Dragon's Den

Source: You Tube (MagicWandTVRemote)

 

 

 

Vocabulary:

 

a stake (in a company) -

 

huge (adj) -

 

a (magic) wand -

 

a wizard -

 

to rotate -

 

a flick -

 

to fast forward -

 

to rewind -

 

a ceiling -

 

a fan -

 

revenue (n) -

 

within (prep) -

 

a business partner -

 

to spot -

 

a brand -

an electronic display -

 

a mark-up -

 

a wholesaler -

 

blended (adj) -

to stand up to scrutiny -

retail (n) -

(to make) a net profit -

to require -

a forecast -

appeal (n) -

equity -

to break cover -

ratchet (n) -

a deal -

to end up -

a share -

a sliding scale -

a canny move -

an outline -

an entrepreneur -

tricky (adj) -
 

Here is an article about the inventor of the Snowbone, who appeared in the first series of Dragon's Den:

 

Extreme entrepreneur

 

Extreme sports like parasailing, bungee jumping and abseiling have always attracted people in search of the ultimate adrenaline rush. Cranfield MBA graduate Paddy Radcliffe, 35, saw a business opportunity that would transform winter sports: the Snowbone, a customised snowboard capable of high jumps and somersaults. "Extreme sports are increasingly becoming mainstream - it's about people pushing boundaries and our Snowbone is aimed at creating a niche in a snow sports market worth £5bn worldwide. Snowboards account for £1.5m of that."

 

Radcliffe saw his opportunity when a group of postgraduate students from the Royal College of Art came to Cranfield to enlist the help of MBA students in writing business plans for products they had designed. Radcliffe teamed up with the Snowbone's creator, design student and snowboarding enthusiast Nick Rawcliffe. Rawcliffe's idea was to boost the performance of a snowboard by adding a lightweight aluminium BMX bike steering column and handlebars, enabling the rider to perform aerial somersaults. The two young men launched the product in 2004.

 

Their big break came last year when the Snowbone featured in BBC2's first series of Dragon's Den, a competition where young entrepreneurs and new ideas vie for business sponsorship. But things began to go wrong after the series ended, when Radcliffe's mentor, Rachel Elnaugh, who had promised to invest in his start-up, found her own dot com business, Red Letter Days, in difficulty and pulled out.

So was it back to square one? Radcliffe says: "Dragon's Den was a two-edged sword. People got to hear of our product, but perhaps expectations were raised too high." Nevertheless, Radcliffe is encouraged by the market and, in February this year, managed to get the product showcased at the ISPO international winter sports trade fair. He says: "We won free stand space for a week and free media support."

 

Far from standing still, Radcliffe and his partner have been refining the design, building the brand through a website - snowbone.com - and working to get the production costs of the prototype down from £100 to under £25. Bigger production runs in the Far East should see manufacturing costs reduced even further. Snowbone is still searching for a business angel and Radcliffe believes the vital investment in Snowbone will come from someone in the winter sports industry. "What we're looking for is an existing sports company, so that we could tap into their distribution channels, supplemented by online sales."

 

Source: Guardian