Archives – September, 2011
The professor abruptly left the meeting, saying he had another appointment to attend. The Dragons conferred amongst themselves privately for a few minutes and then met again with the 4 students without their professor present this time. The Dragons tell the students that they had no idea this professor was influencing things to such an extent behind the scenes and that his vision for how the company should grow was very different from theirs. Even worse, the Dragons were very concerned that the students did not seem to object or even react to the fact that the professor had a very different vision to the company’s direction than the Dragons did, a direction the students had never even mentioned to the Dragons before. I think this omission is a key indicator of how inexperienced these students were about real world business affairs.
One of the students said of the professor (more…)
September 30, 2011
According to video footage of the meeting the professor further insulted Jim Treliving by saying “Let’s not take a couple of more trips on the jet, and put (the money) into the company”. Jim had flown to the meeting in his private jet. The amount of money Jim Treliving spends on owning and operating his private jet is very paltry compared to his no doubt huge net worth. More importantly, the money he spends on his jet has absolutely no bearing on the amount of money he would have invested in this startup company ($40,0000), especially considering these students had no prior experience to starting a business and (from what I gather) no sales to paying customers (IE employers) at that point. In many cases having zero sales is a major red flag to the Dragons because it screams “unproven business idea”.
The meeting went steeply downhill from there.
“The students just sat there, blank as fish. That they (more…)
September 28, 2011
“Do you have a business degree?” the professor demanded.
What was his point? Is earning a business degree an assurance of success for entrepreneurs? Not really. I had successfully launched and managed companies dealing with Internet security and other computer-related aspects, but I achieved it without formal business training. Jim Treliving’s early business training included experience as an RCMP officer, a career he abandoned in favour of delivering pizza orders from his car, which also served from time to time as his office and bedroom. From the start, he built a billion dollar corporation.” – from Driven (more…)
September 26, 2011
All businesses who get a verbal agreement for a deal while on the Dragon’s Den show (televised or not) are subject to due diligence to ensure everything they said during their pitch was true and that there wasn’t anything not revealed to the Dragons or their accountants and lawyers. According to O’Leary “miraculously, JobLoft breezed through the due-diligence process”. What followed was one of the most dramatic events ever in any reality TV show in the US or Canada. (more…)
September 23, 2011
I had clearly hurt his feelings. But my only thought was, “Oh well”. Unless there’s money to be earned, I don’t take meetings with people I don’t know or need to see. That hour of lunch went into a precious “time bank” I guard as fiercely as I would bars of gold. You might say this man could have become a valuable contact, someone I could eventually do business with. Maybe. But instead of spending my time on more remote possibilities, I prefer to spend it on current ventures I know will yield results. That’s why I said no. It’s not personal.”
You probably know people who spend their time as if they were time billionaires. They often have meetings in the most casual, offhand manner that are more akin to shmooze fests or cocktail parties. These meetings have no clear objectives, they’re done with people they barely know and with no set amount of time for these meetings. You’ll also probably notice that such people are seldom very productive at all. (more…)
September 21, 2011
Initially, a venture like an employment website would no doubt be capital intensive as the software would have to be tweaked, event with the founders doing much of the startup programming. They would need to hire many more highly skilled programmers domestically who often make 6 figure salaries (forget about outsourcing something like this overseas). So this business would need to have some serious cash reserves to really get rolling and that’s what these angels investors have in spades. Nowadays banks will not touch new small businesses (especially dotcom startups) with a ten foot pole. (more…)
September 19, 2011
However, I agree with O’Leary in maintaining that every entrepreneur (especially new ones) needs a mentor and a coach who has walked the walk of entrepreneurial success. New entrepreneurs need coaches for instilling in them the basic requirements all business owners must have to succeed in business in the long run. Established entrepreneurs, especially sole proprietors, also need business coaches for a second opinion on virtually everything to do with their business.
Most business owners are too close to their business to see the forest for the trees. They get too caught up in their own methods and routines and lack perspective on what’s working and what isn’t in various areas and how they could improve. I have coached many a real estate professional (both new and veteran) to great success because I have a very deep understanding of how to use the internet and technology in general to help make their business a roaring success. (more…)
September 16, 2011
The business he’s referring to was Jobloft, a website for advertising minimum wage jobs mainly for restaurants. All of the 5 Dragons were very interested in the pitch, especially Jim Treliving, founder of Boston Pizza, who knows well the problems of finding good, honest, reliable workers in a high turnover business such as the hospitality industry.
O’Leary responded to his detractor that he and the other Dragons had every right to demand so much control and such a high financial share in the company because none of the entrepreneurs in this startup had ever run a business before. More on JobLoft and the dramatic events that unfolded with this business later on.
It’s completely understandable if O’Leary rubs many people the wrong way. Like Simon Cowell on American Idol, O’Leary is very blunt, even cruel, in the feedback he gives to people who pitch business ideas on Dragon’s Den. He even made one woman cry who pitched a business idea on “Aerial Angels” Dragon’s Den.
O’Leary recently got (more…)
September 14, 2011
Canada’s most watched TV program is the Dragons Den. It’s a reality TV show where entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to the 5 angel investors on the show. This is no fake. The deals negotiated on the show actually happen and real money in large amounts is given to the successful pitchers. The show is a fascinating interplay between the Dragons and people pitching businesses. Of course, this is reality television, so there’s high drama on the show. Some entrepreneurs walk away with nothing but heartbreak while others walk away with a deal with at least one sage angel Dragon investor willing to both invest start up capital and provide the guidance for making the most of the business.
One of the biggest quibbles people have about the venture capitalists on shows like Dragon’s Den is (more…)
September 12, 2011
Use Negative Keywords
Another way of improving your Click Through Rate (CTR) is by using negative keywords. Recall that negative keywords are words you specify that (if searched for) will prevent your ads from being displayed. The more you laser focus your ads on your farm area, the less need you’ll have for using negative keywords. However, there will be times when your ads display to the wrong people (IE unqualified prospects) and they click them, costing you money. So keep an eye on the clicks your ads receive and the keywords searched for that resulted in each click. If any searches resulting in clicks contained keywords that didn’t describe what you offer then add those keywords to your negative keyword list.
(more…)
September 9, 2011
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