurs give their pitches can be so exciting, nail-biting even, leaving you wondering whether a Dragon will invest with them or not! It’s no wonder that there have been a total of 17 seasons of the show.

Let’s take a look at the 20 most successful pitches and businesses from Dragon’s Den.

1.    levi roots — reggae reggae sauce.

Singing his Reggae Reggae Sauce song as he was walking into the Den, Levi Roots secured investment from Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh. This was by far, one of the most successful stories to date.

Reggae Reggae Sauces is stocked at all the leading UK supermarkets, expanding his range to cover chilled ready meals, pastries, and Caribbean-flavored soft drinks.

Watch The Pitch:

2. Look After My Bills

The co-founders of Look After My Bills walked away with the best deal in the history of Dragon’s Den. Both Jenny Campbell and Tej Lalvani were interested and offered £130 000 for only a 3% stake in the business.

The company has since grown in the upwards of 200 000 members and is worth more than £12.5 million after it was purchased by GoCompare.

3. Mainstage Travel

When Mainstage Travel appeared on Dragon’s Den, the business was already hitting revenue figures of £1.6 million and £257 000 profit. It is no wonder that Meaden, Jones, Bannatyne, and Linney all made investment offers.

Now, Mainstage Travel has expanded, offering additional youth packages and their revenue figures are now well above those pitched in the Den in 2014.

4. ReviveAPhone

In 2014, the product was launched in Spain, North America, Switzerland, Scandinavia, and Japan with revenues of £250 000.

In May 2015, Murphy had big plans to deal with mobile giant Carphone Warehouse to make the brand available for anyone to purchase, alongside a launch of a new product line, water-resistant invisible coatings for smartphones.

5. A pproved Food

Approved Food helps families save some 70% on their shopping by selling food and drink that is approaching or past its sell-by date.

Despite not getting an investment on Dragon’s Den, Approved Food was able to secure funding and eventually had a turnover of £4 million and over 3000 orders per week by 2015. The company has expanded, specializing in pet products, sweets, and natural foods.

6. Skinny Tan

After appearing on Dragon’s Den in 2013, the company secured a deal with Boots and launched Skinny Tan in Spain, Canada, South Africa, and Dubai.

In June 2015, Skinny Tan had been acquired by InnovaDerma for an 80% stake in the business. Within the next year, it is said that the revenue figures are to reach a staggering £2.2 million.

7. Umbrolly

Despite Umbrolly receiving investments from both Duncan Bannatyne and Peter Jones, the deal collapsed 7 months later. The founder, Charles Ejogo, set up a new business without his original business partners.

Between 2008 and 2010, Ejogo grew this new business nationally and internationally. The business still operates to this day, offering its products to new and existing customers.

Click On The Link To Watch This Pitch!

The founder of iGlove is Rajan Jerath. At the same time as demonstrating the iGlove, he demonstrated another invention, Bluetooth gloves. These gloves have an in-built speaker and microphone so users don’t have to take their phone out of their pocket, perfect for runners, cyclists, and mothers pushing prams.

Both Jones and Jenkins offered £75 000 for a 20% stake in the business whereas, Touker Suleyman offered the same amount for 15%.

The co-founders turned the offers down, saying that the business was worth so much more.

TickX attracted more than 1 million users and they were able to raise £750 000 in funding. The successful business launched the world’s first Facebook Messenger chatbot, which can rapidly find results from TickX’s search engine.

10. TEC-Angel

The biggest problem that the Dragons had with his pitch, was a name that was used on his packaging. The name he used was Arc Angel, and this he said was soon to change to TEC-Angel as they didn’t own the rights to trade with Arc Angel.

TEC-Angel is currently doing well and won the Integrated Home Award at the 2019 Smart Home Expo at the National Exhibition Center in Birmingham.

11. Pedaldish

The owner of Petvictus, Pete Hill, started his company in 2018 with two flagship products, Pedaldish: The Lunchbox for Pets and Katfone: The Ultrasonic Whistle for Cats. When using these products together, they help to ensure that pet food is eaten and doesn’t spoil.

Deborah Meaden is obsessed with all things cats and offered an investment of £30 000 for a 33.3% stake in the business. However, the deal fell through after the show.

Currently, Pete is improving his design of Pedaldish and promoting his inventions.

12. Tickle Tots

Sophia Ferguson, the founder of Tickle Tots, offers environmentally-friendly nappies and accessories. Dragon Touker Suleyman offered an investment of £50 000 for a 50% stake in the business and agreed to drop to 40% after Touker made his money back.

Sadly, the investment didn’t go through after Tickle Tots appeared on the show.

13. Aquatina Bottle

Owner of Aquatina, Guy Jeremiah, walked into the Den looking for £100 000 for a 10% stake in the business. It was an intense pitch, as Duncan Bannatyne threw one of the water bottles at Guy.

Despite not getting an offer from any one of the Dragons, Aquatina is available in over 300 stores in the UK with an international distribution that covers over a dozen countries.

After the appearance on Dragon’s Den, Pouch gained 60 000 new users and, as of May 2018, had hot 100 000 downloads.

Despite getting no offers while on the show, Trunki secured a £4 million funding from the Business Growth Fund in 2013.

The Trunki brand is continuing its growth with a revenue of £8.13 million!

16. Hungryhouse

Raiding £150 000 from alternative businesses led them to increase their restaurant partners to 2500 partners in 2010.

In February 2013, Hungryhouse was acquired by Delivery Hero, a Berlin-based competitor.

17. Swing Patrol

Scott Cupit, the founder of Swing Patrol, released a book after appearing on Dragon’s Den called Swing Dance. The book sold over 5000 copies.

Swing Patrol will be launching a charleston fitness program and is organizing a swing initiative for senior citizens.

18. Gripit Fixings

The owner and founder of Gripit Fixings claim the business is now worth £14 million. He is expanding the range of products such as a kit designed specially to hang flat-screen TV’s on the wall.

Watch an interview with Jordan and Deborah: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Pmk22uvkY

19. Enclothed

Enclothed continued to flourish even though the investment didn’t go through after the show. They are ranked Top 100 UK Startups for 2014.

The clothing business is signed with over 30 top UK brands such as Ted Baker and Hackett.

Bannatyne’s equity stake proved to be excessive for the founders of Linkee, Tristan Williams, Ben Drummond, and Deon Tempest and they rejected the offer.

Today the quiz game is stocked with leading retail stores Argos, Hamley’s, and Toys R Us. It is also available as a free download for mobiles and tablets. There is even a children’s version of the game called Dinkee, designed with the help of school children.

In Conclusion

When looking at the 20 most successful businesses that appeared on Dragon’s Den , most of these businesses were not invested in. In fact, some investments fell through after the show and some were scoffed at, bottles were thrown and a Dragon broke a strap of a suitcase.

Yet, despite the criticism these businesses received, the entrepreneurs pushed on. And now they are part of the world’s multi-millionaires. There is a lesson all of us can learn: never give up and believe in yourself, because who knows what you are capable of!

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Are you preparing a Dragons’ Den pitch? Here are 10 top tips!

Reading time 14 mins

• Dragons’ Den is a TV program where inventors/entrepreneurs pitch their product or concept to multimillionaires – aka Dragons
• In return for their investment, Dragons receive equity in the business
• Unsuccessful pitches are usually the result of a lack of research, products that won’t make money and poor business financials
• Successful pitches are the result of well-prepared presentations, products with a substantial market value, and entrepreneurs/investors who are passionate and committed to their product
• It has been known for products rejected on Dragons’ Den to go on to become a big success
• The key is to ensure you do your market research, competitor analysis, and feasibility studies from early on in your product/service design process

Ready to start developing your new product? Call us for a quote!

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Last updated Aug 8, 2023

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A re you an inventor or entrepreneur looking to get your product off the ground or expand into different markets? Dragons’ Den is a reality television business program where aspiring inventors or entrepreneurs get to pitch their business concept or prototype to five multimillionaire investors. A typical pitch consists of you introducing yourself, presenting your concept/product, stating how much investment you need, and the percentage of your business/equity you’ll give in return. Appearing on the show is an incredible opportunity but also a nerve-wracking one. If you’re preparing for your Dragons’ Den pitch, here are our top tips:

• Research the Dragons: What are the investors looking for?
• Know your product inside out: Who are your competitors, and what makes you different?
• Understand your market: Who are your customers, and is there room for growth?
• Bring something tangible: Do you have a prototype or visual you can show?
• Know your numbers: What’s the difference between your gross and net profit?
• Practice your pitch: Have you done a trial run and implemented feedback others gave?
• Be honest and transparent: Do you have any debts, other investors, or associated risks?
• Demonstrate your passion and commitment: Don’t be rude or argumentative
• Be prepared to negotiate: What is the most equity percentage you’ll give for investment?
• Swallow your pride: What are your weaknesses, and where do you need help?

