I was on Dragons’ Den – I faced a two-hour grilling but now my company’s worth millions
A DRAGONS’ Den star has opened up on the intense two-hour grilling participants face after signing up to the show.
Matt Kennedy took part in the programme in 2022 where he managed to land a double deal with both Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden for his business, Fussy.
The sustainable deodorant brand won over the hears of the two Dragons’ on the hit BBC show with Matt scoring a cool £50,000 cash injection into the then-fledgling business.
It appeared to be a worthwhile investment too with Fussy becoming a financial success having a recent revenue run rate of £12 million earlier this year.
However, before he managed to put pen to paper, Matt had to battle his way through a gruelling two-hour pitch – which was eventually condensed down to just 10 minutes on screen.
In order to guarantee TV success, Matt was also encouraged by TV bosses to make his pitch memorable which resulted in him launching himself out of a wheelie bin which led to the Dragon panel getting a fright.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Matt said: “We were told there was no guarantee we’d get on the show.
“So we said, well, ‘what if we kind of hid in a bin’ and they said, ‘Yeah, that might help’.
“So yeah, we did that and it was a great.”
Matt continued: “Myself and Eddie, my co-founder at the time, both worked in advertising. So we were kind of used to writing TV ads, basically.
“This is, you know, in some ways is 10 minutes on TV. We thought let’s approach it like how do we get attention, you know, and kind of demonstrate what we’re all about in a really visual way.”
But Matt was forced to wait for 30 minutes inside of the wheelie bin before popping out and surprising the business titans.
Having been wheeled onto set, Matt had to patiently wait for his co-star’s queue to spring himself from underneath the bin lid.
Recalling the moment, Matt told The Sun: “I had to hide in this bin.
“I must have been it for about half an hour, and it was really hot.”
When asked if he snuck any snacks into the bin as he waited, Matt laughed: “No, no, just the microphone, and a bit of cursing a bit.
“I could hear them taking their seats and guessing what the pitch was going to be about.
Dragons' Den stars - past and present
Dragons' Den has been on our screens since 2005 and sees entrepreneurs enter the Den to try and win investment for their businesses from the Dragons.
Over the years there have been many wealthy investors sitting in the famous seats, here’s a rundown of them all and how long they were on the show for.
- Peter Jones – series 1 – present
- Deborah Meaden – series 3 – present
- Touker Suleyman – series 13 – present
- Sara Davies – series 17 – present
- Steven Bartlett – series 19 – present
- Duncan Bannatyne – series 1 – 12
- Rachel Elnaugh – series 1 and 2
- Doug Richard – series 1 and 2
- Simon Woodroffe – series 1
- Theo Paphitis – series 2 -10
- Richard Farleigh – series 3 and 4
- James Caan – series 5-8
- Hilary Devey – series 9 and 10
- Kelly Hoppen – series 11 and 12
- Piers Linney – series 11 and 12
- Nick Jenkins – series 13 and 14
- Sarah Willingham – series 13 and 14
- Jenny Campbell – series 15 and 16
- Tej Lalvani – series 15 – 18
- Emma Grede and Gary Neville were guest Dragons during series 21.
“I think the bin is still at BBC HQ somewhere.”
Revealing the eventual discussion with the dragons took a whopping TWO HOURS, Matt said: “Although it is only on screens for 10 minutes in the end, the process is really real.
“It is not like ‘pause, do this’, – it is literally two hours of questioning and pitching like a real investor pitch.
“It’s not made for TV in the sense that it is not scripted, whereas I can imagine some other shows, like The Apprentice, are.”