“Convince Me and I’ll Give You £2.5m” | Dragons’ Den
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Stephen Voller presents a nervous pitch for an investment of £2.5m in return for a 30% equity stake in Bee Automobiles, he promises that if he gets a Dragon's money he can secure a further £7.5m in government funding but who can make and market a car with only £10m?
Season 7, Episode 7.
An international sensation, Dragon's Den features entrepreneurs pitching for investment in the Den from our Dragons, five venture capitalists willing to invest their own money in exchange for equity.
#DragonsDen
Peter's face when he's confused whether or not the den suddenly got sucked into a time loop is great
Glitch in the matrix. He was looking for agents.
That was crazy 😂😂😂💀
Lol the editing was great 😉
When? Time stamp?
@@wedontexist369 1:16
Me: *my cars broken*
Kardoctor: *buy an electric car*
More like
Me: my car is broken
Kardoctor: you should get it fixed
Lol
@@Money_J_KC take it for an MOT
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
ME My electric car's broken down
CAR DOCTOR: You need a longer extension lead.
SILLIEST BUSINESS IDEA EVER
12 years after this went live and I still don't see anything like it at that price range, thanks Theo
I was just thinking that and trying to check the date it was launched. Even now they're talking about exchangable batteries as a game changer!
Kind of proof that it was a silly idea that wouldn't have worked
He’s car is £12,000
But a new electric corsa costs £29,999
agree 100% , chageable Battery.... this time the Dragon was .... on the wrong way ^^
@@fusiliers1 He could make much more of it, but it was an Idea for everyone. Damn this, they should had accepted....
When James asks about how big the car will be, I *wish* he'd just said, 'No, no... this IS the car - jump in!'
This comment really made me laugh!! 🤣🤣
Peter: 'But...'
*Man pulls a gun*
'I said: Jump. In.'
@@jphenry3404 Exactly - it's the Spruce Moose
Hahahaha
😂😂😂
It's nice to see how Peter has aged two minutes ever since Dragon's Den first aired.
I went to school with you
@@jamie2866 did u actually?
@@ishraqzamee9479 so did I
@Jason Pinto *Money can buy youth. Peter is worth nearly half a BILLION pounds. He may never age.*
@@ishraqzamee9479 😻
1:04 - That wasn't nerves, he was just recharging! 😂
The guy hit low power mode
🤣🤣
404.
his company has been dissolved. if anyone is wondering
I don't think anyone would have guessed otherwise.... poor guy
??
@Colin W Link please.
@@foddyfoddy THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT
@@foddyfoddy Wow, thanks for sharing the article! Voller is truly a serial investor killer!
Jenny: I’m not even in this ... and for that reason I’m out.
Did you think that up yourself? That was pretty lame
@@da3v1ls93 You're pretty lame
@@da3v1ls93 man, if he's lame what are you then? pathetic? worthless? an absolute waste of human life? absolutely uninvestable, that's what...
Im theo I'm out
haha that gave me a chuckle
This type of business doesnt suit merely a pitch on TV to the dragons. This requires a real business men meeting with details
I think it happened after the show. It's not very entertaining to look into the details.
Free advertising
@@lil_jong-un6668 If anyone agrees to invest, they have a proper meeting where they go through all the details. But if nobody wants ot invest, that's the end of it.
There's no need to have a "real business men meeting with details." He thinks he can develop a new car and bring it to market for £10M. That's clearly not possible, no meeting is needed to establish that, and no amount of detail can change it.
"I'm itching to invest"... *No matter what you say next I'm going to declare myself out*... "I'm out"
Watch him get excited then take away his bone
They chop the footage, it’s possible more was said and he really was interested.
Why do people purposely make ugly looking cars like that
He's a nerd not a designer it looks good to him
To be different
@@trainwithmrlee one way of putting it i guess 🤣
It looks alright
He had designers help
Man, its been a while without Jenny. Feels like we're missing out.
Maybe she walked “out “ the door
That was outstanding
Out and out and great comment
I'm in, I'm in... No, out. Sorry.
she's "out" there somewhere...
Had he pitched this in the US his company would've been valued at over $30 Billion
And he would have lost the equivalent of double his valuation.
