A telecoms business that is solving the problem of bad signal and expensive roaming has grown six-fold after a stinging rebuke from Dragons鈥� Den star Peter Jones.
Millions of viewers watched Honest Mobile鈥檚 co-founders Andy Aitken and Josh Mihill walk into the Den seeking 拢110k for a 1 per cent stake in their business.
The duo eventually accepted two offers totalling 拢165k from Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden but only after Jones had chastised them for only having 8,000 customers.
鈥淚 think that鈥檚 poor,鈥� he claimed. 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 have anything here to invest in.鈥�
However, Aitken and Mihill, who have been best friends since school, have had the last laugh after growing their customer base nearly six-fold to more than 50,000 since the episode was filmed last summer.
Honest Mobile鈥檚 co-founders Andy Aitken and Josh Mihill on Dragons’ Den
Honest Mobile鈥檚 turnover has increased over the same time from 拢1m to nearly 拢4m after making more sales on the night Dragons鈥� Den was screened than in their first three years of trading.
The company has also raised 拢6m in investment and was most recently valued at 拢17m.
鈥淚t was staggering,鈥� admitted Aitken, a father-of-two, who revealed the company鈥檚 online traffic went from 22 people to 100,000 as soon as the show was aired.
Dynamite
In an exclusive interview with 老九品茶Cloud, CEO Aitken compared appearing on Dragons鈥� Den to handling dynamite.
鈥淒ynamite can send you any which way,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think there鈥檚 a much bigger risk associated with going on than people maybe think and we had a great experience.
鈥淵es, Peter Jones didn鈥檛 like what we presented and that鈥檚 alright. We鈥檝e grown 6x in the last year. You win some, you lose some but that could have been the end of it.
鈥淭hat could have been the clip at the end of the episode and it would have been terrible for business.鈥�
The pair also revealed that the offers of 拢55k from Meaden for 1.5 per cent of the company and Bartlett鈥檚 拢110k for 3 per cent have still to be finalised. Aitken said discussions were 鈥榮till ongoing鈥�.
Approached in Instagram
The pair鈥檚 journey into the Den started when they were first approached on Instagram by a BBC producer asking if they wanted to appear on the show.
Explaining their decision to accept Mihill said: 鈥淚t was a mixture of different elements. Getting the exposure was definitely part of it. Getting the investment, the cash, would have been nice and getting the support from the Dragons would open doors for us.鈥�
The Lincolnshire schoolmates, who founded Honest Mobile in 2019 to make mobile聽fairer, smarter, and cleaner, entered TV鈥檚 most famous Den last summer and pitched for around two hours.
鈥淭hey take your watch off you so you lose sense of time,鈥� admitted Aitken. 鈥淲e鈥檙e about giving people access to the best mobile signal possible wherever they are in the world.
鈥淲e always knew we were going to get two weeks鈥� notice of when the episode was going to air, if it was going to air.
鈥淭he really exciting part of the project was you were about to get on national TV.
鈥淲hat you don鈥檛 know was what the impact was going to be on the night.鈥�
After giving a polished pitch Jones, who has appeared in every series of Dragons鈥� Den since it was first aired in 2005, quickly waded in.
The Dragon had been a target of the 36-year-old pair having previously sold his Generation Telecom business to Vodafone.
鈥淭here鈥檚 no doubt that you鈥檙e here for me,鈥� Jones told them. 鈥淚鈥檓 just a little bit concerned about the size of where you鈥檝e got to. Why are you at 8,000 customers? To put this into perspective when I started (Generation Telecom) in year two we ended up with 46k-50k subscribers.鈥�
Aitken said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost harder to persuade people who are inside the industry.
Fire:聽 The Dragons’ Den line-up up in series 22
鈥淚t was quite brutal but my job is pitching. I鈥檇 spent a lot of time in the run-up to Dragons鈥� Den pitching other investors. You get pretty thick thinned to people saying no. You speak to 100 investors and one says yes, if that.
鈥淚鈥檝e had a lot of no鈥檚 in my time and some are more dramatic than others. It鈥檚 par for the course. It鈥檚 like the first time we put adverts on Facebook and someone said 鈥榯his is crap鈥�.
鈥淚 remember that very first Facebook comment we got and I felt traumatised. We now get thousands of Facebook comments a day and we read every single one of them.鈥�
Jones quickly told the pair he wouldn鈥檛 be investing but fellow Dragons Meaden and Bartlett did make offers 鈥� although neither deal has finalised yet.
鈥淚t was really exciting,鈥� said Aitken. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 go into the Den not wanting to get an offer.鈥�
Mihill added: 鈥淒eborah gave us a grilling on our sustainability credentials on the Den so to get her approval when she鈥檚 the Queen of green was fantastic.鈥�
Pivot
The entrepreneurs have pivoted their London-based business since the programme was recorded and their main product is now called Smart Sim.
On the morning after the episode was aired the company did some gorilla marketing around Waterloo Station, which ended with Frankie the Honest Mobile mascot being escorted off the premises.
Mihill said: 鈥淚t was quite surreal seeing people recognise us and the Sim cards the next morning. It demonstrated the impact we had the night before and that exposure we got.鈥�
Honest Mobile currently employs 23 people and raised 拢1.2m earlier this year in a crowdfunding campaign 鈥� smashing their original target of 拢500k.