Thinking of applying for Dragons’ Den?

If you were thinking of applying for RTE’s Dragons’ Den, you might want to give a little pause for thought. A tiny piece in the Irish Daily Mail yesterday caught my eye.

“Gavin Duffy, one of the Dragons in the forthcoming series Dragons’ Den, said he did not know whether funding novice entrepreneurs is a sensible investment given the current recession.

The Irish version of the the hugely successful reality show will see hopeful entrepreneurs pitching their business plans to a set of five investors, including Mr. Duffy, who will offer capital in return for a stake in the project if the candidate can convince them of its worth.

Duffy, a media consultant, and a founder of LMFM radio, who made millions from the Irish property market, claimed that he will have to invest somewhere in the region of €300,000 as capital over the 8 episodes in the series.

He said : ‘It’s been in the pipeline. I was approached a good while back to see if I was available. At the time I thought it was a great idea. I’m now quite worried because the way the economy is going… do I have the money? There are going to have to be some good ideas.”

This is a joke. People are expected to go in front of someone like this on national television after he wonders aloud if he has the money? He wonders if now is the time to fund entrepreneurship in Ireland? Surely there is no better time than now to invest in entrepreneurs. I’m sure there was some point in his own career where someone took a chance on him and lent him some money or gave him an opportunity.

RTE’s blurb says that “The Irish Dragons are successful entrepreneurs and business leaders who have been there, done that”. Has Mr. Duffy forgotten the definition of entrepreneurship?

Any real entrepreneur out there reading this ought to ask themselves do you really want to go in front of someone like Mr. Duffy who, it appears, would prefer to sit on his money and wait for the ideal time (like when investing in property was mistaken for entrepreneurship) to take a risk.

Shame on him. If Shinawil/RTE had any cop on, they’d deliver the famous line “I’m out” to Mr. Duffy.

(Photo above is from stock photo site and does not depict an actual homeless person)

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