Dragons’ Den investor Peter Jones has said the fight for investing on the show has “become more fierce amongst the dragons”. The British entrepreneur, 56, has been an investor on the BBC One programme since 2005, making him the only remaining original Dragon in the current line up.
Speaking on The One Show, Jones explained how he has noticed a “shift” in the relationship between the Dragons and budding entrepreneurs: “I’ve been there for 18 years, 20 seasons, so I think the reality is what’s great about this set-up with the dragons and the line up is we all bring a completely different range of expertise.
“So to be fair, now the people coming in are really researching who the dragons are and what they can offer. So they almost know who they want before they come in, and that’s slightly a shift.
“Whereas before it was we’re going to negotiate and we sell ourselves, whereas now they come and they might want Sara (Davies) for a specific reason, they want me because they always think I’m linked to tech and they want Steven (Bartlett) for marketing or Touker (Suleyman) if it’s clothing and then they want Deborah (Meaden) if it’s eco, so you always come in with that. But I think now it’s become more fierce amongst the dragons. You’ve got to be really tactical.”
Jones’s fellow Dragon Sara Davies agreed, adding: “I always call them five-dragon-scraps. If there’s a fight… And I would say four years ago when I did my first series, if there was a five-dragon-scrap I used to be terrified. That moment where the tables turn and instead of the entrepreneurs pitching at us, we have to pitch at them. Why choose me?”
After almost two decades on the show, Jones also reflected on the number of businesses he has invested in during the period. He told presenters Alex Jones and Roman Kemp: “It must be getting close to 100 maybe. It’s crazy!”
The One Show airs every weekday at 7pm on BBC One.
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