(if it had been a realistic proposition, and not just a pie-in-the-sky ambition)*
i love how they edit in those long awkward pauses
To get the funding for a car company you don’t go on a TV show, you go to proper VCs that can invest the amount needed. The dragons are right, he needs at least an order of magnitude more than what he’s asking for here, if not two orders of magnitude. Rivian got $700 million from Amazon, plus their earlier rounds of funding, and are still in the process of getting their first vehicles to market.
I’m going to assume that you’re here in the US. Honestly, how many Rivians have you seen on the road? Your comment is from three years ago and between then and now, I can honestly say that I’ve seen less than 10 Rivian’s and I’m an over the road truck driver and spend 99.9 percent of my time on the road in my semi.
"Impressive stuff from the experienced entrepreneur, but Theo the *Fetus* thinks he could disembowel this man and replace his insides with a fetus."
I've seen the crack calling him "Theo the Fetus" but what does it mean? From a curious American.....
@@Blueguy72 I'm an American too. I think of Theo as a fetus who lived to be very old through sorcery.
@@Blueguy72 a foetus is a baby growing in the moms stomach. His name is Theo Pavitus, so the joke is a play on words! :)
@@camoflash7621 Paphitis. At least get the name right.
@@Blueguy72 a curious American ffs
Dragon: "You're a total bellend!"
Entrepreneur: (smiles) "Why, thank you."
Oops
Literally just started having lunch and saw this uploaded 3 mins ago... Bless ur soul dragons den 😂
About to have dinner. Technology is finally working!
Same here . breakfast
Same here, just sat down to take a dump!
Seen this comment around 100 times now🙄
@@alanhock5760 it is what it is and that is all it is innit?
His company dissolved in 2011. Only lasted three years.
he tried. Many cannot brag about this type of small success.
@@dimspacha Not sure about successfulness mate, he lost tons of investors money.
@@dimspacha That's really not good enough when you're talking about millions of pounds.
@@btlv lost investor money from idiots the barrier to entry for car industry is far to high you need 100 of million just to get in the door Elon musk is a prime example he was already a billion air before tesla
Their website is still online
1:15 - OMG, the Dragon's reaction when the guy resumes and repeats the last part of his speech exactly word-for-word where he left off before the pause! 😂
Gentlemen James, Theo “the fetus”, and Duncan “I’m oat” is the best line up.
Am oot
dude was way ahead of his time. hope he invested wisely into the modern electric car market
He got arrested in usa for fraud, and for charging prostitutes as a business expense. His company was basically smoke and mirrors took the funding and blew it all.
@@zurie35 source?
Electric cars have been around since 1960. He isn't ahead of anything.
@@Jaymiecain1 electric cars were invented before petrol powered cars. They were worried combustion engines would spook horses
@@zurie35 That wasn’t this guy at all. It was the ZapGo chief of US operations, Charles Reznick. A completely different person!
It doesn't have to be unique it just has to be comparable. if it's an electric car that has the range, comfort, and features people want they will buy it. Not everything needs to reinvent the wheel.
That is not the problem. The little amount of money is the problem.
Whatever you do, big companies can do it better and more importantly CHEAPER. Because they can do it in much much higher quantity than you.
That includes marketing.
So with his 10million, he was simply trying to enter a market where multi-billion companies are competing with each others.
The point was is that any car company can piss out 10 mil as much as they want and they’re already in the position to create cars and have connections, branding, public awareness. If they don’t have a unique selling point no one will by it because they would buy from a company that has a reputation and will be able to make it cheaper. So unless they’ve got new technology like a driverless car or some battery technology the other companies can’t use. They won’t be able to do it.
@@jaymercer4692 shaddap about USP. u just need better execution to be profitable. cars are still 4 wheels and a chassis.
Peter looking in the air when he gets stuck and repeats family car as if he heard an echo. LOL
I am glad James & Theo were critical of his pitch. Sometimes people need truth smacked at them. His company eventually dissolved but it was, in this moment on Dragon's Den, that he needed the criticism!
Their webpage is still up, on Wikipedia it says nothing about the company being dissolved and Top Gear reported that prototypes are produced and they will start production soon.
