Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 45 posts

Re: Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

#11

Post by ju-st »

deutronium wrote: post #2

I saw their product on Dragons' Den yesterday. I found it rather surprising as I've bought similar bluetooth key fobs, from Aliexpress for around $1.40 each and they mentioned they where planning on selling them for around £20.

Apparently he did his own due diligence and discovered that these fobs already exist. However I'm not entirely convinced, because there is no marketing for Aliexpress goods and a fancy British startup could just sell and distribute these fobs with a nice markup. It's still a viable business I think.

Re: Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

#12

Post by pricechild »

abluecloud wrote: post #7
deutronium wrote: post #2

I saw their product on Dragons' Den yesterday. I found it rather surprising as I've bought similar bluetooth key fobs, from Aliexpress for around $1.40 each and they mentioned they where planning on selling them for around £20.

Probably why they pulled out. The show is a bit misleading. You can only go by what the people are saying. For instance, I'm sure at some point the dragon asked "are there any products like this cheaper on the market that do the same thing", at which point you can only believe their answer there and then. I'm not surprised that he pulled out. Just wish my dad did the same.

One of the dragons (Duncan, I think) pointed out how old this fob technology was. This triggered what appeared to be the turning point in the pitch where Deborah(?) realized they weren't buying into the physical hardware but the software behind the company.

Sarah Willingham pointed out quite early on how useless it was "the instructions say 'make sure the phone is not muted'? What use is this if I've lost it?". Google's existing solution beats this, being able to bypass audio restrictions. I assume Apple has similar capabilities?

Yes there's still the other half... using your phone to find your keys... but pfft.

Aside... Sarah's contribution reminded me of how technology savvy the dragons are. There was a great moment in a previous series where Hilary Devey teased out of an applicant that they didn't own the source code for their own website. I've often slipped into thinking of them as "business people" but she very clearly understood software and licensing.

Re: Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

#13

Post by kriro »

I think it's pretty shady to air the episodes before the deal is finalized (imo, other people I know strongly disagree). They essentially get free reality TV candidates without any obligation. You can always back out if you want to.

[I'd also never take any of theses TV show deals for a software company as they seem pretty bad to me. For something you sell on home shopping networks etc. it seems better because you get the distribution expertise. I have doubts you get anything besides the money and probably lots of hassle for software.]

Re: Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

#15

Post by bottled_poe »

deutronium wrote: post #2

I saw their product on Dragons' Den yesterday. I found it rather surprising as I've bought similar bluetooth key fobs, from Aliexpress for around $1.40 each and they mentioned they where planning on selling them for around £20.

Sanity check... Let's say I'm particularly careless and so locating my keys costs me 2 hours per year more than it would without this device. (Assuming I can find my phone, which seems unlikely at this point). Also assume this product has a lifetime of 2 years. So it might save me 5-ish hours over the product lifetime. If I value my spare time at, say, $100 per hour, I should be willing to pay several hundred dollars for this product. There must be other factors I've ignored, but it seems plausibly worth $20 or more if it is actually good at what it claims to do.

Re: Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

#16

Post by cyberferret »

janvha wrote: post #9
cyberferret wrote: post #4

The article didn't really clarify. Did they lose the funding mainly because the laptop was lost at Heathrow?? Was it because of fear their IP was compromised by the theft?

Mate, it's too early to be drunk...

11pm here... Not all HN users live in your neighbourhood... ;)

Re: Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

#17

Post by cyberferret »

metalon wrote: post #8
cyberferret wrote: post #4

The article didn't really clarify. Did they lose the funding mainly because the laptop was lost at Heathrow?? Was it because of fear their IP was compromised by the theft?

I think what it means that they got the idea for the tracker after losing the laptop, they didn't lose it after securing their funding

Gotcha - I missed one word in that sentence... It's late here...

Re: Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

#18

Post by devoply »

kriro wrote: post #13

I think it's pretty shady to air the episodes before the deal is finalized (imo, other people I know strongly disagree). They essentially get free reality TV candidates without any obligation. You can always back out if you want to. [I'd also never take any of theses TV show deals for a software company as they seem pretty bad to me. For something you sell on home shopping networks etc. it seems better because you ge…

It's a show, everyone gets what they agreed to. You the viewer get entertainment, it's sort of like the Antique Roadshow. People come in, have their wares appraised, no real sale has to occur, and you are entertained to watch. Honesty in advertising is a marketing catch phrase.

Re: Dragons' Den winner has £100,000 funding withdrawn

#19

Post by cyberferret »

viraptor wrote: post #6
cyberferret wrote: post #4

The article didn't really clarify. Did they lose the funding mainly because the laptop was lost at Heathrow?? Was it because of fear their IP was compromised by the theft?

"The idea was born when one of the founders lost his travel bag" - this has nothing to do with the funding.

And the article STILL doesn't give specifics about what exactly was found lacking in the company. Poor reporting will generally lead to people trying to squeeze anything out of the information given, misreadings don't help.
Post reply on HN