Entrepreneurs dream of a £100,000 investment from the business tycoons on Dragons Den, but Simon Heap has revealed that the reality is quite different from the popular BBC show.
The 53-year-old pitched his fitness games business Rugged Interactive to the dragons in series 14 and secured a deal with Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden.
However, only a few weeks later he turned down the deal to keep his 30 per cent stake in the business, as he claims the dragons never spoke to him again personally or stayed involved in his business.
Simon’s sales were strong and he trusted his instincts and backed out of the deal.
He told The Sun: “I wanted to understand why they had invested, what they imagined the future might look like and where they thought we could get more sales.
“But they never gave any hint about how it was going to work. The most they would say was, ‘This is going to be life-changing for you’ and ‘Don’t worry, it will all be brilliant’.
“We agreed to part ways in the end and I thought we probably wouldn’t be on the show but we were in the season finale at the very end and the only ones to get investment.”
Looking back Simon said it felt like a “dream” to have offers from Peter, Debra and Touker Suleyman, but the reality was that after the show, he claims Peter and Debra never spoke to him again.
Explaining his decision on which dragons to pick, he admitted that he didn't think he and Touker would get on, which is why he opted for Peter and Debra.
He said that while they were "all smiles" and came up to him with cuddles and kisses, before he then briefly met with them for lunch after asking for a quick word, he never saw them again.
Simon admitted that going on the show "feels like it was a dream" as filming had been "intense" and afterwards he simply packed up his van and returned to Cornwall.
Nothing had been signed on the day, he said, and that he only ever heard from Debra's team.
“You wanted to be whisked away to sign a contract with a gold pen and celebrate with champagne but that didn’t happen, it was disappointing," he said.
Sadly, the dragon’s behaviour wasn’t the only disappointing aspect of the experience for Simon. The businessman explained that the set is actually “not as it appears at all” on TV, it’s purely a fake set created in a studio for the show.
He revealed that there was "no lift" and that it's just two doors that open after you are asked to "press the lift button 100 times" for filming.
As well as that, Simon said that the pitch room wasn't a warehouse either as there was no ceiling and behind the windows is a painted landscape.
Even with the change of heart, Simon said he doesn’t regret going on the show as he got the positives of the publicity. He continued: “I don’t regret doing it nor regret going on the show. We benefited from it hugely and I found it very intriguing. It’s a great show that’s informative about business too.”
The Mirror has reached out to reps for comment.
