Going over to the second entrepreneur, Martin who had come to the den to seek 50 million naira in exchanged for 20% equity in his business, we saw another good business idea which fell apart due to the absence of a clearly defined unique selling point. Yet another case of neglecting to take into cognizance the fatal hazards that could occur as a result ill-thought out operational standards;  “Doctor-on-Phone” sounded like an ingenious idea, actually it was; imagine a call centre that people can call during medical emergencies in order to have medical assistance dispatched to their distress locations, however Martin  presented his idea in such a way that made it seem like what his business was trying to do was just to route distress callers to doctors, without having given a thorough thought to the availability of doctors, the time it took for someone in an emergency to dial for the appropriate medical expert for his/her emergency, and most importantly the legal implications of failing to service the consumer, because according to Alexander Amosu, “it is almost impossible to diagnose the symptoms of what’s wrong with an individual by just having a telephone conversation with the patient…” His business idea was considered very risky. The prototype of the idea he presented to the dragons did very little to communicate the viability and necessity of this business.

The dragons had opted out.

The third entrepreneur, Oluwaseun Kayode needed 2 million naira for his business and was ready to part with 30% equity. He was proposing to design books covered in African fabric. His current unit production cost was estimated at about 550 naira, and he intended to retail the books at 700 naira. But his presentation was short-lived as Ibukun Awosika observed immediately, “the idea is good but the finishing is terrible…”, and Kayode went on defense trying to excuse the poor finishing of the books he presented to the dragons by saying they were just prototypes.

“If you’re producing small quantities and you can’t get it right,” Ibukun Awosika asked, “what will happen if you produce large quantities?”

“Don’t take badly produced prototypes to pitch investors…” Chris Parkes advised, and when the entrepreneur still attempted a lame defense for his poor finishing, Chris Parkes threw the concluding punch line, “when Mercedes Benz makes a prototype, they don’t forget to put the engine in”

–The Den Sweeper