Regardless of whether you’re preparing a Dragons’ Den pitch or not, following these tips will help you in any scenario where you’re presenting a proposal for investment, funding, or financing.

Preparing a Dragons’ Den pitch tip #1: Research the Dragons

Unlike with a bank or grant, when you go onto Dragons’ Den, you’re asking people to invest their time, money, and business acumen in your idea. Researching who they are, and the kinds of investments they’ve made in the past is essential. Each of the five Dragons has a different area of expertise (e.g. technology, sustainability, fashion, DIY and crafts, and social media), so ensure that you craft a pitch that will resonate or appeal to at least two of them.

‘Serial investor’ and former dragon, Deborah Meden, says that nearly all unsuccessful applicants make the same mistake [1] : they don’t think about what the investor wants and how they will make a return on their investment. What investors want to know:

• What in particular can I bring to the table – besides money – that will make your business succeed?
• Am I the right fit for your company?
• Is there an exit strategy? Investors want to get 3-4 times their money back within 5 years – how do you plan on making that happen?
• Do I have a potential conflict of interest with another business I’ve invested in?

Know the dragons, but be careful of blatantly targeting anyone in particular. Remember that dragons have egos, too: making one feel that their offer isn’t good enough for you’re holding out for an offer from someone else – is almost guaranteed to have them withdraw and potentially leave you with no offers on the table.

Dragons’ Den pitch tip #2: Know your product inside out

The Dragons will ask probing questions about every aspect of your product or service, so ensure you know every detail inside out: failing to answer questions accurately could decrease their interest significantly, so preparation is essential here.

Retail and fashion mogul Touker Suleyman is well known for putting prototypes and product samples to the test – and breaking them! The last thing you want is to present a prototype for a backpack for children, and the strap falls off as soon as he pulls it.

Dragons’ Den pitch tip #3: Understand your market

It is crucial to thoroughly understand your target market, including who your customers are and how much they are willing to pay for your product or service. The Dragons will want to know if there is enough demand for your product or service to make it profitable.

• Who is your competition? What makes your product better?
• Does your idea or product have the capacity for growth?
• If your product is already on the market, who has been buying it, and how much have you sold?
• If you have stockists or substantial buyers interested in buying your product once completed, do you have a letter of intent?
• If you have invented a new product or element, do you own the intellectual property rights? Is it patentable? If so, have you applied for one, and where are you with the process?

Dragons’ Den pitch tip #4: Bring something tangible

Visuals such as prototypes or mockups bring pitches alive while also giving dragons something tangible they can interact with. Also, adding stories or anecdotes about products or services adds emotional appeal, encouraging dragons to invest more willingly.

Besides the product or idea you’re presenting, don’t forget that a key ingredient you’re putting on the table is yourself! Tech tycoon Peter Jones , the longest-serving Dragon on the show, “never invests in scruffy people”. Thinking that your product speaks for itself and that you don’t have to look the part would be a mistake.

Dragons’ Den pitch tip #5: Know your numbers

Watch some of the least successful pitches on Dragons’ Den , and you’ll notice another thing they all had in common: applicants didn’t know or understand the financials and couldn’t give answers to make the business figures add up. Dragons want precise and accurate figures regarding the market size, manufacturing costs, retail prices, turnover, margins, gross and net profits, etc. Not knowing any of these answers never goes down well, and it will cause you to fumble and lose confidence – making it difficult to bounce back.

Another issue that many unsuccessful pitches need to improve is over-inflating their valuations and having year-on-year turnovers that are hugely optimistic [2] . When preparing a Dragons’ Den pitch, remember that overly ambitious turnover figures are off-putting and will be spotted – potentially resulting in you losing out and not receiving any offers.

Dragons’ Den tip #6: Practice your pitch

Once you have all of this information ready, it is time to practice your pitch. Make sure that it concisely explains why you believe in your product or service and why potential investors should too. Remember that each Dragon has limited time to decide whether they want to invest so make sure every second counts. Former Dragon Jenny Cambell adds that there are specific pitfalls to avoid falling into [3] :

• Avoid jargon. Don’t feel the need to fill your pitch with industry buzzwords that don’t mean anything
• Don’t be patronising, but don’t assume that they will know all the terminology about your area of business
• Don’t over-explain yourself or include details that aren’t significant or relevant
• Pitch yourself with confidence – but don’t get cocky. Investors invest in people they believe in, so make sure you sound confident, enthusiastic, and genuine.

Dragons’ Den pitch tip #7: Be honest and transparent

You will establish that you are reliable and trustworthy if you’re honest. Nobody will invest tens of thousands in you without scrutiny. Be upfront, from the beginning, about any debts, other investors, or any associated risks that need to be disclosed.

Dragons’ Den pitch tip #8: Demonstrate your passion and commitment

While being passionate appeals to potential investors, avoid being rude or argumentative if/when you’re critiqued: remain objective and professional at all times, even if you disagree. This will ensure everyone stays focused on reaching an agreement rather than getting put off by a disagreeable attitude.

Dragons’ Den pitch tip #9: Be prepared to negotiate

Go into negotiations with an idea of what percentage stake in your business you are willing to give away and how much money needs to be injected into your business model for it to succeed. Having these figures ready when you’re preparing for your Dragons’ Den pitch will help ensure a successful outcome for everyone involved. Understand that the higher the risk investors are being asked to take, the higher the equity percentage they’ll want in return.

The Dragons admire strong negotiators , so don’t be too scared to give them counter-offers – provided it’s justified. Remember that there’s more than money on the table when negotiating. Dragons are also bringing in their distribution networks, business contacts, and market expertise – which is often well worth the extra 20-30% more equity you were prepared to give.

If you did your research on the Dragons, this is where that information also comes in handy. For example, you’ve developed a potentially lucrative dogs’ clothing line and are asking for a £100,000 investment in return for 10% equity. All the Dragons have put in offers, but they all want 30% equity because it will take much more work than you estimated. By seeing if two Dragons (e.g. the retail and social media experts) would be willing to split the investment and equity 50-50, you would effectively get two Dragons for the price of one – even if you’ve given away more equity than you initially wanted to.

Dragons’ Den pitch tip #10: Swallow your pride

Have a clear idea of your weaknesses, where to improve, and what you need help with. By acknowledging the gaps in your skillset, you’ll demonstrate your maturity and ability to fill those gaps with a Dragon who has what you lack.

Pride has also cost many a potentially successful applicant to walk away empty-handed (e.g. not wanting to accept a higher equity percentage)- leaving Dragon’s baffled as to how they couldn’t have seen how good the offer was.

Is your proposal pitch-perfect?

Appearing on TV is intimidating enough, and presenting an idea or product that you personally have a lot invested in makes it even harder. Preparing for your Dragons’ Den pitch takes time, practice, and confidence in yourself and your product. Being well-prepared, business savvy, confident, and enthusiastic has seen many inventors and entrepreneurs lay a solid foundation for success.

That said, even if preparing a Dragons’ Den pitch doesn’t go the way you planned, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the end of the road. Dragons have been known to get it wrong, and there are many unsuccessful applicants who went on to be hugely successful after being turned down [4] .

Either way, doing your research before getting heavily invested in a product, idea, or concept and conducting proper feasibility studies is an essential starting point. Look at a recent article we published on common product design mistakes and avoid making them yourself.

We’ll be exploring other sources for funding in our series of posts going forward, so subscribe to our newsletter if you’d like to be kept in the loop. Good luck with your Dragons’ Den pitch!

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• Team, T. S. (2021, May 19). How to pitch to a Dragon: Deborah Meaden shares 5 quick-fire investment tips. Startups.co.uk. https://startups.co.uk/funding/investors/how-to-pitch-to-a-dragon-with-deborah-meaden/
• Dragons’ Den series 15 episode 6 review: It might be boring but know your numbers! (n.d.). Steemit. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://steemit.com/investing/@vinecreatives/dragons-den-series-15-episode-6-review-it-might-be-boring-but-know-your-numbers
• How to pitch yourself and your ideas: 6 tips from former ‘Dragon’ Jenny Campbell. (2020, March 20). BBC Bitesize. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zhdxqp3
• Failory. (2023, January 23). The 13 Biggest Dragons’ Den Failures. https://www.failory.com/blog/dragons-den-failures

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How to face the Dragons and win: Six questions every business owner should be able to answer

The concept is tried and tested: Budding entrepreneurs pitch business ideas to multimillionaires. Series 13 of Dragons’ Den is currently airing on the BBC and has even more entrepreneurs jostling for investment from the Dragon investors. There may be three new Dragons in the Den joining stalwarts Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, but they’re still looking for the same information from those pitching for investment. Taking a look at the questions Dragons’ fired at the applicants in the opening episodes, it’s clear that whatever your dream, whatever your project, you need to understand the mechanics of your business before anything else, whether you want investment or simply want your business to succeed. Time and again the same questions are asked by the Dragons to those looking for investment. Get them right and you are on a much firmer footing to securing investment.

