How Much We Got Paid to Go on Dragons' Den: Simon Woodroffe

0:00So then, so obviously you've cashed out an element and you've got this money rolling in, you're building your empire, and then there's some young BBC producer that is looking through exciting entrepreneurs from Dragon's Den, and you get a phone call. What can you tell us about that experience?

0:17Simon Woodroffe:Well, by that time we started to the hotels. I didn't have a great deal of money, actually. I wasn't a multi-millionaire. I had a few million quid. And there'd been a plethora of TV shows, actually. There was The Mind of a Millionaire, London's Crisis, London's Richest. Got that one wrong. And all these things. and suddenly you know the celebrity chefs have had their day and you know the kids were going out the playground going what do you want to be a farmer or a pop star or chef or an entrepreneur and entrepreneurs were getting their thing and there was a few of us were doing it was tim waterston there was me there's tim smith from the eden project duncan bannertine was in on the action you know we were all doing these tv shows people want to know about entrepreneurs and it was a there's a scene going on in london we knew a lot a lot of us knew each other and duncan actually told me about um um well no i remember turning up at richard branson's house with a film crew actually i don't know how that happened he was doing the hundred fastest progressing companies or something and they were filming me and i was speaking on stage and i was singing i i had a song i'd done with the blockheads i was singing a song called how i got my yo i used to sing on stage that was my party piece if you like and duncan said you know have you heard about this uh you know the thing the bbc are doing calling dragons den he said i'll introduce you so introduce me and and they came and saw me and said you know you invest your own money and i remember thinking i haven't got that much i think i'll keep it to myself i don't want to kind of i didn't really understand it so i said no and then um duncan said oh he should have said yes he said he said i think it could be really something and i was kicking myself idiot idiot idiot you know and then i got a call one day and I think Duncan might put them up to it but they'd just done a pilot and one of the dragons didn't cut the mustard and I got a call from the BBC from I can't remember his name now anyway from the guy David and he called me and said um he said would you reconsider and I said step this way and that and I was in and you know a few weeks later you know then within a few weeks it all happened very fast and they came in we they did their deal they gave us a small amount of money i think we got a couple of grand a recording day or a couple of grand a show or something and the the wardrobe lady came around from the bbc and we looked through my wardrobe and said i think we need a couple more shirts for continuity and another suit i said thank you very much i was enjoying this so we went shopping on the bbc and she took all my clothes that we were going to wear on the show and they became bbc property for the period of the filming and then we turned up on the first day and went into makeup you know we were right load of tarts we loved it or you know duncan bannerton especially absolutely loved it all you know i love it fucking love it all this attention you know it's what i've always wanted so anyway we had a great time and that's that's how it happened and of course and then of course it was heavily branded the whole opening sequence is heavenly, very, very good for our business.

3:32Simon Woodroffe:And my speaking fees went up for going and doing corporate speeches, which I was doing on the side by that time. And yeah, it was really, really fantastic. You know, very, very good for the business. Did you know what you were looking for in terms of what was investable? Did you have like a game plan? Look, if you want to go, I'll tell you the truth here. If you want to make some money and find some good investments, don't go and ask the BBC. there's not been I don't watch the show now it's a bit like sleeping with an old girlfriend but you know it's not a great place and they wanted it to be like X Factor I was always the nice dragon I think I was the one I just wanted people to succeed I could be quite tough as well but no I wish there had been some better investments you know because it could have been really good you know to do it but but i invest i think i was two on uh the one that they will remember is this guy who thought he'd invented a way to grow truffles in a greenhouse and as it turned out he hadn't i still said i'd invest in him but i said you know you haven't even got the technology to do it but let's pretend you have and let's invent a line of camouflage clothing so we could do truffle hunting hats and truffle hunting sniffers and you know truffle hunting you can imagine sort of you know baggy trousers with all in camouflage so nobody would see you looking for the truffles so it didn't happen so i didn't yeah i didn't make any investments