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May 6, 2021 · Bookmark. A successful Dragons’ Den deal always ends with smiling faces, a handshake and some delighted new business partners. However, it’s a completely different story once the cameras stop...
Mar 9, 2022 · Dragons' Den star Peter Jones has shared why many of the deals shown on the BBC business programme never actually go ahead. Viewers may understandably assume that when entrepreneurs...
- How It All Began
- The Big Deal
- Lightbulb Moment
- Rip It Up, Start Again
- A Trip to Silicon Valley
- Into The Den
- A hat-trick
- The Mission
- A Clear Plan and Plenty of Guts
The pair met at Bristol University at the turn of the millennium and became good mates. After graduating, they went their separate ways professionally – Henry ending up as a special advisor to Michael Gove at the Department of Education and Will joining Deloitte and later launching a tech start-up – but they still kept in regular contact. In 2014, ...
In 2014, they launched The Big Deal. The concept was to build an extensive database of customers and negotiate deals with energy providers on their behalf, creating economies of scale. Henry says: “We quickly built up a database of several hundred thousand, working with various groups and newspapers. We then brokered deals with energy providers. In...
However, a significant issue soon reared its head. The one-off deals that Henry and Will had been negotiating usually ended after 12 months. Then, The Big Deal’s customers would automatically roll onto less enticing deals – unless they switched again. “That’s how it works,” says Henry. “Providers pull in customers with sweet deals, then put their p...
Towards the end of 2016, Will and Henry changed tack. They started looking beyond one-off deals and wondering whether they could manage their customers’ bills long term, changing provider at the right time to secure the best deals. After much deliberation, they decided they could and Look After My Bills was born. But changing their business model s...
During 2017, they built a beta version of Look After My Bills and formally launched it the following year. This attracted famous Silicon Valley seed-accelerator Y Combinator – the VC fund that launched the likes of Dropbox, Airbnb, Stripe and Reddit. Y Combinator invested in Henry and Will and invited them to California for three months. “We learne...
Wiser – and with their majority share in Look After My Bills intact – the pair returned to the UK. At this point, their key aims were to find the right expertise and to advertise the new business. While watching Dragons’ Den one night, it struck Henry that the programme could deliver both aims. “I was watching not long after getting back from the U...
Their strategy worked. The duo walked away with three huge wins: incredible advertising and PR; £120,000 of investment (in exchange for a 3% equity in their business); and access to two of the best entrepreneurial minds in the UK – Jenny Campbell and Tej Lalvani. “We got a little merry on the train back from Manchester,” laughs Henry.
So far, this article has focused on Henry and Will’s business successes. But there is more to their story. Since the launch of The Big Deal to present day, the pair say they have been driven first and foremost by social conscience, not cash. “Our mission is to save people time, money and worry,” says Henry. “Under the current system, if you’re a lo...
It’s a strong mission statement and an impressive sales pitch – there’s a massive demand for a service that promises to remove the headache of managing bills while reducing costs (they’ve already reached 200,000 customers). With that in mind, it’s no surprise the Dragons bit Henry and Will’s hands-off, nor that GoCo Group gobbled up the rest (at le...
But both Davies and Jones put this down to post-Den scrutiny. Often, they explain, when the small print is examined, it transpires that an entrepreneur may have inflated their sales...
Oct 6, 2019 · A flake of rock split from the wall and fell. A hole appeared suddenly about three feet from the ground. Quickly, trembling lest the chance should fade, the dwarves rushed to the rock and pushed-in vain.
Feb 10, 2022 · Duncan Bannatyne. Scottish businessman Duncan Bannatyne bowed out of the show in 2015 after ten years, making him the second-longest serving original dragon. The health club mogul cited "business...
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Mar 31, 2021 · Another recurring point of controversy is how many deals fall through outside the Den. It's previously been reported that nearly half the money pledged by the Dragons on screen went...
