The Most Successful Pitch In Dragons’ Den History | Dragons’ Den

[Music] Levi Roots was one entrepreneur who proved the rule that even the dragons can be wooed with charm and charisma he came to the den in February 2007 looking for an investment of fifty thousand pounds for his Caribbean cooking a compliment Reggae Reggae sauce in my food for me when you think charisma and personality they could only be one name Theo Paphitis no no no it would only be one name Levi Roots twice when he came on playing that guitar with that fantastic hair fantastic voice fantastic song he had everyone's attention he's the first person that's come into the den that's actually made a pitch all around music you got to know about his product with one song so nicely dr fried chicken make burgers finger lickin he was so instantly likable you rooted for him ah I didn't intend that that was quite an unexpected coincidence what some reg assassin early [Applause] the Jamaican you make a song and dance about everything and music and food goes together I have the song in my heart I'm gonna have something that when the Dragons see this they're not gonna know what what's hittin levi medially it captured your attention better than any sophisticated business spreadsheet a dirty but fundamentally the product has to be good for 15 years we've been marketing the source at the national carnival I've got a very nice order from a Meat Company in Yorkshire for wait for it two and a half million litres of regulated source as their first orders we vibe just like a shook hands in a dealer but a nice letter from them which which I have with me now all we have to do now is just try and get production up to standard any questions please it's rare for the Dragons to be serenaded for an investment but will that help Levi Roots secure the 50,000 pounds he needs in return for a 20% share in Reggae Reggae sauce Theo Paphitis wanted to know more about the entrepreneur in front of him Levi Roots what a great name a real name no it's my pseudonym my real name is Keith [Laughter] you should have liked him and said yeah my mother calls me Keith she chose me Levi I've been knowing that ever since that the dragon seemed charmed by Levi but they're also been used by his claim to have secured a massive order for his sauce Duncan Bannatyne has some questions okay you mentioned a letter you had with an order for 2.5 million litres yeah so have you got with you I have indeed well would you pass that to Theon let him read it well I'll ask you a few more questions no problem I think Thea must be designed some guy right in front of me here I like you already so you've been selling this for 15 years yes accountable no kind of so how many bottles did you sell last year suing our thousand ten thousand bottles at the carroll and approximately how much per bottle 149 so about four thousand pound turnovers the sauce actually cost thirty two pens to make each bottle of this size where do you make it how do you make it you make it in your kitchen or make it at home in my kitchen and my children help me and we just sort of do it as a family there um it's very small kitchen we're not we can't do a very large amount can you legally make things that are in your kitchen and go out and sell them nationwide absolutely because we've had Nevada our electronic confirmation from the food standing okay was the one of the first thing that I did have you spoken to anybody about what it takes to produce the kind of volumes that are going to be needed little Billy's and what do you need to do what I need to do is we rent a place I mean I want to buy or anything like that I would just rent a premises and I think the equipment will cost me about twenty five thousand all equipment your twenty you need to spend twenty five thousand pound and equipment yeah Levi still sounding confident but his ambitious plans mean transforming a cottage industry into a mass production line virtually overnight Theo Paphitis has been studying Levi's paperwork and has some concerns about the order itself I might have misunderstood you slightly because I thought you said that you had an order for two and a half million liters that's not what this letter says this letter says if they were to try market your product and if it was as successful as some of the other lines that are in national retailers that's the sort of level they would have to produce to make it happen is that your understanding no basically what he's saying to me says look we are ready to make an order as long as you can surprise with this this is what we will do right and they're gonna pay your royalty of five percent five percent providing the knocking supplying om allowed I mean he thinks that that will create about three hundred ninety thousand packs yeah I wish you'll retail at about 1.7 million so five percent of that 85 85 okay so that's me to sing us something that's that would be that would be that would be your royalty yes roughly roughly yeah that'll be and then you're gonna be selling of these guys at six pound fifty elites per liter yeah what's that in real money I think it's 16 million something 16 16 and a half million leave I may have appeared more musician than entrepreneur but it seemed he had an order which would impress any dragon I went through the Dragons Den that morning thinking that I'm not gonna have a business plan I thought you know Levi you're gonna be honest with yourself you gotta go as you I was well confident with what I had lots of sources are remarkably good but then it sound isn't enough to actually make you into a success there's a whole combination of factors Levi's charisma charm personality I had a half-decent source to