What are your key financial figures?

In episode one, when digging deeper after an impressive opening pitch, Deborah Meaden focused on the very basic figures every business person needs to know – revenue and profit. The inability of Farnaz Khan to provide these on her ‘big knickers’ brand led to her pitch falling apart.

Understanding the difference between gross profit and net profit is essential if you want to be taken seriously in business, but you also need to know the figures that go with them. Annual figures for the past three years, if you have been going that long, immediately give you credibility – even if they are not massive figures. Indeed, even if the initial figures show a loss, that’s fine (see later). Investors understand it can take time to make things profitable. Even your loss, its value and the timescale for it are important when it comes to understanding the viability of a business. Your burn rate,  the rate at which a new company spends its initial capital, shows how long a company can survive before it must turn a profit, which is important to know for any investor.

Know what your turnover is, has been and is projected to be. Know the same for your cost of sales and be realistic about the potential higher costs for new equipment, increase in staff numbers, etc. You should also know your margin. All of these are figures that are simple to memorise, which will give you initial house points with potential investors. Make sure you understand them, how they are arrived at and what they mean too. You need to be able to answer questions from investors and not be found floundering like Farnaz in the clip above, which ultimately led to her becoming un-investable.

Having these basic numbers to hand, doesn’t necessarily show you are the best company to invest in, but it does show you are a business person worthy of investment. Without them, most investors won’t take you seriously and will doubt your business acumen. Somebody who clearly cares about the figures within their business and knows them off the top of their head understands their business and where it is heading. Without solid figures to give to would-be investors, everything else will be difficult to believe.

What is your cashflow projection?

Some would argue this is wrapped up in your other financials above but its importance can’t be overemphasised and it deals with financials on an ongoing basis and not just a moment in time. Once your business is up and running this is the figure you need to pay most attention to. A negative cashflow means the end of many businesses every week because they simply can’t pay their bills. Projections won’t be certain but should be based on expected income and also expected investment if that is a possibility. However, the need to borrow money to pay bills you have already racked up should ring alarm bells as the health of your business.

New Dragon Nick Jenkins built his fortune with an online greeting card brand and understood the burn rate quoted by Oliver Tezcan for his online men’s clothing retailer, the Idleman.com, wasn’t as bad as some of the other Dragons thought. Even a cashflow loss thus far seemed to have a healthy outlook over time in Nick’s eyes @ 21:21 :

Everything else stems from cashflow. Knowing your revenue and your outgoings means that you can plan a budget and build your business. Don’t over estimate your cashflow either – you’ll get found out, either by a curious investor or in the long term by a lack of cash! Unlike your other financials which tend to be annual snapshots, your cashflow is ever changing and needs to be looked at regularly. Estimates should be made on monthly or weekly cycles. The other financials can often hide cashflow issues because over an annual cycle things work themselves out. Unfortunately, a strangled cashflow can mean you don’t even make it to the end of the annual cycle.

What is the advantage of your product over things already on the market?

In the opening episode this was Peter Jones’s first question to Ben Fridger who was clearly prepared. His response was quick, informed and engaging as to why his clothes steamer is better than a traditional steam iron.

Knowing your market is important before you enter it. There may be reasons those already out there haven’t tried the slight variation you are planning. Know what your unique selling points are. How do you differ? Why would somebody buy yours when they already own something very similar already? Is your price point right? Understand not only the market but also your product and the products of your rivals too. You can’t do too much research before you move into a new business sector.

What’s the longevity of your product/brand?

In episode two, new Dragon Sarah Willingham immediately showed her passion for food and drink with an obvious interest in the West Africa inspired snacks from Chika Russell. However, she was keen to make sure the business had a long-term future.

Whilst some may mock, having a vision for your company is not a bad thing. You need to have a dream to aim for if you are to be successful and a vision is only that – one potential outcome – so it can be flexible and change as need and circumstance dictate. However, without a vision your proposition will lack depth and long-term appeal to potential investors.

Longevity is a concern to most investors. For many, it is not the desire to build long-lived brands, but the desire to build a company that makes sufficient profit over a long enough time to give them a return on their investment. If anybody can copy your product quickly and easily, your life cycle could be short-lived with potential competitors able to use technology to have a rival on the shelves within weeks. New models, new ranges and new markets are all things you should be considering as you embark on your first launch. You are thinking about building a business not just selling a single product.

What do you want from an investment by a Dragon?

Global fashion tycoon Touker Suleyman liked Ben Fridger’s steam cleaner in episode one but, having seen a product that clearly worked and was clearly selling, he wanted to know how his investment was going to make a difference.

This is a common concern from investors. Some like to be hands on and heavily involved in projects – especially those they can see will be fun to join in with. However, many are simply looking for an investment vehicle, perhaps with the odd bit of hand-holding and maybe some introductions to their contacts. It’s important that you are clear in your mind what you are looking for in your own dragon. Do you simply want money and to be left alone to move things forward once you have that investment, or are you looking for a business partner who can share the load and share the pain of strategizing? Once you have decided on that, be honest with the investor too. They can make a business decision if you have the right financials but they also need to look at the bigger business picture. How much time will it need from them and how much are they prepared to give? Time is money so it all affects the true value of their investment. In Ben’s situation he actually turned down the offer from Touker to take investment from two Dragons (Deborah and Nick instead) which fitted with what he needed from his investors.

How did you come to the valuation you’ve put on your company?

A £20 million valuation was a shock to Peter Jones when he asked this question of Fraser Fernhead of property crowdfunding platform The House Crowd in episode two of the current series.

The valuation of your company is probably the most important figure for your investor as it tells them what they’ll be getting for their money. If they are investing for a percentage share of your company, the valuation will tell them how much they need to pay to get their desired share. Getting your valuation right is vital. If it’s too high would-be investors will just see you as a joke. Too low and investors may worry that you don’t fully understand your business, or perhaps that you lack ambition. If your company is not trading, or is trading without a profit at the moment, giving it a multi-million pound valuation is unlikely to be realistic. If it means a lower valuation and a higher percentage given away to an investor so that your business can survive and take the next steps in growing then seriously consider that. Retaining a smaller percentage in something that becomes profitable quicker and more securely is far better than a large percentage in something that trades at a loss or struggles to make a serious profit.

Watch the remaining episodes of Dragons Den. These six questions will come up time and time again. They form the fundamental core of assessing a business’s health, wealth and potential. If you want your business to succeed you need to consider them all and understand how you would answer whether you are looking for investment or not. If a proven successful business person wouldn’t think your business is worth their time and investment, then why should you?

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The Dragons' Den Guide to Investor-Ready Business Plans Paperback – October 30, 2012

A comprehensive business plan, based on a concept that has been feasibility tested and for which a sales and marketing strategy is in place, is where the rubber meets the road for the entrepreneur and the investor. The Dragons' Den Guide to Investor-Ready Business Plans is designed to show the entrepreneur how to create a business plan that will get an investor's attention―and money. Case studies from Canadian and US businesses and stories of entrepreneurs who appeared on the Dragons' Den illustrate the key ideas and themes.

• Helps entrepreneurs face the reality of what they are trying to achieve
• Encourages readers to focus heavily on testing their business concept first, before they invest valuable time and resources in a slow-growth or no-growth business idea

The current economic environment is forcing many people to start businesses to supplement their income or replace a lost job. But don't let emotion trump method. The Dragon's Den Guide offers your step-by-step approach to preparing yourself for the harsh but rewarding world of small business ownership.

• Print length 288 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Wiley
• Publication date October 30, 2012
• Dimensions 7.4 x 0.7 x 9.2 inches
• ISBN-10 1118298799
• ISBN-13 978-1118298794
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

From the inside flap.

"Good ideas are a dime a dozen; successful businesses are rare. Give yourself a head start to success: implement the business planning strategies in this unique book." —Don R. Campbell, Serial Entrepreneur And Founding Partner, Real Estate Investment Network

Businesses are meant to be run by people who think like entrepreneurs and execute like managers. The entrepreneur has the innovative idea. The manager executes the operating model that underlies the business vision.

The wildly popular Dragons' Den attracts more than a million viewers a week. Canadians love to watch the show for the new ideas and, like the Dragons, decide if a pitch is investor-ready. As is often the case on the Den , entrepreneurs leave empty-handed. The entrepreneurial graveyard is filled with millions of great ideas that were not underpinned by an execution strategy.

The Dragons' Den Guide to Investor-Ready Business Plans is your guide to linking an entrepreneurial vision with strategy and execution. It is this plan—which details how you are going to create, market, and sell your product or service—that will impact the decision of a potential investor. By following the step-by-step strategies in this guide, you will be able to create a professional business plan that will provide investors with all they need to know about your business vision and how you intend to make money. In addition, you will learn how to find investors and how to create a pitch that will get their attention.