@@GothamClive You may have them confused with a different company. This one was dissolved in 2011
@@GothamClive You're thinking of something else
@@GothamClive
Don't go to "Wikipedia" for information, they are not a reliable source and they don't update information either...
@@GothamClive "Their webpage is still up" So?
Dragons were right. 10 millions is just a rounding error for automotive company. It's extremely expensive endeavour and technically very very difficult. It doesn't cover anything. Just land required to setup your own factory will be much much higher.
0:59 + the next minute and peters face is gold.
This must be pre-Tesla. Electric Cars used to be so ugly before Elon Musk.
They’re still ugly as sin
They're still ugly af!
@A True Patriot They're not ugly. They're bland and soulless.
Although Tesla’s are better looking than this POS, they are still ugly cars eurgh
@@JV-qh7ix that's a matter of opinion
Haven’t seen the end of the video but I can guarantee James Caan was never gonna invest and never would do.
I feel like some of these dragons are always finding excuses not to invest because they cannot afford it but still want to be on the show
Definitely the case with Deborah 😂
Talking sh1t kid.
They didn't want to invest in this one because it's ridiculous to believe that you can develop a car company from scratch for £10M.
A car that sends a text message or e-mail when it needs service. Nobody was waiting for that since the car notifies you service is needed while driving or when you start it. Not when you are at home and it is turned off.
Dyson lost half a billion pounds trying, it takes tens of billions to make a viable electric car
The dragons argument was "There are other people with ideas in this market place more further a head... give up on your dreams"
That's actually good advice.
Theo “If a car can’t be built in a day, I’m out” the Fetus.
Not, be he is very realistic, there are many companies behind the idea, and the big problem comes with the battery, he will do nothing with that money.
@@MCFC111 this was in like 2007 wasn't it? Not very many at all back then... and of course elon came about and did exactly the same thing and we all know how that went
@@midas6753 what are you talking about. Tesla existed before Elon musk, he didn't create the company.
@@CabbageYe I know he bought the company I meant Tesla became super successful after that time frame where elon bought it.
Theo "Interchangable battery pack cars are not new" pathetics
They were all out as soon as he said £2.5mil.
The Dragons might be rich, but they are not that rich
Also, when someone asks for that much for a business with no usp that the dragons could build themselves.
Peter Jones is. The others would need more than a TV pitch to bet 2.5m
Peter Jones and duncan(600m) are
“I call it the Homer.....”
😂😂😂😂
Nice refernce
This was way too big of an investment for Dragon's Den!
Considering the highest investment being 120k, no way this pitch for 20 times the amount was going to be accepted.
This highest investment was actually above 200k, but I know what you mean, dragons den uk is not where the big money is spent, it’s shark tank America where big money is spent
The highest accepted investment was £250,000.
And at the same time the 2.5 million he’s asking for is too little for what he actually needs. You don’t go on a TV show to get the funding for a car company.
@@gmwdim I agree. The dragons are not the best ones for this investment. He needs to pitch to automotive investment funds. But at least, he gets exposure.
@@TheAbuFulaan British pounds is worth more than the US dollar
The sad thing is the government were prepared to give him a £7.5m grant
it's not their money so they don't care. you and me all pay for a bloated useless government.
1:02 loved it how he just repeated what he said.
It means he memorized his presentation, I mean they all do practice but if it's your product and you know it from inside out may be they should not stick to a memorized presentation because then they froze because of nerves and it doesn't look good at all. Given my social anxiety, I just can’t talk in public without getting nervous and I had this ugly moments. First I tried to memorize everything like a poem and then tell it all and be done with it, but it kept happening because as I follow a mental index of my discourse if I froze I may not remember where I left or repeat the last phrase. So now when I do presentations of some college work I do prepare a speech but try not to repeat it word per word just have the main structure and then just explain them without memorizing it given it's something I worked on and I known about what I'm talking it's more difficult to have this ”I froze” moments as they really happen because you are extremely nervous and try to recite a monologue you memorized word by word and if you forget one you just don't know how to follow.
James Caan is the most polite and eloquent dragon
yep, the placement of the chair has changed, but the position of having one “polite and constructive” dragon was later filled by Nick and Tej and then Sara
Elon musk is laughing his head off.
