The first entrepreneur Akaku Ugochukwu waltzed into the den asking for N10, 000, 000 (ten million naira) to expand his food processing business in exchange of 22.5% equity in his company. His idea was to process locally sourced food ingredients into highly nutritive easy-to-cook food concentrates. Though Femi Tejuoso objected to being offered only 22.2% equity in a company that the entrepreneur expected the dragons to fully fund, he seemed interested in the business, especially when Ugochukwu mentioned that the equity was negotiable. But on closer scrutiny, Alex Amosu discovered that Ugochukwu’s clientele consisted of about 20 local caterers who baked Akara and Moi Moi, which prompted the dragons to ask for his ‘income statement’. After toying with a few unimpressive figures, Ugochukwu finally professed to having made eight hundred thousand naira in the past one year, of which he later posited his profit was six hundred thousand; his figures were hard to believe, and as Ibukun Awosika put it, “with such a profit margin, your business is a cash-cow, you don’t need us, all you need to do is just plough back your profit into the business”. But Chris Parkes wanted to know how Ugochukwu intended to market this product, to which this entrepreneur had no ready answer. His business proposal soon began to crumble under heavy intellectual fire. Alex opted out on the basis that he was not sure if he could recoup his investment from this business. Ibukun Awosika sensing the inconsistency in the entrepreneur’s figures opted out on the basis that food business was not her forte. Femi Tejuoso opted out, advising the entrepreneur to go back to the drawing board. John Momoh was simply unimpressed, he just opted out.

Why do you think Ugochukwu went home without an investment?