History Series / DragonsDen

!!!'''If you were following a "Shark Tank" link but were expecting the stock DeathTrap instead of the show, [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant that's over at]] SharkPool.'''

On the show, contestants have a set period of time to pitch their business to the eponymous Dragons (or Sharks, Tigers, Lions, etc.), businessmen and women of note who operate in the nation. They have to go in with a set amount of funds they want and a percentage of the business they want to give away, which they state in the pitch. Afterwards, they then have to answer questions posed by the Dragons; this is where a lot of them fall down due to Dragons unearthing glaring issues in their pitch (such as the big impressive numbers they cite turning out to be guesses), product, business model or valuation. Contestants' time in the ''Den'' will end with them either receiving an offer from one or more Dragons, which they can either accept or reject, or leaving empty-handed once all Dragons opt out of the deal (usually by saying the SignatureLine "I'm out"). One of the rules is they have to get all the money they came for or leave with nothing. They usually give away ''much'' more of their business than they hoped.

Part, if not most, of the show's appeal is the utterly-insane inventions and businesses some people put forward (and the Dragons [[BrutalHonesty absolutely ripping apart the contestants' dreams]]). Generally speaking, pitches break down into five categories:

* CatchPhrase
** The Dragons have an official one, "I'm out." The US (and Australian) Sharks also often use a specific variation of it; prefacing their rejection with an explanation of the reason or reasons why they don't think the business is a good fit for them, ending with "...and so for that reason/those reasons, I'm out."
** The contestants have developed an unofficial one used when they have been given an offer "Could we have a moment to discuss this?"

''Dragons' Den'' is a reality TV program revolving around entrepreneurs pitching their business ideas to a panel of successful businesspeople in the hope of securing investment finance from them. The program's format, created in 2001 by Nippon TV as the basis for the [[UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} Japanese]] TV show ''Money no Tora'' ("Money Tigers") and owned by Creator/{{Sony|PicturesTelevision}}, has inspired the production of further shows in over 40 countries (with varying success), with the most popular of them likely being the [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom UK]] version (the first to air outside of Japan, and the longest-running version), which keeps the ''Dragons' Den'' name, and the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates version, [[MarketBasedTitle titled]] ''Shark Tank''.

In the program, contestants have a set period of time to pitch their business to the eponymous Dragons (or Sharks, Tigers, Lions, etc.), businessmen and women of note who operate in the nation. They have to go in with a set amount of funds they want and a percentage of the business they want to give away, which they state in the pitch. Afterwards, they then have to answer questions posed by the Dragons; this is where a lot of them fall down due to a number of reasons, such as their big impressive numbers often turn out to be guesses. Contestants' time in the ''Den'' will end in either an offer from one or more of the Dragons or the transaction ultimately being withdrawn, either by One of the rules is they have to get all the money they came for or leave with nothing. They usually give away ''much'' more of their business than they hoped.

Part, if not most, of the show's appeal is the utterly-insane inventions and businesses some people put forward (and the Dragons/Sharks [[BrutalHonesty absolutely ripping apart the contestants' dreams]]). Generally speaking, pitches break down into five categories:

# '''The Slightly Problematic''' -- the product is good and there are some merits, but due to various issues, the dragons decide that they're out. Perhaps each of them just doesn't feel the business is a good fit for them, or the business is solid but not making enough of a profit to justify an investment, or maybe they have worries about the risks or something in the past history of the business that the business owner or owners just can't shake out of them.

-->'''Kevin ("Mr. Wonderful")''': "''Okay, here's the deal. I'm going to make you an offer, but I want 51% of your equity and a 10 cent royalty on every item sold until I make back my initial investment.''"

''If you were following a "Shark Tank" link but were expecting the stock DeathTrap instead of the show, [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant that's over at]] SharkPool.''

