Dragons’ Den in Scotland

Did anyone watch the last episode of Dragon’s Den? Ralf Klinnert, a Livingston-based entrepreneur, walked away with £120,000 funding for his Funky Moves interactive fitness centre. You can watch a clip of it on the BBC website.

Despite Duncan Bannatyne commenting that ‘only an idiot would invest in this’, Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones put up the cash in return for a 50% stake in Klinnert’s business; 30% more than he had originally wanted to part with.

Business people looking for funds in the real world might scoff at the TV programme and wonder how anyone can genuinely pitch an idea and secure the funding in the twelve minute slot demanded by the Dragons’ Den format. Realistically, they can’t. A piece in today’s Herald reveals that the actual pitch and negotiating process took two hours. Viewers were just shown the most dramatic highlights.

What do Vistage Scotland members think of the show? Does it encourage entrepreneurship or does it trivialise business by turning it into a game show? It seems to enjoy a better reputation than The Apprentice which long gave up any pretensions towards being genuinely insightful about business.