Dan Cluderay was grilled for two hours by the Dragons when he appeared in 2015 but doesn鈥檛 regret it for a second despite not getting a penny of investment.
Sheffield-based聽Approved Food is now Britain’s largest online retailer of clearance food and drink, and Cluderay is regularly still asked about his appearance on the show.
鈥淭V advertising on prime time costs around 拢100k per minute,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e hoped for five minutes of fame and got 10. We got national recognition and a boat load of new customers and suppliers.鈥�
Naomi Timperley stayed in touch with Dragon Deborah Meaden long after the cameras stopped rolling.
Timperley turned down investment from Meaden, who is famous for her finger tapping, when she appeared on series six in 2008 with her business Baby Loves Disco.
Manchester-based Timperley now works with tech and digital businesses having sold her stake in the company but says Meaden is nothing like her public persona.
鈥淢e and Deborah Meaden follow each other on Twitter and occasionally tweet,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e did a follow up with Dragons鈥� Den and Deborah came up to Manchester and off camera was wonderful. Really decent, intelligent woman who I would totally go to the pub with.鈥�
Steve Pearce and Sam Coley聽made national headlines when they turned down three investment offers from the Dragons.
However, the tech-focused ticketing firm TickX subsequently ended up raising 40 times the amount offered on the BBC show.
The pair have since secured 拢3 million in investment and had 2.5m people using their ticket聽search engine聽site in 2018.
Peter Jones revealed during the pitch that they鈥檇 received backing from Ministry of Sound but that didn鈥檛 make the eventual edit.
鈥淚t was a slight worry when the episode aired that it might have annoyed one of our major backers, however he did also say that TickX could be the Uber of events so we will let him off,鈥� 聽joked Pearce.
鈥淔eaturing on Dragons’ Den is once- in-a-lifetime experience, which can result in investment and great publicity so if the opportunity presents itself we would definitely recommend going for it, although one visit to the 鈥楧en is enough for me鈥� never again.鈥�
Melissa Snover showcased her Katjes Magic Candy Factory and Nourished when she appeared before the Dragons but had no investment offers.
Filming took place in April 2018 but it wasn鈥檛 screened until January 2019.
She recalled: 鈥淚 presented two of my brands – Magic Candy Factory which is a patented 3D printer I developed to create customised confectionery and Nourished; the world鈥檚 first truly personalised nutrition product.
鈥淭he Dragons loved both concepts and recognised that both technologies are incredibly innovative and will be at the forefront of our industries. However, they decided not to invest at the time as the company had a majority shareholding with my business partner, who I have a wonderful relationship with and am extremely grateful to.
鈥淥bviously a huge amount of editing goes into each episode and they are only able to show around 15 minutes of each entrepreneur, when really I was in the Den for over three hours pitching and answering questions.聽Unfortunately my most memorable moments didn鈥檛 make it on air.鈥�
Snover says appearing聽on the show definitely raised聽 her profile. 鈥淲e have had a lot of enquiries through for both businesses as a result of appearing on Dragons鈥� Den, but I believe we could have achieved similar results had we focused the same time and resources into doing our own PR and marketing,鈥� she adds.
Would she recommend other companies, especially start-up, appear on the show? 鈥淔or a start-up, the amount of due diligence and documentation you have to provide is extensive and can be a strain on a small team. The BBC approached us to go in the Den, and we provided all details of our shareholding before appearing on the show so I did find the way they edited the piece and the process overall a little frustrating. Having said that, it was certainly a learning curve and gave our brands some great exposure.鈥