''Dragons' Den'', based on the Japanese TV show ''Money no Tora'' ("Money Tigers"), has versions, with varying success, in UsefulNotes/{{Japan}} (the original), the [[UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom UK]] (longest running), UsefulNotes/NewZealand, UsefulNotes/{{Israel}}, UsefulNotes/{{Nigeria}}, UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} (with another exclusive to UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}), UsefulNotes/{{Netherlands}}, UsefulNotes/{{Finland}}, UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}}, the Arab world, UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}}, the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates ([[MarketBasedTitle titled]] ''Shark Tank''), UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} and UsefulNotes/{{Brazil}}. The format is owned by Creator/{{Sony|PicturesTelevision}}. The original Japanese show debuted in 2001. A couple of versions have had spinoffs, ''Junior Dragons'' featuring kid contestants in Ireland and ''Beyond the Tank'' (2015-2016) featuring followup reports on prior contestants in the U.S.

A spinoff for the U.S. ''Shark Tank'' that provided more info about what happens to companies after they appear on the show, titled ''Beyond the Tank'', premiered on Creator/{{ABC}} on May 1, 2015, ordered for ten episodes but airing initially as a three episode miniseries.

Contestants have a set period of time to pitch their business to the eponymous Dragons (businessmen and women of note who operate in the nation). They then have to answer questions. This is where a lot of them fall down, as their big impressive numbers turn out to be guesses. They have to go in with a set amount of funds they want and a percentage of the business they want to give away. One of the rules is they have to get all the money they came for or leave with nothing. They usually give away ''much'' more of their business than they hoped.

There have been several very successful products that got their start in the ''Den'', not least [[http://www.reggae-reggae.co.uk/ Reggae Reggae Sauce]] and a growing set of hardware products owned under an umbrella company by Duncan Bannatyne and James Caan. For the U.S. ''Shark Tank'', the banner products are a cleaning product called Scrub Daddy and a fitness product known as Simply Fit Board. For the Australian version, the banner product currently is a light-up tongue depressor called Throat Scope.

** If a company is even borderline illegal, Jim Treliving ([[CanadaEh former RCMP officer]]) will not be amused. This is doubly so if it sounds like snake oil.

** Notably, Levi Roots, who would become the UK show's most successful entrepreneur, was an example. He didn't appear to fully understand the terms of the pilot order that he had agreed to prior to meeting the Dragons, and also got confused about the size of the order due to mixing up units (he seemed to be under the impression that the order was for 2.5 million litres of product weighing 25,000 kilograms[[note]]a litre of water and a kilogram is an almost 1:1 conversion; it would be impossible for a barbeque sauce to have that extreme of a weight difference[[/note]], the actual order is for 2,500 kilograms). It was ultimately Levi's personality and a willingness to step up to the challenge of scaling up the product that won him a deal.

** Notably, Levi Roots, who would become the UK show's most successful entrepreneur, was an example. He didn't appear to fully understand the terms of the pilot order that he had agreed to prior to meeting the Dragons, and also got confused about the size of the order due to mixing up units (he seemed to be under the impression that the order was for 2.5 million litres of product weighing 25,000 kilograms[[note]]a litre and a kilogram of water is an almost 1:1 conversion; it would be impossible for a barbeque sauce to have that extreme of a weight difference[[/note]], the actual order is for 2,500 kilograms). It was ultimately Levi's personality and a willingness to step up to the challenge of scaling up the product that won him a deal.

** Notably, Levi Roots, who would become the UK show's most successful entrepreneur, was an example. He didn't appear to fully understand the terms of the pilot order that he had agreed to prior to meeting the Dragons, and also got confused about the size of the order due to mixing up units (he seemed to be under the impression that the order was for 2.5 million litres of product weighing 25,000 kilograms[[note]]a litre and a kilogram of water is a 1:1 conversion; it would be impossible for a barbeque sauce to have that extreme of a weight discrepancy[[/note]], the actual order is for 2,500 kilograms). It was ultimately Levi's personality and a willingness to step up to the challenge of scaling up the product that won him a deal.

A variation that fits in with more than one of the categories above is when at least one Dragon likes the idea, but doesn’t invest, not because of a flaw or the person pitching the deal, but because they are doing so well, they don’t need any investmentors.