From the Back Cover

"Good ideas are a dime a dozen; successful businesses are rare. Give yourself a head start to success: implement the business planning strategies in this unique book." ―Don R. Campbell, Serial Entrepreneur And Founding Partner, Real Estate Investment Network

The Dragons' Den Guide to Investor-Ready Business Plans is your guide to linking an entrepreneurial vision with strategy and execution. It is this plan―which details how you are going to create, market, and sell your product or service―that will impact the decision of a potential investor. By following the step-by-step strategies in this guide, you will be able to create a professional business plan that will provide investors with all they need to know about your business vision and how you intend to make money. In addition, you will learn how to find investors and how to create a pitch that will get their attention.

About the Author

John Vyge is a Certified Financial Planner™ professional and business plan analyst who advises entrepreneurs and investors on how to create investor-ready business plans around winning business concepts.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wiley; 1st edition (October 30, 2012)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1118298799
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1118298794
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.4 x 0.7 x 9.2 inches

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Dragons' Den: 6 most successful businesses from the show

The dragons have invested millions over the years.

We love sitting down to watch new episodes of  Dragons' Den ,  which has recently returned to screens with a new series -   and line-up of fearsome investors ready to part with their cash.

Collectively, the Dragons have invested millions of pounds into the businesses of hopeful entrepreneurs who have dared to enter the den across the show's 19-year history. But which ones actually took off? Keep reading for six success stories from the show…

Reggae Reggae Sauce

Reggae singer and chef Levi Roots appeared on the show in 2007 and pitched the Dragons his spicy Reggae Reggae Sauce.  While Duncan Bannatyne dismissed the idea, Levi managed to secure the support of both Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh, who together invested £50,000 for an impressive 40% stake in his business. 

These days, Levi is a published cookbook author and has his own reggae show on BBC Radio 2. He also recently appeared on the latest season of Celebrity Big Brother . You can find his sauces stocked in all major UK supermarkets, and according to Sainsbury's, it even outsells Heinz Tomato Ketchup!

Craft Gin Club and Bubble Club

Back in 2016, Jon Hulme and John Burke did what few have done before them and received offers from all five of the Dragons for their idea of a wine and gin subscription service.  

However, the decision of who to go with was an easy one for the founders after Sarah Willingham revealed she was already a customer!  They accepted her offer of £75,000 in exchange for 12.5% share in the business - and business has been booming since.

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Magic whiteboard.

Husband and wife duo Neil and Laura Westwood entered the den with a winning idea back in 2008. 

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Though Peter Jones thought their invention of a portable whiteboard was "ridiculous", they managed to walk away with a £100,000 investment from Deborah Meaden and Theo Paphitis, the latter of whom put the product into 237 of his Ryman office stationery stores.  The product is now a classroom and office staple and sold globally.

Dads turned entrepreneurs Asi Sharabi, David Cadji-Newby, Tal Oron, and Pedro Serapicos wowed the judges in 2014 when they pitched their personalised children's books' business idea. 

Originally called Lost My Name, Wonderbly secured a £100,000 investment from Dragon and fellow dad Piers Linney who walked away with a 4% stake in the company. The company has gone on to sell more than two million books worldwide, with Dragon Piers branding it "the most successful business to have ever passed through the Den's walls".

Although at-home self-tanners are nothing new, Kate Cotton and Louise Ferguson got the attention of five dragons when they entered the den with their product Skinny Tan.  After revealing that they had made more than £600,000 after just one year, Kelly Hoppen and Piers Linney matched the amount for a 10% stake in the business.

While the brand was sold for an undisclosed sum in June 2015 to InnovaDerma, both co-founders remain shareholders and Skinny Tan has gone on to make millions all over the world.

Entering the Den with an air of confidence, in 2007 Peter Moule secured a £150,000 investment from Duncan Bannatyne and James Caan after he pitched his simple yet genius invention – the ChocBox. 

A plastic case that allows electrical wires to be stored safely and securely, after granting the two Dragons’ a 36% stake between them, ChocBox then scored a sales deal worth £25million . Just three months after he set foot in the Den, the partnership had made Peter a millionaire. 

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The Financial Roadmap: Why Entrepreneurs Need a Business Plan

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of KPMG LLP. The information contained herein is of a general nature and is not intended to address the circumstances of any particular individual or entity. Although we endeavor to provide accurate and timely information, there can be no guarantee that such information is accurate as of the date it is received or that it will continue to be accurate in the future. No one should act on such information without appropriate professional advice after a thorough examination of the particular situation.

Posted By: Stuart Duncan on Mar 15, 2010 at 10:04

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A comprehensive business plan, based on a concept that has been feasibility tested and for which a sales and marketing strategy is in place, is where the rubber meets the road for the entrepreneur and the investor. The Dragons' Den Guide to Investor-Ready Business Plans is designed to show the entrepreneur how to create a business plan that will get an investor's attention—and money. Case studies from Canadian and US businesses and stories of entrepreneurs who appeared on the Dragons' Den illustrate the key ideas and themes.

• Helps entrepreneurs face the reality of what they are trying to achieve
• Encourages readers to focus heavily on testing their business concept first, before they invest valuable time and resources in a slow-growth or no-growth business idea

The current economic environment is forcing many people to start businesses to supplement their income or replace a lost job. But don't let emotion trump method. The Dragon's Den Guide offers your step-by-step approach to preparing yourself for the harsh but rewarding world of small business ownership.

Plan Projections

ideas to numbers .. simple financial projections

Home > Financial Projections > Know Your Numbers – Dragons’ Den Pitch – Part 3

Know Your Numbers – Dragons’ Den Pitch – Part 3

This is the third in a series of posts on the numbers you need to know when preparing your startup business plan for a shark tank or dragons’ den pitch.

This third post explains how the balance sheet from the financial projections template , can be used to provide additional information often requested by the panel of potential investors during a shark tank or dragons’ den pitch.

Dragons’ Den Pitch – Balance Sheet

The format above is simplified for illustration purposes, the actual format may vary depending on the level of detail required. Page two of our financial projections template will provide all the information you need to obtain the numbers relating to your business plan projections. If you are an established business, and have historical information, this can be be found in your annual financial statements or management accounts.

Typical Balance Sheet Questions

Questions about the balance sheet during a shark tank or dragons’ den pitch tend to relate to the current balance sheet position rather than the projected balance sheets (although these should already be available). Typically the questions might be along the following lines:

How much inventory (stock) are you holding?

Inventory refers to raw materials, work in process, and finished goods either manufactured or purchased which are held with the intention of resale. In the above example inventory is shown as 12,000. The amount held as inventory is an asset of the business.

How much are you owed by customers?

How much do you owe your suppliers.

Likewise, if your business receives credit terms from suppliers, at any point in time there will be a balance owing to suppliers for goods and services they have provided to the business but have not yet been paid for. The amount owing is shown in the balance sheet under the heading of accounts payable, sometimes referred to as trade creditors. In the balance sheet above, the amount owed to suppliers is 16,000 shown under the heading of accounts payable. Accounts payable is a liability of the business.

How has the business been funded to date?

There are many different types and sources of finance but generally they fall into one of two categories, debt or equity capital.

Equity capital includes capital injected by the owners, family and friends or outside investors in the business, such as angel investors, venture capital investors, and is the type of finance you are seeking from the panel of potential investors. With equity capital, a part of the ownership of the business is sold to the investors in return for the funds, and a percentage of the profits will now belong to another party. In the above example the equity funding is shown under the heading of capital as 15,000.

Debt finance includes loans from family and friends, bank loans and overdrafts, government loans, mortgages, and leasing etc. In return for providing the debt finance, the lender receives interest and fees dependent on the amount of money borrowed and the duration of the funding. In the balance sheet above the debt outstanding is shown under the heading of long term debt as 16,500, and is a liability of the business.

Further details on debt and equity funding can be found in our how to finance a business article.

Who owns the shares in the business?

Occasionally, the panel of potential investors want to know who owns the shares in the business. They are referring to the owners of the equity capital discussed above.

Suppose the 15,000 equity capital shown in the balance sheet above had been raised by issuing 1,000 shares in the business. If the shares are split between three shareholders having 700, 250, and 50 shares, then they would respectively own 70% (700/1,000), 25% (250/1,000) and 5% (50/1,000) of the business.

This post is the third in a series of posts entitled know your numbers for dragons’ den and shark tank. The next post in this series deals with the valuation placed on the business and how this is dependent on the information supplied in parts 1,2 and 3 of this series.

Posts in This Series

• Product price, cost and gross margin.
• Income statement numbers, revenue, gross profit and net income
• Startup valuation.

About the Author

Chartered accountant Michael Brown is the founder and CEO of Plan Projections. He has worked as an accountant and consultant for more than 25 years and has built financial models for all types of industries. He has been the CFO or controller of both small and medium sized companies and has run small businesses of his own. He has been a manager and an auditor with Deloitte, a big 4 accountancy firm, and holds a degree from Loughborough University.