Wanted to see the first Elon comment. Second one in!
Umm isn't the model three in the UK like 46 thousand pound, verses what did he say 12 thousand pound correct me if I am wrong. mmmmm if he can produce a modest car for a family I am in, not all vehicles have changeable battery packs, plus model three has in car display issues , paint work and trim. Also Tesla model three has issues in cold climates. I do believe this would be on a watch list for Tesla.
@@roberttammymaisey9397 You are correct.The big barrier with all EV,s are still price.Love them but way outside the average mans pocket still. Batteries still an issue.And a question no one asks is if every vehicle in the world becomes an EV how will electricity demand cope from the grid?I the UK we already import via cable a lot of sparks from France as it is.All their power stations are nuclear.
Hiya,thanks for your comment. It makes a lot of sense in terms of drawing off the Grid.To be honest I assume that EV,s use a 13 amp supply but I may be wrong. Either way EV,s are the future. The internal combustion engine is in its swansong now and battery development is evolving fast.
@@glennpowell3444 Petrol could already have been replaced a long time ago but I guess it hasn't yet because of money. There are a few cars run on gas and I think methanol engines could be mainstream by now if they were really invested in.
Try pitching it to Boris... anyone who can waste 14 billion on unfit for purpose track 'n' trace schemes would be more than happy to stump up 2.5 million quid on a Tonka car.
If Boris didn’t try to introduce a flawed track and trace system, he’d be criticised. When he did release this flawed system (in par with other European countries) he gets criticised. People never satisfied nowadays.
@@Venom-xd9st even if it had been better than European countries it still wouldn't be "good enough"
@@Venom-xd9st Found the sycophantic, "I've always voted Tory even though they've never done anything for me" voter.
@@oxymoron02 your about 6 months too late for me to care buddy :)
That must be the ugliest concept of a car and the worst name for an EV company ever :/
Like you're mother
How about the Vietnamese car maker VINFAST.
If anyone comes to you pitching an electric car company with a non-working prototype, or even Worse, a PICTURE of a prototype, RUN as fast as you can.
Love people who keep updated on this business
Surely when Theo is pushing for the USP, the chap had already mentioned it? Didn't he say that they were going to use a twin motor system that was unique to them? And isnt that a technology Tesla have gone on to use with great success?
Yep. That was the first thing I thought of when he said it lol.
Theo is right... Tesla is killing it now.
"Whats the USP?"
"Exchangeable battery packs."
"Everyone has that."
Who? Who has that?
Exactly. Would like to see Theo get his toolkit out and quickly swap a Tesla battery over. But the bloke pitching here was still a complete chancer, he thinks he's going to take on global car brands and get ahead of them with a total budget that probably wouldn't keep some of their big plants operational for a week.
My 6 year old son has that same car, cost £30 and came with remote control......for that reason I'm out.
fancy spending and getting 10 million on doing this and then its already come out a year before 🤣
I totally dislike the way the dragons treated him.
$10M for an electric car startup is peanut.
A unique design language can be a very strong usp when paired with standard technology.
hahahahaha
£10 million (GBP) not $10 million (USD).
@@andrewjones-productions thanks for pointing that out
Of course it's peanut that's the point they were making, that it's not enough to compete with the budgets of multi-billion dollar corporations. Unique design is very easily copyable, too. So not being first to market + microscopic budget + no automotive experience = no chance it would succeed even with their money.
@St Cloud Tesla is losing hundreds of millions every year
1:04 When you're trying to pitch to the Dragons but you realise its remembrance day
hahahahahahahahahaha
James "I'm itching to give it to you" Khan
Rub some cream on it first mate
If he could sync the car with the flow signals….
So annoying when Theo sits and plays with his money after telling someone where to go
2024 and I am watching this pitch on my brand new BeeOne cruising in the West Midlands. Amazing car, and for only 12.990
The company was dissolved in 2010 - just a year after this pitch
1:04 im pretty sure he's a robot. Dude literally buffered.
Jenny would of invested the 2.5 million
Would have...
