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PRESS RELEASE
A twist in the Dragon’s tale…
Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Applied Language Solutions, bravely entered the Dragons’ Denwith a very unusual offer. This time, the Dragons’ eyes’ failed to spot the excellentinvestment opportunity.
AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE USE
Date of issue: 1/03/07
Dragon’s Den, the famous show where entrepreneurs pitch to secure investment from five elite entrepreneurs whoclaim to have an eye for ‘the next big thing’. Just how good are they at spotting excellent business opportunities?On last night’s BBC2 show the hard-hitting Dragons failed to invest in one Yorkshire entrepreneur’s languagesolutions business that provides translation for everything for tattoos to whole websites and professionalinterpreting services. Instead, the Dragons’ preferred to give Gavin Wheeldon a grilling over his £6 million companyvaluation and bold pitch for £250,000 to invest in global expansion, in return for just 4% in the business.He was told he was running a business in a very competitive market and, in their eyes, had greatly overvalued hiscompany, Applied Language Solutions. But the serial entrepreneur has shown that sometimes even the mostsuccessful entrepreneurs can fail to recognise a good idea when it is right in front of them.Today, they must be eating their words! Just four months since filming, Applied Language’s estimated annualturnover has increased massively from the £3.2 million Gavin proposed to the Dragons to a whopping £3.7 million,proving that his estimated valuation is achievable.In the short period of time, Gavin’s business has enjoyed phenomenal success having won major contracts worththousands for the United Nations and Google, with more major deals in the pipeline. Expansion has been seen inother areas of the business with the addition of almost 30 staff to their international team and the introduction of professional face-to-face and instant telephone interpreting to their services portfolio.Despite not securing investment, Gavin has stayed true to his pitch as the company is also now preparing tospread its wings into Asia with the opening of not one, but two offices at the beginning of March.Described by Theo Paphitis as an “intelligent and very capable” man, the Dragon’s were impressed by Gavin’sentrepreneurial skills, but identified an apparent flaw in his pitch. Gavin estimated the company’s future value at £6million, not realising his fatal mistake in arriving at such a figure based on previous financial earnings before tax.Consequently, all but one of the Dragon’s failed to identify such potential in investing in the business. WhilstRichard Farleigh was distinctively shocked at such a bold offer of just a 4% share in the business, the lowest ever known on Dragon’s Den, Peter Jones and Theo gave Gavin a roasting on what they considered to be a “high-riskstrategy with no return on investment”.
Twist in the Tale
However, Duncan Bannatyne saw a very risky but money-making investment opportunity. Impressed with Gavin’sbusiness acumen and cheeky sales attitude, Duncan made him an offer on the proviso Richard Farleigh wouldmatch it. Unfortunately, Richard decided it wasn’t for him.Despite not securing investment, one of the Dragon’s has made their high hopes for the success of both Gavin andthe business clear, and has offered to be a non-executive chairman at no cost to the company.A delighted Gavin enthused: “This means we will have access to a very successful entrepreneur’s advice,knowledge and experience. I have already been in talks with the Dragon’s camp and we are in the process of finalising a meeting for when we are both available and in the same country!”
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12 / 05 / 2010This doucment made it onto the Rising List!
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