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Irish business The Head Plan to appear on Dragon’s Den

By Anja Zauers |

Irish business The Head Plan has just announced that they’re taking part in this year’s series of Dragons’ Den.

Denise Kenny Byrne, founder of The Head Plan set up her business to help others become the best version of themselves.

They offer an array of journals and wellness products to keep you on top of your goals as well as becoming conscious of your priorities.

Announcing the news on Instagram The Head Plan said: “Looks like the Dragon is out of the bag.

  View this post on Instagram   A post shared by The Head Plan®️ (@theheadplan)

“Yes that’s right… you’re about to get front-row seats to one of our biggest and scariest business goals to date.

“Join us next Thursday, 8th of Feb, at 8pm on BBC 1 as The Head Plan brave Dragon’s Den,” they added.

“We wrote it down but did we make it happen in the den?”

Denise took to her own Instagram story where she revealed how “nervous and excited” she was now that the news was out.

Adding: “I actually flew to the UK when Charlotte was 7 weeks old to pitch!”

Dragon’s Den is a reality television business program where aspiring inventors or entrepreneurs get to pitch their business concepts or prototypes to a panel of investors.

Just recently, Denise joined the Editor-in-Chief of VIP Magazine, Bianca Luykx on our podcast, The Glow Up eir Power of Women special.

They spoke about everything from Denise returning to work after welcoming her daughter and growing her wildly successful business.

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Dragons' Den deal took two hours to negotiate

A Dragons' Den competitor has told how her winning deal on the BBC show took two hours of "rigorous" questioning to complete.

Louise Toale from Much Wenlock in Shropshire appeared with husband Ian, touting their nutritional shakes for dogs.

They came away with a £50,000 investment from Dragon Touker Suleyman .

Ms Toale said it had been hard keeping the details of their appearance a secret for nearly a year between filming and broadcast.

"What you see on the telly is this fast-forward, condensed version. There's so many questions eking out where the business is going," she told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"I'm really pleased with the result, to be honest - so over the moon."

Ms Toale had been working in the food industry making protein drinks for humans when her 18-month old beagle, Phoebe, fell ill with a bladder issue related to her food.

Given the difficulty in maintaining the right levels of nutrition and hydration to help the dog recover, she put her skills to use - in consultation with vets - making Phoebe meat-based drinks.

The success of her innovation gave her the idea to create the business, Furr Boost, and scale up production.

Transform the business

The appearance on the show, which matches small businesses with advice and investment from a panel of established experts, was not all plain sailing.

Another Dragon, Deborah Meaden, challenged the couple on their brand name, and the amount they spent on market research to create it.

However, Mr Suleyman told the couple he would offer a cash investment, support and contacts with the big supermarkets.

"If they like it, they will buy it, and that will transform the business," he said.

The businessman eventually agreed to fund the firm's full £50,000 request in return for a 30% stake in the company, reducing to 20% if it was repaid within a year.

• Watch Louise and Ian Toale on Dragon's Den on BBC iPlayer

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Dragons Den‏‎

• Lesson Plans & Activities

Introduction

Dragon’s Den is a detailed and long-term activity ideal for a class studying Business English‏‎ . It is based on the popular television program where would-be entrepreneurs pitch their business idea to potential investors to try and raise money to get their business off the ground.

The activity can be run over the course of several lessons. It can be broken down into shorter segments which can run anything from a few minutes to a full lesson and more.

Explain to your class that they are trying to set up a new business. They need money for this so they will be approaching a group of venture capitalists or “Dragons” and pitching their idea to them. Hopefully the Dragons will like the idea enough to invest in the business.

However, each group must have all the facts and figures of their business at their fingertips if they want the Dragons to be impressed enough to invest their own money in the business.

If you can, the activity should be run with one or more small groups of two or three students each. Tell the class that the Dragons will only invest in one business so they are competing against each other for the money!

The first step is the idea. What, in other words, will the business do? It may be manufacturing or sales or a franchise or a service company, etc.

If your students all work in a particular field then this should reflect that field. The idea needs to both be related to the work interests of the students and to be of use to them in the real world.

But because this is an exercise it can also be fun. This is a chance for the business people in your class to play with ideas and enjoy themselves also.

For example, if your students all work for a company which manufactures car parts then you can explain they are going to set up a brand new company to produce a high-end supercar. If they are all sales people perhaps you can ask them to sell something exotic – a new blockbuster film for example.

You may have to choose an idea for the class or you may allow them to come up with their own idea. You can also offer them several ideas.

The Process

Each group now needs to prepare their final pitch to the Dragons. For this they need to have an intimate knowledge of what their business will do and how it will do it. They will also need to know everything about how the business will be run in order to answer questions posed to them by the Dragons in the final pitch.

Each of the elements below is a separate activity which the groups can work on during the course of several lessons.

Company Structure

Is the company going to be a partnership or limited company? Give the group the options available to them in their country and have them work through each option to decide which is going to be best. There are plenty of resources online where you can get this information but make sure you allow the students to have input here and ideally find out by themselves about this.

Once this is decided, the group must decide together what their individual roles will be in the company. Who is boss? Who isn’t? This may need a vote.

Choosing a Name

The name should reflect the company and its objectives. This stage – as will many others – is going to involve a lot of discussion and voting.

But they need to make sure that the name is available and that it doesn’t already belong to another company. This will involve research online at Companies House (or the equivalent, see below).

Business Planning

Explain to the class that they will need to have a solid Business Plan they can give the Dragons. They will need to sit down and work out:

– The Objective

What exactly will the business do?

– The Market

What is the potential market likely to be for the business? This means researching the current market and finding how the new business can fit in.

Here they will need to research and find out about:

• Competitors. The Dragons will want to know how the new business will fit into the existing market and what makes the new business different from the competitors.
• Customers and Demand. How many customers are out there? If there group wants to produce a new fizzy drink then there are potential millions of customers, but if they’re making a supercar then the market is very limited.

– Advertising

The Dragons will want to know how the new business is going to promote and get its message across. The group will need to think, amongst other things, about:

• Viral marketing
• Newspaper stories
• Celebrity endorsements

During this kind of activity – and all activities here – try and step back as a teacher and allow the students to make all the decisions. You are there to help with the language only and to guide the class through the activities, not to lead them.

– Money

Stress to the group that they will need to come up with real facts and figures here which will involve them getting online and finding answers. The Dragons will ask them for financial details and they need to be able to answer questions like:

• How much will it cost to produce the product?
• What is your marketing budget?
• What will be your turnover for the first year?
• When do you expect to make a profit?
• What is the potential market for the product?

And much, much more!

Here the group needs to look into the financial aspect of the company. It is a specialized area but with the right guidance the students can at least provide a decent overview of this area. They will need to look at income, expenses, taxes, staff costs, production costs, etc.

The idea here is that the class become familiar with the typical expenses of a company. In real life they would hire an accountant, but at least by doing this exercise they are getting a basic knowledge in English of what is involved.

At the end of this stage they will need to produce a breakdown of income and revenue for the first three years of the company so they can tell the Dragons how much they hope to make over that time and what kinds of costs they’ll incur.

This is the culmination of the whole activity. The group needs to get together and prepare a detailed pitch to give to the Dragons. They need to look at how they will present the new business (try and get them to think outside the box and come up with innovative and memorable introductions here).

They may want to use props, slideshows, models, samples and so on. Let them.

Finally they will need to have all the facts and figures of their business at their fingertips.

The Dragons

You need a panel of Dragons to listen to each presentation and ask questions about this. It might be possible to have other students from different classes help out here or if all your students work for the same company you may be able to get a few managers from that company (who have a decent level of English) to come in and listen to the pitches and make unbiased decisions based on what they see.

You might also like to act the part of a Dragon yourself to ask some awkward questions.

Whatever method you choose you will have the Dragons prepared to ask questions about the business and make genuine inquiries about its viability.

{youtube}859olTvuink{/youtube}Finally, of course, each group makes its pitch. The Dragons ask their questions and then decide which is the best idea and where they will invest their money.

The video shows a segment of BBC’s Dragons Den program. This can be used with the class to give them an idea of where the activity is going.

External Links

Dragon’s Den UK . Details of how the TV program works.

Setting up a new business . Step-by-step guide.

Companies House . Details and names of existing British companies. Other similar resources exist for other countries.

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Ronna McDaniel, TV News and the Trump Problem

The former republican national committee chairwoman was hired by nbc and then let go after an outcry..

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email [email protected] with any questions.

From “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Today, the saga of Ronna McDaniel and NBC and what it reveals about the state of television news headed into the 2024 presidential race. Jim Rutenberg, a “Times” writer at large, is our guest.

It’s Monday, April 1.

Jim, NBC News just went through a very public, a very searing drama over the past week, that we wanted you to make sense of in your unique capacity as a longtime media and political reporter at “The Times.” This is your sweet spot. You were, I believe, born to dissect this story for us.

Oh, brother.