@@stargazer2856 thanks
@@graham9352 no worries. X
Would'of
Lol she doesn't even have 2.5 million
They was never going to invest. Way to much money for them
The dragons missed out on a big opportunity here, they clearly had no real idea about the electric car market at the time or even the general car marker... that would’ve been far ahead of all competition for years in the electric market....
You know who this young man is?
Elon Musk, now look at him.
Hahaha
@@Hopecycle12345 It was a joke. A Christmas joke.
@@Hopecycle12345 thanks for pointing that out
5.50 - 8.18. The Fetus at his most ruthless.
This is absurd, Some of the biggest spenders in research and development are car companies. Just Google biggest R&D spender, you have Volkswagen, Daimler who owns Mercedes, Toyota, Honda, BMW and more. These companies spend billions of dollars, with decades of experience and thousands of patents, with the best brains in the world working for them. I do believe in miracles and people beating fortune 500 companies from something they started in their garage but that's 1 in a million. For every 1 company that becomes successful and goes to earn millions, hundreds of thousands fail.
And for some surprising reason that one in 1 million is most likely not going to be British 99 out of 100 times. Wonder what went wrong
I have worked for two of these automotive companies in the electrical domain. These automotive bigwigs are OEM's which means they essential integrate systems and hardly anything of value on there (except engine for few) is made by the oem's. They buy off suppliers and employ thousands of engineers to do the paperwork, liability, testing etc. Decades of experience means didly squat if the best R&D they can still come up with is a combustion engine which at best is 20% efficient when car drive in straight line with no resistance which means 80% of energy is lost. That's why i love tesla. When tesla came out i was working for this one british oem and I remember the director saying in passing that look at the audacity of tesla trying to compete with us and laughing. Now who's laughing! They are all playing catch up with tesla electric tech. Don't forget that as smaller companies with unique offering you have first mover advantage and low overheads which means you can sell for less.
People don't see the other picture of the electric car scam. Sourcing cobalt and other minerals, for instance, required for batteries will expand mining and polution itself.
This guy could have beaten Tesla to the electric car market had the dragons gone in
Jenny invested and owns half of the California burger chain, In and out, she owns the out part!
For someone who's been around. Certainly successful in business. What's with the awkward pause at the beginning.
Electric car that can fit the whole family for 12k ?? Sign me in !
Whenever the asking price is high, dragons will find any reasons not to invest
Dyson: We have set aside £2.5B to develop a new electric car, but this isn't enough money so we are putting this car on hold
Stephen Voller: Well I can do it all for £10M...
Sorry what
I bought one of the 1st Bee electric cars, Omg so good. Its still going strong and saving me a fortune, it's actually gone up in value so hang on to them guys !
It's impossible to tell sarcasm on the internet.
No need to be so harsh on him. Ok they didn’t agree, and had valid points, but no need to talk to him like that.
Given that his company went under, did this poor guy lose it all?
Doubtful, but anyone with shares in it did, the usual way
Stephen was the only shareholder, and the last set of accounts before the voluntary strike-off show accumulated losses of £32,776.
Can almost feel the suicidal depression emanating from this man.
Bro yes ,😂😂🤣
Another one who would rather prove them wrong than listen to their advice.
He's so heavily invested. He's looking at walking away from the half a million he has already sunk in if he listens to their advice.
Thing is though. The dragons spew out these bold claims and opinions based on very limited conversation. If all it takes is a few words for people to give up on what they're doing, nothing would get done. I mean wtf do the dragons know about it? perhaps they do know but perhaps they don't is all i'm saying. You just can't give up because someone thinks you're wrong.
@@garnhamr Don't forget that he has probably been in there for a couple of hours. And deep down he probably knows he doesn't have enough money. The dragons will know a lot about it; they are experts in the mechanics of business and investment. And even me, with my limited knowledge of the car industry, knows that in this particular industry £10 million is diddley squat. I think most people will cling to their dream no matter what advice to the contrary they receive. Human nature to make your own mistakes, and not learn from them.
Plenty of crap advice given on this show. The "dragons" are just people, many got rich by being very lucky as well. They have a long list of failures themselves.
@@infiltr80r yeah the harder they worked the luckier they got!
Surely this was the basis for Harry Enfields sketch of the show
It’s not the entrepreneurs fault if the dragons cannot afford to invest right.
