An entrepreneur pitching her product on Dragons’ Den
In our Comm 101 tutorial we watched and discussed Dragons’ Den, specifically a pitch on the Canadian company Shnarped. Also, in one of our lectures we learned about the company Tangoo and their journey to Dragons’ Den from the founder Paul Davidescu. After these classes I found a blog post by Dustin Sproat one of the founders of Shnarped.
Dustin Sproat and Kyle Hagel pitching Shnarped on Dragons’ Den
He describes the behind the scenes of both Dragons’ Den and, the American equivalent of the show, Shark Tank. These shows work because they are a “win-win” scenario. This is because the investors or “panelists” get great opportunities to invest in small companies with room to grow, while the business get capital, connections, and exposure to increase their profit. The opportunities both these shows give entrepreneurs is truly incredible. Both these shows demonstrate much of what I have learned in class, including: pitching a product, financial statements, value propositions, customer segments, outsourcing products to cut costs, and many more. I find these shows to be a great way to better understand how businesses work, because on the show they often go in depth on their individual products and businesses. It is very inspiring to see people run a great business, especially Sauder grads. Hopefully, the show airs for long enough for me to see people from my year pitch and try to make their business successful.
Articles Used:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dustin-sproat/behind-the-scenes-with-mark-cuban_b_5085533.html
https://blog.tangoo.ca/tangoos-journey-to-dragons-den-the-conclusion/