EOIN BUTLERspeaks to Sarah Newman Entrepreneur and star of RTÉ's
Dragon's Den
The first series of ‘Dragon’s Den’ was filmed just as the economy was imploding. How did that impinge on the show?
I don't think it did actually. Between them, my four fellow Dragons invested hundreds of thousands of euro in various businesses over the course of the series. The show provided a lot of entertainment at what was otherwise a pretty gloomy time. At the end of the day, Dragons' Denis entertainment, albeit with real people and real money.
Some of the pitches, however – a man selling office aquariums, for example – were clearly nonstarters.
Absolutely, but that was a textbook example of someone who was not an entrepreneur to begin with. A few years earlier, he could have said, look, there’s 100,000 square metres of office space being built in Dublin every year, and X per cent of them may decide to purchase an aquarium. He’d probably have gotten his investment. So it was not the timing of the programme that was at fault there, it was the timing of the idea.
With so many pitches given short shrift, why are people still so eager to appear on the show?
There are four places budding entrepreneurs can go to raise money in this country: the bank, Enterprise Ireland, venture capitalists or Dragons' Den. The people who come on Dragons' Den are people, by and large, who haven't a hope in hell of getting money from the bank. They haven't the experience. They haven't the business acumen and very often they don't have a business plan. If they went to venture capitalists too, they'd be chewed up and spat out. Whereas, when they come to us, if they have a good idea, there's a very good chance they'll get the money.
Alternatively, they may have their hopes and dreams torn apart on national television?
They might. But if they do, they’re unlikely to have made it in the real world anyway. Don’t forget that there are also people who’ve had good ideas but who weren’t willing to give up the equity required and have walked away with a hell of a lot of free publicity. If your idea goes over well with the Dragons, you’re a household name overnight.
Do you ever feel squeamish about picking apart bad ideas?
It’s fair game. When people apply to appear on the show, they go through quite a stringent interview process. They are told in no uncertain terms that this is not for the fainthearted. They know the likelihood that they’ll get the investment they’re looking for. So you ask me if I squirm? I don’t. Because I know they’re not being manipulated and they’re not being taken advantage of.
You set up the needahotel.com website and went on to sell it for a reported €50 million, despite having no third level qualifications yourself . . .
That’s right. I left school at 16.
Does this inform your perspective when you’re assessing budding entrepreneurs?
I suppose. I’m a trader at heart. I’m streetwise and I don’t suffer fools gladly. I’ve made mistakes along the way, sure. But if you ask whether a lack of higher education has hampered me, I’d say absolutely not. I know I come across as being a little bit abrupt with people on the show. But it’s only because I have worked so hard for all that I have. No one has ever handed anything to me in my life. So it does irritate me sometimes when people stroll in casually and say “Hi, can I have a hundred grand please?”
You didn’t invest any money in the first series. Do you feel under pressure to rectify that in the second?
A lot of people have asked me that. The answer is no, I don’t. It’s my money and, if anything, I’ll probably be even tighter than I was with it first time around. That said, I really, really do want to get an investment. Because I want to work with somebody, and I don’t want to feel that I’ve wasted two weeks of my life sitting in a chair.
Finally, I have to ask, how long on average do the Dragons spend practising their “reacting” looks before each show . . .
(laughs) We don’t do that! But it’s so funny – I’d never seen myself on television before. I had no idea I pulled faces like that.
I think Sean Gallagher has developed his “sceptical- but-intrigued” frown almost into an art form.
Honestly, that’s the beauty of Dragons’ Den. You never know who’s going to walk through that door until they arrive. That’s why we react the way we do each time and that’s why the show is so successful.
Dragons' Denreturns to RTÉ in February 2010