I baled out - I don't like the humiliation of a nervous person. Why not edit that out and let him start again?
This was well ahead of its time and dragons clearly had no clue what they were talking. IOT was unheard of at the time.
OnStar (very popular system to connect with outside system) came out in the 90s. Also if you can afford an electric car, you own a cellphone which already has 3G. If you own a laptop (quite expensive back then) you also probably work in IT and are supplied a mobile internet card already.
He didnt mention the specifics about his pitch at all. If he described this battery he may have had a USP.
@@Thomastm33 He did and Theo said all the major car companies offer it already
So ahead of its time that it went nowhere
The amount of money he asked for low key scared them to be honest
*Make the UK Car Industry Great Again! MUCIGA! 2020!*
UK is already an acronym, so you'd include the K as well.
Looks a bit small to me..
I kinda miss Jenny being out before it even starts
7:45 bollox Theo - Renault did it with the Fluence and they are now talking of doing it with the ZOE - No one else has ever done it.
There's a difference between making claims and promises and actually delivering on it
The automotive industry is notoriously difficult to enter
in China you have ev brands like NIO, who has already perfected battery change technology, but they needed over a billion dollars worth of investment from the Chinese government to get through their hard patch in 2019
Then you have Wuling EV, which sells for $4000 USD in China, but they had the backing of SAIC shanghai, General Motors, and Wuling, 3 giant established automakers.
And you expect the Dragons to put 2.8 million into his dream? Theo was absolutely right, he is absolutely delusional to think 10 million is enough to produce a certified EV in 2 years.
Other things aside, the small size of his pitch, means he'll get the leftover scraps in battery, and semiconductors, there is also no EV supply chain in the UK, pretty much all the batteries are made in China, even German brands like BMW, and Mercedes Benz are buying from China.
So there is no way he can make his pitch viable in the UK
10 million is good for a electric bike/scooter startup, not a full on car
I'm shocked no one asked about the costs of building a factory and all the very expensive tooling and other gear that will be needed before the first car is built. Was he planning to personally build the car in his garage at home?
Hey; Newton, Edison and Franklin all worked from home centuries ago and invented tech still used today. 🤝
David Starkey really is a man of all trades
I now cant unsee it
I was thinking Christopher Walken myself lol
"Our car has quatro-synchronized, dynamic world-traversing technology with seamless vehicle integration"
"You mean wheels?"
"Bee Automotives dissolved in 2010 soon after his disastrous TV appearance.
“The thing with Dragons’ Den is you know it’s not real,” Mr Voller told BusinessCloud. “There’s no such thing as a den. It’s a TV studio and this is all an act.
“It was certainly an experience and a really interesting one. It’s not something I’d choose to repeat.” "
LOL - obviously, the dragons were right about everything.
Why is Raymond Redington asking Dragons to fund his startup? 🤣😂
James Caan was a dragon from 2007-2010 on Dragons den, (so this pitch falls somewhere between then )
Tesla started in 2003 but didn’t produce a car until 2008- 2010, for all those asking where was Tesla .
Which shows how difficult it is. It won't work for £10m
I'm surprised nobody yelled at him when he claimed he'd be able to produce a thousand of these cars a month. He has a whole car factory just waiting to go?!?
Who's other one thinking about Elon musk while watching this😅
Me 😁
I try never to think about that arrogant , vile, manipulative little troll
His USP is the price! Why didn't he say that?
1:05 don't worry guys it was just mic delay
Spinal Tap 'Stonehenge' moment: the car in the background is the actual finished car.
Man, if Sir James Dyson, the richest man in the UK, couldn't manage starting an electric car company from scratch with hundreds of times the startup capital, I have serious doubts about this guy...
Dyson products are total garbage.
Theo single handedly put the EV market back 10 years. We still don’t have interchangeable battery powered cars. Then again maybe that’s bc it doesn’t work 🤷🏾♂️
This guy was ahead of his time, the dragons are old money and cannot understand. It’s a shame he didn’t get the chance.
He went bankrupt in that particular company in 2 years and started a new company who also went bankrupt he left his investors in a huge pile of debt and people being owed multiple millions
They are all first generation wealth - except Deborah