5th Entrepreneur:

Richard Usman, another ICT specialist came looking for 16 million naira in exchange for 30% equity. Richard’s idea was to market automatic integrated home systems which would allow for doors, curtains, and electrical appliances to be activated and controlled by the human voice. His presentation revealed the beauty of the idea. He convinced the dragons that the technology was very user friendly, in the sense that it could be programmed to recognize voice-commands from even people who pronounced words with a heavy influence of their mother tongue.

The idea was novel and captivating, but the dragons were uncomfortable with investing because they felt there was a need to investigate the technology- since the entrepreneur was not armed with a prototype neither was he able to offer a demonstration of the product.

The dragons opted out.

6th Entrepreneur 

The next entrepreneur, Steven Obioma Akidi – a catfish farmer from Umahia Abia state was looking for 12 million naira to expand his business. He based his pitch on his desire to improve productivity in his farm with the funds he is asking for. He wanted to reposition his farm and take it to the next level. He was going to acquire 6 plots of land – stocking 60, 000 cat fish juveniles – improving their weight to 1kg in six months, with a guaranteed production of 48, 000 kg of catfish in 6 months. Femi Tejuoso was concerned about the mortality rate of the fish. Ibukun Awosika also wanted to know how this entrepreneur utilized the profit he made from the last farming season – but the entrepreneur revealed the fact that he invested the money in the purchase and supply of livestock feed to customers around Umahia. This proved to be a fatal flaw for his business, because according to Ibukun Awosika, if the entrepreneur was passionate about expanding his business, he ought to have reinvested his profit into the farm and not in a different venture.

The dragons opted out.