give it a shake hey presto but Richard Farley picked up on a problem with his order and it looked like Levi's luck was about to run out it's something I don't understand you've got an order for two and a half thousand kilos is that the one you're saying is two and a half million liters yeah because I don't think that's right two and a half thousand two hundred and fifty thousand isn't it two thousand five hundred kilos it's a lot less than you think it is thank you and a half thousand the order is for two and a half thousand kilos well a kilo is about the same as a liter if its water it's exactly the same so it's not two and a half million liters if you've got two and a half thousand of kilos it's two and a half thousand liters okay and then it's time to initial requirement and then a potential every week thereafter of five hundred kilos per week about 25 thousand a year okay then you're in you're getting six pounds per six pounds 50 per liter right so it's about a hundred and thirty thousand pounds worth per order per year it's not sixteen million Levi made a massive mistake on his numbers and he wasn't fazed at all he's like uh okay fair enough and he didn't change a business plan so he was going to do an order which was 1,000 times smaller than what he thought after I'd explained it to him but he didn't say oh we need less money or we need a smaller warehouse so we need smaller quantities nothing changed you probably you admit to me that your business skills probably would need a little bit of help absolutely I would say that yeah so I'm just sort of sitting here thinking do I want to take a gamble you know okay could I just cut it gives me a bit of time to think about whether he wants to gamble or whether think about it cuz I'm I know where I'm going with it and I just want to be clear where I am and so you got no illusions going forward and I think that trying to get into this market we know how competitive it is it's seriously seriously competitive to try and range run product it's kind of almost impossible so to let know where I am I like impossible challenges good and I've been sitting here for ten minutes I've been actually stuck I can't believe this is the first time ever I've actually started to sweat and I don't know whether it's the source that I've just taken up or actually whether it's what I'm about to say um it is a complete punt but I kind of probably would enjoy it I've got a few people in the marketplace that could introduce you to but I'd want a little bit more of a slice but I wouldn't to take too much away from me because I think you need to earn a living but I would offer you half the money for 20% it's an extraordinary twist Peter Jones has stepped in and offered Levi half of the fifty thousand pounds he needs but he's demanding the whole twenty percent equity stake in return under the rules of the den Levi must secure all the money he's asking for or he leaves empty-handed I was about to make an offer I said there is something here and I thought I'd really love to work with him so I was sort of in the middle of putting my thoughts together and Peter jumped in and I think he said I was thinking I like impossible challenges good and it is a complete punt but kind of probably would enjoy it but I would offer you half the money for 20% I was panicking now thinking that maybe I've blown this thing so to hear Peter saying that yeah um he likes taking chances what was like you know ringing a bell and saying that hey I may still have a chance yet is that an interesting offer to you I mean we're talking about 25,000 for 20% so no I think I think that's a fair that's that's not a it is a gamble it is a punt I'd match that 25,000 for another 20% so he'd be talking 50,000 for 40% leave I now had two dragons interested but they were asking for nearly half his business I knew that I was gonna have to give away much more than I had gone there to do and having to make a decision whether or not it's the greatest thing to have a smaller percentage of a business that's going somewhere or to have everything of a business that's not going anywhere and and that's quite an easy decision for me I would accept [Music] put some music in your sauce today give me some Reggae Reggae sauce other people should sing their pictures as well I've got denying an Bartlet emails and mixed toast and regards Coronation Street [Music] the only thing wrong with this is there's no music in it because what I if you take the lid off and pour it over your food it goes chewed into the flavors and put some music into your food that's exactly what I felt we did had a nice little kick to he should have musical lids when you open it it goes reggae okay so I really applaud Peter and Richard for coming on board but one thing that we learned was that they don't need to do much because what is actually selling here is not whether at the source is Levi Roots as long as my integrity remains intact and we can come up with some very good product I think the British public will say we have a piece of that you [Applause] you

Channel: Dragons' Den

Views: 3,195,311

Keywords: dragons den, dragons den latest, dragons den 2019, dragons den full episode, dragons den argument, dragons den best pitch, dragons den savage, dragons den worst pitch, dragons den reggae reggae sauce, levi roots, dragons den fail, dragons den successful pitch, dragons den success, dragons den fight, dragons den jenny invests, dragons den uk, dragons den biggest investment, dragons den trunki, dragons den tangle teezer, dragons den successful product, bbc, dragons den new

Id: TgsRbze7G7M

Length: 12min 39sec (759 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 24 2020