I was on Dragons’ Den – there are three things I wish I’d known before making it onto screens
THE entrepreneur who denied a deal tells us his three biggest takeaways from his Dragon’s Den experience.
Roman Krem detailed the time he went on Dragon’s Den in 2015 with his business partner to pitch their food startup company.
Talking about how he got on the show, he shared on Reddit: “I was about a year into my new business at the time. Building my own thing was forcing me out of my shell. I had to talk to way more people than I’d normally be talking to.”
He then came across a producer on Dragon’s Den and made a good impression as they suggested to audition for the show.
Roman added: “The lesson here is: While I hate networking in the traditional sense, I learned it does pay to be genuinely friendly. Even if you’re a complete derp and sometimes you hate people.”
He then described his anxiety about being on camera and revealed they “spent hours prepping and rehearsing.”
Speaking about filming for the show, he continued: “When it was time to start, they gave us only one take to get it right, which was pretty stressful.
“I did my best to communicate my message concisely, and to not fall over on national television.
“I mostly tried to remain calm throughout the whole thing. I’ve learned there’s no point in getting defensive on the show. You just do your pitch, answer the questions rationally, and get out.
“At the end of the day, it’s still entertainment and the dragons will give you a hard time just to stir some s*** up.”
They were offered $250k for 20% of the business, but decided to turn it down.
They believed they could grow the company to the next level on our own without giving up a large percentage of our equity.
The plan was to reach a certain scale first, then raise money.
However, Roman admitted that looking back, maybe accepting the money could have been a good PR boost and validated our brand further.
Roman shared his three takeaways from his Dragon’s Den experience.
Number one was try to be curious about new people and you never know where your next big opportunity will come from.
Number two was don’t try to be too slick as it’s better to come prepared.
And number three was to try to take criticism with grace as no one likes a person who can’t take any feedback at all.
He concluded you must accept what’s useful, discard what is not and move on.
Roman posted a vlog about his experience on YouTube.
Viewers took to the comment section to thank Roman for sharing the lessons he learnt.
One said: “Great summary of the experience and some life lessons at the end everybody can learn from. I’m gonna save this and watch again in the future thanks.”
Another wrote: “You really come across as knowledgeable and approachable (and human). Congrats on a very well done presentation.”
Dragon’s Den continues on Thursday at 8pm on BBC One.