A fleet of Thai-inspired tuk tuks brought "a smile to people's faces" when they arrived at the Albert Dock nearly seven years ago.
Royal Navy veterans Tony and Jaimie Smith weren't the first to try bringing tuk tuks to the streets of Liverpool. Taxi driver Colin Huskisson set up Merseytuk in 2008 to ferry passengers around the city in his own six-seat auto rickshaw.
But the Smiths, whose appearance on Dragon's Den has been watched 658,000 times on YouTube, set their sights on a tuk tuk empire.
City Tuk Tuks was inspired by a family holiday to Thailand. They were riding "literally a Vespa with a shed on the back" when their then-seven-year-old son Thomas said, "Wouldn't it be great to have these in Liverpool?". Initial plans for "the longest tuk tuk in the world" - five and a half metres with 12 seats - didn't meet regulations, so Tony and Jaimie "went back to the kitchen table".
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Eventually they secured two custom-made, six-seater electric tuk tuks from Thailand, which Tony picked up in Amsterdam before getting a ferry to Newcastle and driving them back to Liverpool on a low-loader. In December 2014, City Tuk Tuks launched 40-minute tours of the city for £15 per person, and a night-time shuttle service, from the Albert Dock.
At the time, Tony said tourists "really love them, and we're going to be adding some corporate events too this year". Things were looking up when, just months after launching, Tony and Jaimie got a chance to pitch the idea - their "best one yet" - on BBC's Dragon's Den.
The couple appeared on the show, broadcast in August 2015, offering the dragons a ride around the studio in a tuk tuk, along with a 20% stake in the business for £65,000. Tony described the product as "a fun, stylish, exciting, personal way of seeing the city in a 100% electric tuk with music, lights and champagne", saying: "We've even got a karaoke tuk tuk, which is absolutely amazing."
Despite laughing through the ride, the dragons weren't sold on the business' potential, or on the Smith family's business skills. Tony stumbled on the first question, taking an awkward pause before calling in the company's general manager Linda Collins for backup when longtime dragon Peter Jones asked what the company's turnover is. Peter said: "You've demonstrated to me that you don't really know the financial side of this business at all."
Linda's numbers left the dragons confused, and one by one they declared themselves out, leaving City Tuk Tuks with no offers of investment. Peter described the tuk tuks as about "as useful as a handbrake in a canoe" in comparison to a taxi. Other dragons dismissed it as too local or too seasonal for them to invest.
Among the dragons' concerns was the lack of an agreement with the Albert Dock to use it, and the millions of tourists who visit each year, as a base. Deborah Meaden dubbed this "the biggest flaw" in their business plan, saying "it's uninvestable". She told the Liverpool business: "You're not going to change my mind because the business you're presenting here today, tomorrow could just stop."
Despite the setback, the Liverpool entrepreneurs left the den with smiles and a hug, achieving their aim of gaining exposure for their business. After the programme was aired, which they claimed garerned thousands of views for their website, Tony said: "Over the next 12 months we are going to make a good company great. We'll prove ourselves to the dragons and get back in the den again this time next year."
He added: "We have just bought a pure white wedding vehicle so we can now do weddings, and a trailer so we can do airport transfers and, while the electric vehicles couldn't leave the city, we have just had made and picked up from Thailand three, larger, petrol vehicles which we can even drive on the motorway."
Just over a year later, the company closed, saying it couldn't afford to continue from Albert Dock and was unable to find an alternative location. Linda, also a director of City Tuk Tuks, described it as a "tragedy" after they'd begged to council for help, saying they'd invested £100,000 in the local tourist economy, so the council should invest in them.
She said: "I'm not saying we have had a massive impact on tourism ourselves, but people have told us they came to Liverpool because they had seen us on Dragons Den. And when we're doing tours, people stop and smile, wave when they see us. The Tuk Tuks bring a smile to people's faces. A little bit of that will be gone from Liverpool."
City Tuk Tuks met with Liverpool Council "numerous" times, but they couldn't agree on a city centre site where people could see them "all year round". A council spokesperson said Derby Square was off the cards because of heavy pedestrian use, cultural events, marches and crowd management. Speaking in 2016, Linda said: "We would have doubled our turnover this year if we could have found somewhere. We have done our utmost to be as amenable as possible."
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