In episode 11, we saw the beauty of persistence and perseverance. We also witnessed how much of a put of a defeatist attitude is to investors. In this episode, the dragons shared their knowledge and experiences in the art of pitching with ambitious entrepreneurs. From within the fiery den the dragons sent forth invaluable words of wisdom for everyone who aspires to be an entrepreneur.

1^st Entrepreneur

Like they say, the older the wine – the better it tastes. Our first entrepreneur in episode 11 who came to the den was a 58 year old Agricultural veteran -MAKOJUOLA he came seeking 9.6 million naira to expand the scope of his agricultural business. He offered 25% equity to the dragons.

He was pitching a profitable way to put agricultural waste to better use, whilst protecting the environment. He stated that entire project was estimated at about 40 million naira. According to him, the project was currently ongoing with infrastructure and some machinery already in place. But the dragons wanted to know why he didn’t approach the banks for financing; to which he replied that the current interest rates were discouraging, coupled with the fact that banks hardly believe in new projects.

Based on this entrepreneur’s testimony, it was revealed to the dragons that this entrepreneur planned on running two businesses at once, but they were curious about the duplicity of his business, and why he wanted to limit their investment in the new business alone. John Momoh was concerned with the entrepreneur’s policy on succession in his business, while Tokunboh Ishmeal felt that the entrepreneur had his hands in a lot of pies and may not be dedicated to this new project he was pitching.

But this entrepreneur was a brilliant negotiator – he never allowed himself to be boxed into a corner by the dragons. He kept his options open and declared his willingness to accommodate the dragons’ suggestions and recommendations.

In the end he got the dragons interested in his idea, and willing to invest, but they urged him to speak to the producers because the idea they were interested in was not exactly the same as that which the entrepreneur had come to the den to pitch.

The dragons did not opt out. They simply opened up a window for further discussions with this articulate pitcher.

2^nd Entrepreneur

With an idea that could make the production of entertainment and media content more cost effective in Nigeria, TONY SAMUJE was next in the den seeking a 30 million naira investment in ENTERTAINMENT WAREHOUSE – a soundproofed audiovisual facility designed to encourage indigenous filmmakers to produce their feature length films in a world-class environment located in the city of Lagos.

He presented was what seemed to be an interesting opening pitch in which he claimed that about 50% of the film and media content currently broadcast in Nigeria were produced abroad- he sounded genuinely patriotic when he told the dragons that Nigeria was losing a lot due to this development, but the cracks began to appear in the viability of his plan when the dragons began their probe to ascertain the entrepreneur’s level of experience and expertise in the film industry.

In defense of his resume, he informed the dragons that he was trained in South Africa, Kenya etc. But when John Momoh probed deeper to find out his level how much experience he had, Tony stated that he had worked as associate producer on several movie sets. But Tokunboh wanted financial clarifications, when she discovered that the entrepreneur had valued the worth of his company at 150 million naira which he later revealed to Femi Tejouso was the figure of the potential amount he was worth.

Tony Samuje claimed that a certain South African was ready to bring half a million dollars worth of filming equipment into Nigeria, but couldn’t do that on his own as a foreigner – this information did not settle in well with Chris Parkes who told Tony that it was arrant nonsense to think that a foreigner needs a Nigerian partner before establishing a company in Nigeria. He revealed that all was needed was for the foreigner’s business to be capitalized up to ten million naira.

In the end the dragons opted out based on the fact that this entrepreneur was ill-prepared and lacked the necessary facts required to establish and run such a facility. They however encouraged him to go back to the drawing board, and really work out the logistics of this business.