Well, on the one hand, this is a very small moment for a major network like NBC. They hire, as a contributor, not an anchor, not a correspondent, as a contributor, Ronna McDaniel, the former RNC chairwoman. It blows up in a mini scandal at the network.

But to me, it represents a much larger issue that’s been there since that moment Donald J. Trump took his shiny gold escalator down to announce his presidential run in 2015. This struggle by the news media to figure out, especially on television, how do we capture him, cover him for all of his lies, all the challenges he poses to Democratic norms, yet not alienate some 74, 75 million American voters who still follow him, still believe in him, and still want to hear his reality reflected in the news that they’re listening to?

Right. Which is about as gnarly a conundrum as anyone has ever dealt with in the news media.

Well, it’s proven so far unsolvable.

Well, let’s use the story of what actually happened with Ronna McDaniel and NBC to illustrate your point. And I think that means describing precisely what happened in this situation.

The story starts out so simply. It’s such a basic thing that television networks do. As elections get underway, they want people who will reflect the two parties.

They want talking heads. They want insiders. They want them on their payroll so they can rely on them whenever they need them. And they want them to be high level so they can speak with great knowledge about the two major candidates.

Right. And rather than needing to beg these people to come on their show at 6 o’clock, when they might be busy and it’s not their full-time job, they go off and they basically put them on retainer for a bunch of money.

Yeah. And in this case, here’s this perfect scenario because quite recently, Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee through the Trump era, most of it, is now out on the market. She’s actually recently been forced out of the party. And all the networks are interested because here’s the consummate insider from Trump world ready to get snatched up under contract for the next election and can really represent this movement that they’ve been trying to capture.

So NBC’S key news executives move pretty aggressively, pretty swiftly, and they sign her up for a $300,000 a year contributor’s contract.

Nice money if you can get it.

Not at millions of dollars that they pay their anchors, but a very nice contract. I’ll take it. You’ll take it. In the eyes of NBC execs she was perfect because she can be on “Meet the Press” as a panelist. She can help as they figure out some of their coverage. They have 24 hours a day to fill and here’s an official from the RNC. You can almost imagine the question that would be asked to her. It’s 10:00 PM on election night. Ronna, what are the Trump people thinking right now? They’re looking at the same numbers you are.

That was good, but that’s exactly it. And we all know it, right? This is television in our current era.

So last Friday, NBC makes what should be a routine announcement, but one they’re very proud of, that they’ve hired Ronna McDaniel. And in a statement, they say it couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team. So all’s good, right? Except for there’s a fly in the ointment.

Because it turns out that Ronna McDaniel has been slated to appear on “Meet the Press,” not as a paid NBC contributor, but as a former recently ousted RNC chair with the “Meet The Press” host, Kristen Welker, who’s preparing to have a real tough interview with Ronna McDaniel. Because of course, Ronna McDaniel was chair of the party and at Trump’s side as he tried to refuse his election loss. So this was supposed to be a showdown interview.

From NBC News in Washington, the longest-running show in television history. This is “Meet The Press” with Kristen Welker.

And here, all of a sudden, Kristin Welker is thrown for a loop.

In full disclosure to our viewers, this interview was scheduled weeks before it was announced that McDaniel would become a paid NBC News contributor.

Because now, she’s actually interviewing a member of the family who’s on the same payroll.

Right. Suddenly, she’s interviewing a colleague.

This will be a news interview, and I was not involved in her hiring.

So what happens during the interview?

So Welker is prepared for a tough interview, and that’s exactly what she does.

Can you say, as you sit here today, did Joe Biden win the election fair and square?

He won. He’s the legitimate president.

Did he win fair and square?

Fair and square, he won. It’s certified. It’s done.

She presses her on the key question that a lot of Republicans get asked these days — do you accept Joe Biden was the winner of the election?

But, I do think, Kristen —

Ronna, why has it taken you until now to say that? Why has it taken you until now to be able to say that?

I’m going to push back a little.

McDaniel gets defensive at times.

Because I do think it’s fair to say there were problems in 2020. And to say that does not mean he’s not the legitimate president.

But, Ronna, when you say that, it suggests that there was something wrong with the election. And you know that the election was the most heavily scrutinized. Chris Krebs —

It’s a really combative interview.

I want to turn now to your actions in the aftermath of the 2020 election.

And Welker actually really does go deeply into McDaniel’s record in those weeks before January 6.

On November 17, you and Donald Trump were recorded pushing two Republican Michigan election officials not to certify the results of the election. And on the call —

For instance, she presses McDaniel on McDaniel’s role in an attempt to convince a couple county commissioner level canvassers in Michigan to not certify Biden’s victory.

Our call that night was to say, are you OK? Vote your conscience. Not pushing them to do anything.

McDaniel says, look, I was just telling them to vote their conscience. They should do whatever they think is right.

But you said, do not sign it. If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. How can people read that as anything other than a pressure campaign?

And Welker’s not going to just let her off the hook. Welker presses her on Trump’s own comments about January 6 and Trump’s efforts recently to gloss over some of the violence, and to say that those who have been arrested, he’ll free them.

Do you support that?

I want to be very clear. The violence that happened on January 6 is unacceptable.

And this is a frankly fascinating moment because you can hear McDaniel starting to, if not quite reverse some of her positions, though in some cases she does that, at least really soften her language. It’s almost as if she’s switching uniforms from the RNC one to an NBC one or almost like breaking from a role she was playing.

Ronna, why not speak out earlier? Why just speak out about that now?

When you’re the RNC chair, you kind of take one for the whole team, right? Now, I get to be a little bit more myself.

She says, hey, you know what? Sometimes as RNC chair, you just have to take it for the team sometimes.

Right. What she’s really saying is I did things as chairwoman of the Republican National committee that now that I no longer have that job, I can candidly say, I wished I hadn’t done, which is very honest. But it’s also another way of saying I’m two faced, or I was playing a part.

Ronna McDaniel, thank you very much for being here this morning.

Then something extraordinary happens. And I have to say, I’ve never seen a moment like this in decades of watching television news and covering television news.

Welcome back. The panel is here. Chuck Todd, NBC News chief political analyst.

Welker brings her regular panel on, including Chuck Todd, now the senior NBC political analyst.

Chuck, let’s dive right in. What were your takeaways?

And he launches right into what he calls —

Look, let me deal with the elephant in the room.

The elephant being this hiring of McDaniel.

I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation.

And he proceeds, on NBC’S air, to lace into management for, as he describes it, putting Welker in this crazy awkward position.

Because I don’t know what to believe. She is now a paid contributor by NBC News. I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract.

And Todd is very hung up on this idea that when she was speaking for the party, she would say one thing. And now that she’s on the payroll at NBC, she’s saying another thing.

She has credibility issues that she still has to deal with. Is she speaking for herself, or is she speaking on behalf of who’s paying her?

Todd is basically saying, how are we supposed to know which one to believe.

What can we believe?

It is important for this network and for always to have a wide aperture. Having ideological diversity on this panel is something I prided myself on.

And what he’s effectively saying is that his bosses should have never hired her in this capacity.

I understand the motivation, but this execution, I think, was poor.

Someone said to me last night we live in complicated times. Thank you guys for being here. I really appreciate it.

Now, let’s just note here, this isn’t just any player at NBC. Chuck Todd is obviously a major news name at the network. And him doing this appears to just open the floodgates across the entire NBC News brand, especially on its sister cable network, MSNBC.

And where I said I’d never seen anything like what I saw on “Meet the Press” that morning, I’d never seen anything like this either. Because now, the entire MSNBC lineup is in open rebellion. I mean, from the minute that the sun comes up. There is Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.

We weren’t asked our opinion of the hiring. But if we were, we would have strongly objected to it.

They’re on fire over this.

believe NBC News should seek out conservative Republican voices, but it should be conservative Republicans, not a person who used her position of power to be an anti-democracy election denier.

But it rolls out across the entire schedule.

Because Ronna McDaniel has been a major peddler of the big lie.

The fact that Ms. McDaniel is on the payroll at NBC News, to me that is inexplicable. I mean, you wouldn’t hire a mobster to work at a DA’s office.

Rachel Maddow devotes an entire half hour.

It’s not about just being associated with Donald Trump and his time in the Republican Party. It’s not even about lying or not lying. It’s about our system of government.

Thumbing their noses at our bosses and basically accusing them of abetting a traitorous figure in American history. I mean, just extraordinary stuff. It’s television history.

And let’s face it, we journalists, our bosses, we can be seen as crybabies, and we’re paid complaining. Yeah, that’s what we’re paid to do. But in this case, the NBC executives cannot ignore this, because in the outcry, there’s a very clear point that they’re all making. Ronna McDaniel is not just a voice from the other side. She was a fundamental part of Trump’s efforts to deny his election loss.

This is not inviting the other side. This is someone who’s on the wrong side —

Of history.

Of history, of these moments that we’ve covered and are still covering.

