START-UP ADVICE

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PIERS LINNEY
Lisa Curtiss caught up with Piers Linney, entrepreneur extraordinaire and
current resident of the infamous ‘Dragon Den’ on his advice on pitching, finding
investment, and also from an investor’s point of view, how to spot a start up with
real potential.
like that coming in. Maybe my presence
there help attract them?
So anything. Any sector with any
business really. Just something I think
that I can work with, add value to, and I
believe that the entrepreneur standing in
front of me can deliver the plan.
What factors combine make an
excellent pitch?
You need to get across two things
really, firstly to very clearly clarify to
the potential investor what exactly
the business is. What is the service
and the opportunity and how do you
make money out of it. So really simply,
what is the value proposition? And the
second thing is, to provide evidence or
at least instilling confidence that you are
someone that can be worked with. In
essence it’s the value proposition and the
team.
The thing about ‘Dragon’s Den’ is, is
that those who pitch are actually grilled
for two hours. You see just twelve
minutes on TV – maybe 15% of the entire
session.
That makes sense, why some of
them look so terrified then.
Yes, some people walk in and they
may have a fantastic idea, but they might
not be brilliant at maths or numbers in
general. Not everyone can be fantastic
explaining balance sheets and cash
flows and intellectual property in a
business and the market. A lot of new
entrepreneurs don’t have that skill. So
just make it as good as you can, but if
we’re interested, typically we will extract
the information we need to make a
decision.
Morning Piers, what will you be
looking for from those who next enter
the Dragons’ Den’?
At a fundamental level, you’re looking
for entrepreneurs in businesses in
which you can invest and make some
money. So that’s the basics and I have a
sort of a slant - a particular interest and
an expertise in technology in telecoms
and to some extent media. I’m not purely
looking for those business types though,
because, you know, it’s only really in
recent episodes you probably see people
Outside of ‘Dragon’s Den’ in a
situation where somebody is pitching
to an investor, those same principles
apply?
They do, but you’ve probably got more
time to prepare, you can usually take
your financial advisor or a finance person
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