Dragons' Den winner reveals £80k promise was in fact 'a loan' - of which only £26,500 ever emerged
She was known as the dragon slayer. And when Sharon Wright, a single mother from Scunthorpe, stepped from the 'lair' with more money that she had asked for, it really was a coup.
Never in its five-year history had there been such a confident performance on the TV show for entrepreneurs, Dragons' Den. The five hard-faced panellists, including Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, were moved to say her pitch was brilliant and it looked as though the £80,000 investment she was promised would propel Talpa Products, her fledgling business, into the commercial big time.
Yet what should have been a giant step for Sharon soon proved to be disastrous. Within months, she was on the verge of financial collapse – a state of affairs that she blames squarely on the BBC programme – followed by the spectre of a personal breakdown.
The expert help she was expecting from her slick new backers never came, she says. Nor did the £80,000 investment she was promised by the Dragons for a stake in the company: instead of giving her the money to buy into the company, they offered it as a loan. ( AtW's comment: loan for a large %-tage of the company presumably?
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Today, in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, the 40-year-old businesswoman tells how Dragons' Den nearly ruined her. Her account will shake the confidence of the programme's many fans and, in her opinion at least, casts doubt on the methods of James Caan, one of the show's star panellists.
She says: 'I was stunned. This is not what I had seen on TV. Viewers are given the impression that the money the Dragons provide is to buy equity in the business.
I didn't receive the monies that I expected, I didn't receive the support I needed and, more importantly, they were charging me for their services.
I felt hugely disappointed and disheartened.' She adds: 'I'd felt James had empathy for people. He had compassion. He was understanding. My opinion of him now has totally changed. In terms of the way he conducted business, I think he's out for himself.
More here:
Dragons' Den winner reveals
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AtW's comment:
She was known as the dragon slayer. And when Sharon Wright, a single mother from Scunthorpe, stepped from the 'lair' with more money that she had asked for, it really was a coup.
Never in its five-year history had there been such a confident performance on the TV show for entrepreneurs, Dragons' Den. The five hard-faced panellists, including Duncan Bannatyne, Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden, were moved to say her pitch was brilliant and it looked as though the £80,000 investment she was promised would propel Talpa Products, her fledgling business, into the commercial big time.
Yet what should have been a giant step for Sharon soon proved to be disastrous. Within months, she was on the verge of financial collapse – a state of affairs that she blames squarely on the BBC programme – followed by the spectre of a personal breakdown.
The expert help she was expecting from her slick new backers never came, she says. Nor did the £80,000 investment she was promised by the Dragons for a stake in the company: instead of giving her the money to buy into the company, they offered it as a loan. ( AtW's comment: loan for a large %-tage of the company presumably?
)Today, in an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday, the 40-year-old businesswoman tells how Dragons' Den nearly ruined her. Her account will shake the confidence of the programme's many fans and, in her opinion at least, casts doubt on the methods of James Caan, one of the show's star panellists.
She says: 'I was stunned. This is not what I had seen on TV. Viewers are given the impression that the money the Dragons provide is to buy equity in the business.
I didn't receive the monies that I expected, I didn't receive the support I needed and, more importantly, they were charging me for their services.
I felt hugely disappointed and disheartened.' She adds: 'I'd felt James had empathy for people. He had compassion. He was understanding. My opinion of him now has totally changed. In terms of the way he conducted business, I think he's out for himself.
More here:
Dragons' Den winner reveals
-----------
AtW's comment:
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