And I think it’s fair to say that at this point, everyone understands that Ronna McDaniel’s time at NBC News is going to be very short lived. Yeah, basically, after all this, the executives at NBC have to face facts it’s over. And on Tuesday night, they release a statement to the staff saying as much.

They don’t cite the questions about red lines or what Ronna McDaniel represented or didn’t represent. They just say we need to have a unified newsroom. We want cohesion. This isn’t working.

I think in the end, she was a paid contributor for four days.

Yeah, one of the shortest tenures in television news history. And look, in one respect, by their standards, this is kind of a pretty small contract, a few hundred thousand dollars they may have to pay out. But it was way more costly because they hired her. They brought her on board because they wanted to appeal to these tens of millions of Americans who still love Donald J. Trump.

And what happens now is that this entire thing is blown up in their face, and those very same people now see a network that, in their view, in the view of Republicans across the country, this network will not accept any Republicans. So it becomes more about that. And Fox News, NBC’S longtime rival, goes wall to wall with this.

Now, NBC News just caved to the breathless demands from their far left, frankly, emotionally unhinged host.

I mean, I had it on my desk all day. And every minute I looked at that screen, it was pounding on these liberals at NBC News driving this Republican out.

It’s the shortest tenure in TV history, I think. But why? Well, because she supports Donald Trump, period.

So in a way, this leaves NBC worse off with that Trump Republican audience they had wanted to court than maybe even they were before. It’s like a boomerang with a grenade on it.

Yeah, it completely explodes in their face. And that’s why to me, the whole episode is so representative of this eight-year conundrum for the news media, especially on television. They still haven’t been able to crack the code for how to handle the Trump movement, the Trump candidacy, and what it has wrought on the American political system and American journalism.

We’ll be right back.

Jim, put into context this painful episode of NBC into that larger conundrum you just diagnosed that the media has faced when it comes to Trump.

Well, Michael, it’s been there from the very beginning, from the very beginning of his political rise. The media was on this kind of seesaw. They go back and forth over how to cover him. Sometimes they want to cover him quite aggressively because he’s such a challenging candidate. He was bursting so many norms.

But at other times, there was this instinct to understand his appeal, for the same reason. He’s such an unusual candidate. So there was a great desire to really understand his voters. And frankly, to speak to his voters, because they’re part of the audience. And we all lived it, right?

But just let me take you back anyway because everything’s fresh again with perspective. And so if you go back, let’s look at when he first ran. The networks, if you recall, saw him as almost like a novelty candidate.

He was going to spice up what was expected to be a boring campaign between the usual suspects. And he was a ratings magnet. And the networks, they just couldn’t get enough of it. And they allowed him, at times, to really shatter their own norms.

Welcome back to “Meet the Press,” sir.

Good morning, Chuck.

Good morning. Let me start —

He was able to just call into the studio and riff with the likes of George Stephanopoulos and Chuck Todd.

What does it have to do with Hillary?

She can’t talk about me because nobody respects women more than Donald Trump.

And CNN gave him a lot of unmitigated airtime, if you recall during the campaign. They would run the press conferences.

It’s the largest winery on the East Coast. I own it 100 percent.

And let him promote his Trump steaks and his Trump wine.

Trump steaks. Where are the steaks? Do we have steaks?

I mean, it got that crazy. But again, the ratings were huge. And then he wins. And because they had previously given him all that airtime, they’ve, in retrospect, sort of given him a political gift, and more than that now have a journalistic imperative to really address him in a different way, to cover him as they would have covered any other candidate, which, let’s face it, they weren’t doing initially. So there’s this extra motivation to make up for lost ground and maybe for some journalistic omissions.

Right. Kind of correct for the lack of a rigorous journalistic filter in the campaign.

Exactly. And the big thing that this will be remembered for is we’re going to call a lie a lie.

I don’t want to sugarcoat this because facts matter, and the fact is President Trump lies.

Trump lies. We’re going to say it’s a lie.

And I think we can’t just mince around it because they are lies. And so we need to call them what they are.

We’re no longer going to use euphemisms or looser language we’re. Going to call it for what it is.

Trump lies in tweets. He spreads false information at rallies. He lies when he doesn’t need to. He lies when the truth is more than enough for him.

CNN was running chyrons. They would fact check Trump and call lies lies on the screen while Trump is talking. They were challenging Trump to his face —

One of the statements that you made in the tail end of the campaign in the midterms that —

Here we go.

That — well, if you don’t mind, Mr. President, that this caravan was an invasion.

— in these crazy press conferences —

They’re are hundreds of miles away, though. They’re hundreds and hundreds of miles away. That’s not an invasion.

Honestly, I think you should let me run the country. You run CNN. And if you did it well, your ratings —

Well, let me ask — if I may ask one other question. Mr. President, if I may ask another question. Are you worried —

That’s enough. That’s enough.

And Trump is giving it right back.

I tell you what, CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them. You are a rude, terrible person. You shouldn’t be working for CNN.

Very combative.

So this was this incredibly fraught moment for the American press. You’ve got tens of millions of Trump supporters seeing what’s really basic fact checking. These look like attacks to Trump supporters. Trump, in turn, is calling the press, the reporters are enemies of the people. So it’s a terrible dynamic.

And when January 6 happens, it’s so obviously out of control. And what the traditional press that follows, traditional journalistic rules has to do is make it clear that the claims that Trump is making about a stolen election are just so abjectly false that they don’t warrant a single minute of real consideration once the reporting has been done to show how false they are. And I think that American journalism really emerged from that feeling strongly about its own values and its own place in society.

But then there’s still tens of millions of Trump voters, and they don’t feel so good about the coverage. And they don’t agree that January 6 was an insurrection. And so we enter yet another period, where the press is going to have to now maybe rethink some things.

In what way?

Well, there’s a kind of quiet period after January 6. Trump is off of social media. The smoke is literally dissipating from the air in Washington. And news executives are kind of standing there on the proverbial battlefield, taking a new look at their situation.

And they’re seeing that in this clearer light, they’ve got some new problems, perhaps none more important for their entire business models than that their ratings are quickly crashing. And part of that diminishment is that a huge part of the country, that Trump-loving part of the audience, is really now severed from him from their coverage.

They see the press as actually, in some cases, being complicit in stealing an election. And so these news executives, again, especially on television, which is so ratings dependent, they’ve got a problem. So after presumably learning all these lessons about journalism and how to confront power, there’s a first subtle and then much less subtle rethinking.

Maybe we need to pull back from that approach. And maybe we need to take some new lessons and switch it up a little bit and reverse some of what we did. And one of the best examples of this is none other than CNN.

It had come under new management, was being led by a guy named Chris Licht, a veteran of cable news, but also Stephen Colbert’s late night show in his last job. And his new job under this new management is we’re going to recalibrate a little bit. So Chris Licht proceeds to try to bring the network back to the center.

And how does he do that?

Well, we see some key personalities who represented the Trump combat era start losing air time and some of them lose their jobs. There’s talk of, we want more Republicans on the air. There was a famous magazine article about Chris Licht’s balancing act here.

And Chris Licht says to a reporter, Tim Alberta of the “Atlantic” magazine, look, a lot in the media, including at his own network, quote unquote, “put on a jersey, took a side.” They took a side. And he says, I think we understand that jersey cannot go back on him. Because he says in the end of the day, by the way, it didn’t even work. We didn’t change anyone’s mind.

He’s saying that confrontational approach that defined the four years Trump was in office, that was a reaction to the feeling that TV news had failed to properly treat Trump with sufficient skepticism, that that actually was a failure both of journalism and of the TV news business. Is that what he’s saying?

Yeah. On the business side, it’s easier call, right? You want a bigger audience, and you’re not getting the bigger audience. But he’s making a journalistic argument as well that if the job is to convey the truth and take it to the people, and they take that into account as they make their own voting decisions and formulate their own opinions about American politics, if tens of millions of people who do believe that election was stolen are completely tuning you out because now they see you as a political combatant, you’re not achieving your ultimate goal as a journalist.

And what does Licht’s “don’t put a jersey back on” approach look like on CNN for its viewers?

Well, It didn’t look good. People might remember this, but the most glaring example —

Please welcome, the front runner for the Republican nomination for president, Donald Trump.

— was when he held a town hall meeting featuring Donald J. Trump, now candidate Trump, before an audience packed with Trump’s fans.

You look at what happened during that election. Unless you’re a very stupid person, you see what happens. A lot of the people —

Trump let loose a string of falsehoods.

Most people understand what happened. It was a rigged election.

The audience is pro-Trump audience, was cheering him on.

Are you ready? Are you ready? Can I talk?

Yeah, what’s your answer?

Can I? Do you mind?

I would like for you to answer the question.

OK. It’s very simple to answer.

That’s why I asked it.

It’s very simple. You’re a nasty person, I’ll tell you that.

And during, the CNN anchor hosting this, Kaitlan Collins, on CNN’s own air, it was a disaster.

It felt like a callback to the unlearned lessons of 2016.

Yeah. And in this case, CNN’s staff was up in arms.

Big shakeup in the cable news industry as CNN makes another change at the top.

Chris Licht is officially out at CNN after a chaotic run as chairman and CEO.

And Chris Licht didn’t survive it.

The chief executive’s departure comes as he faced criticism in recent weeks after the network hosted a town hall with Donald Trump and the network’s ratings started to drop.

But I want to say that the CNN leadership still, even after that, as they brought new leadership in, said, this is still the path we’re going to go on. Maybe that didn’t work out, but we’re still here. This is still what we have to do.

Right. And this idea is very much in the water of TV news, that this is the right overall direction.

Yeah. This is, by no means, isolated to CNN. This is throughout the traditional news business. These conversations are happening everywhere. But CNN was living it at that point.

And this, of course, is how we get to NBC deciding to hire Ronna McDaniel.

Right. Because they’re picking up — right where that conversation leaves off, they’re having the same conversation. But for NBC, you could argue this tension between journalistic values and audience. It’s even more pressing. Because even though MSNBC is a niche cable network, NBC News is part of an old-fashioned broadcast network. It’s on television stations throughout the country.

And in fact, those networks, they still have 6:30 newscasts. And believe it or not, millions of people still watch those every night. Maybe not as many as they used to, but there’s still some six or seven million people tuning in to nightly news. That’s important.

Right. We should say that kind of number is sometimes double or triple that of the cable news prime time shows that get all the attention.

On their best nights. So this is big business still. And that business is based on broad — it’s called broadcast for a reason. That’s based on broad audiences. So NBC had a business imperative, and they argue they had a journalistic imperative.

So given all of that, Jim, I think the big messy question here is, when it comes to NBC, did they make a tactical error around hiring the wrong Republican which blew up? Or did they make an even larger error in thinking that the way you handle Trump and his supporters is to work this hard to reach them, when they might not even be reachable?

The best way to answer that question is to tell you what they’re saying right now, NBC management. What the management saying is, yes, this was a tactical error. This was clearly the wrong Republican. We get it.

But they’re saying, we are going to — and they said this in their statement, announcing that they were severing ties with McDaniel. They said, we’re going to redouble our efforts to represent a broad spectrum of the American votership. And that’s what they meant was that we’re going to still try to reach these Trump voters with people who can relate to them and they can relate to.

But the question is, how do you even do that when so many of his supporters believe a lie? How is NBC, how is CNN, how are any of these TV networks, if they have decided that this is their mission, how are they supposed to speak to people who believe something fundamentally untrue as a core part of their political identity?

That’s the catch-22. How do you get that Trump movement person who’s also an insider, when the litmus test to be an insider in the Trump movement is to believe in the denialism or at least say you do? So that’s a real journalistic problem. And the thing that we haven’t really touched here is, what are these networks doing day in and day out?

They’re not producing reported pieces, which I think it’s a little easier. You just report the news. You go out into the world. You talk to people, and then you present it to the world as a nuanced portrait of the country. This thing is true. This thing is false. Again, in many cases, pretty straightforward. But their bread and butter is talking heads. It’s live. It’s not edited. It’s not that much reported.

So their whole business model especially, again, on cable, which has 24 hours to fill, is talking heads. And if you want the perspective from the Trump movement, journalistically, especially when it comes to denialism, but when it comes to some other major subjects in American life, you’re walking into a place where they’re going to say things that aren’t true, that don’t pass your journalistic standards, the most basic standards of journalism.

Right. So you’re saying if TV sticks with this model, the kind of low cost, lots of talk approach to news, then they are going to have to solve the riddle of who to bring on, who represents Trump’s America if they want that audience. And now they’ve got this red line that they’ve established, that that person can’t be someone who denies the 2020 election reality. But like you just said, that’s the litmus test for being in Trump’s orbit.

So this doesn’t really look like a conundrum. This looks like a bit of a crisis for TV news because it may end up meaning that they can’t hire that person that they need for this model, which means that perhaps a network like NBC does need to wave goodbye to a big segment of these viewers and these eyeballs who support Trump.

I mean, on the one hand, they are not ready to do that, and they would never concede that that’s something they’re ready to do. The problem is barring some kind of change in their news model, there’s no solution to this.

But why bar changes to their news model, I guess, is the question. Because over the years, it’s gotten more and more expensive to produce news, the news that I’m talking about, like recorded packages and what we refer to as reporting. Just go out and report the news.

Don’t gab about it. Just what’s going on, what’s true, what’s false. That’s actually very expensive in television. And they don’t have the kind of money they used to have. So the talking heads is their way to do programming at a level where they can afford it.

They do some packages. “60 Minutes” still does incredible work. NBC does packages, but the lion’s share of what they do is what we’re talking about. And that’s not going to change because the economics aren’t there.

So then a final option, of course, to borrow something Chris Licht said, is that a network like NBC perhaps doesn’t put a jersey on, but accepts the reality that a lot of the world sees them wearing a jersey.

Yeah. I mean, nobody wants to be seen as wearing a jersey in our business. No one wants to be wearing a jersey on our business. But maybe what they really have to accept is that we’re just sticking to the true facts, and that may look like we’re wearing a jersey, but we’re not. And that may, at times, look like it’s lining up more with the Democrats, but we’re not.

If Trump is lying about a stolen election, that’s not siding against him. That’s siding for the truth, and that’s what we’re doing. Easier said than done. And I don’t think any of these concepts are new.

I think there have been attempts to do that, but it’s the world they’re in. And it’s the only option they really have. We’re going to tell you the truth, even if it means that we’re going to lose a big part of the country.

Well, Jim, thank you very much.

Thank you, Michael.

Here’s what else you need to know today.

[PROTESTERS CHANTING]

Over the weekend, thousands of protesters took to the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in some of the largest domestic demonstrations against the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since Israel invaded Gaza in the fall.

[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

Some of the protesters called on Netanyahu to reach a cease fire deal that would free the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. Others called for early elections that would remove Netanyahu from office.

During a news conference on Sunday, Netanyahu rejected calls for early elections, saying they would paralyze his government at a crucial moment in the war.

Today’s episode was produced by Rob Szypko, Rikki Novetsky, and Alex Stern, with help from Stella Tan.

It was edited by Brendan Klinkenberg with help from Rachel Quester and Paige Cowett. Contains original music by Marion Lozano, Dan Powell, and Rowan Niemisto and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.

• April 7, 2024 The Sunday Read: ‘What Deathbed Visions Teach Us About Living’
• April 5, 2024   •   29:11 An Engineering Experiment to Cool the Earth
• April 4, 2024   •   32:37 Israel’s Deadly Airstrike on the World Central Kitchen
• April 3, 2024   •   27:42 The Accidental Tax Cutter in Chief
• April 2, 2024   •   29:32 Kids Are Missing School at an Alarming Rate
• April 1, 2024   •   36:14 Ronna McDaniel, TV News and the Trump Problem
• March 29, 2024   •   48:42 Hamas Took Her, and Still Has Her Husband
• March 28, 2024   •   33:40 The Newest Tech Start-Up Billionaire? Donald Trump.
• March 27, 2024   •   28:06 Democrats’ Plan to Save the Republican House Speaker
• March 26, 2024   •   29:13 The United States vs. the iPhone
• March 25, 2024   •   25:59 A Terrorist Attack in Russia
• March 24, 2024   •   21:39 The Sunday Read: ‘My Goldendoodle Spent a Week at Some Luxury Dog ‘Hotels.’ I Tagged Along.’

Hosted by Michael Barbaro

Featuring Jim Rutenberg

Produced by Rob Szypko ,  Rikki Novetsky and Alex Stern

With Stella Tan

Edited by Brendan Klinkenberg ,  Rachel Quester and Paige Cowett

Original music by Marion Lozano ,  Dan Powell and Rowan Niemisto

Engineered by Chris Wood

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music

Ronna McDaniel’s time at NBC was short. The former Republican National Committee chairwoman was hired as an on-air political commentator but released just days later after an on-air revolt by the network’s leading stars.

Jim Rutenberg, a writer at large for The Times, discusses the saga and what it might reveal about the state of television news heading into the 2024 presidential race.

On today’s episode

Jim Rutenberg , a writer at large for The New York Times.

Background reading

Ms. McDaniel’s appointment had been immediately criticized by reporters at the network and by viewers on social media.

The former Republican Party leader tried to downplay her role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A review of the record shows she was involved in some key episodes .

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The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Mike Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Corey Schreppel, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, John Ketchum, Nina Feldman, Will Reid, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Dan Farrell, Sophia Lanman, Shannon Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Summer Thomad, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez and Brendan Klinkenberg.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Sofia Milan, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Renan Borelli, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson and Nina Lassam.

Jim Rutenberg is a writer at large for The Times and The New York Times Magazine and writes most often about media and politics. More about Jim Rutenberg

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