The boss of a Durham-based tech firm has spoken of their ‘disappointment’ after Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones pulled out of a planned investment.
Millions of viewers saw AI-powered video editing technology firm Choppity at the centre of a three-way bidding war when the firm appeared on the hit BBC show earlier this month.
Dragons Sara Davies and Touker Suleyman both made offers but married co-founders Zara Paul and Aaron Morris eventually picked Jones, who offered £100k in exchange for 15 per cent of the business
At the time Jones gushed: “They’re the best we’ve seen in the Den.”
However, after the show aired it emerged the longest-serving Dragon decided not to proceed with his offer and never spoke to the entrepreneurs again after that day.
Paul, who is the first openly non-binary contestant on the show, stressed the decision was amicable but admitted they’d hoped Jones would been the perfect investor.
“We were really excited about the chance of working with Peter and he seemed just as excited about us,” Paul told BusinessCloud.
“He came to speak to us immediately after we agreed to the deal. After that, we were told not to expect to hear from him for a while.
“When we did finally hear back, it was from his investment manager and he didn’t seem to share the same excitement for us that Peter initially did.”
It’s estimated that around half of investments on Dragons’ Den never go through but Paul said Jones has never spoken to them since the day of filming.
Paul admitted that they and Morris were disappointed not be working with Jones but understood that this was always a possibility.
Writing later on LinkedIn, Paul said: “To clarify, Peter Jones did not pull out of the planned investment, we simply parted ways because the deal no longer made sense for us.
“It’s also not abnormal to be contacted by an investment manager, especially on behalf of somebody as busy as Peter Jones!
“We had just hoped for a larger involvement on his part which is why we accepted the offer in the first place, and when we realised this wouldn’t be the case, it no longer made sense for us.”
Jones, who is thought to be worth between £500m-£1bn, has not commented publicly on why he changed his mind.
Despite the deal falling through, Paul said they don’t regret entering the Den as their impressive pitch put their bootstrapped business in the limelight.
A few days after the show aired Choppity had its biggest couple of days for subscriber growth.
Paul said the positive feedback from the Dragons – especially Jones and Davies – had been massive.
“I think it speaks massively to our credibility as entrepreneurs,” they said.
“One of the things that we were hoping for was that they would see our determination, conviction and skill and it felt like they shared that with us.
“I think being able to hear them say what they did was incredibly validating.”
Paul also revealed how Davies lived up to her reputation as being the show’s nicest Dragon.
“There was a moment when I saw a member of the production team walking out with a cake and I was told that Sara had baked them – it’s something that she regularly does for all of the crew,” said Paul.
“She also told me that Aaron and I have a really nice dynamic, which was very lovely.”
Paul and Morris still have huge ambitions for Choppity, with the aim for the two being to implement the platform in every business.
Paul, who represents the LGBTQ+ community as non-binary, said they were pleased that the producers did not make that the main focus of Choppity’s appearance on the show.
They added: “I wanted to be gendered correctly on the show, but I didn’t want it to be the focus of the pitch, because ultimately it shouldn’t be the focus of the business.
“The business should come first and I just didn’t want it to be hijacked by a different topic of conversation.
“I think in the edit, they did a really good job of that. They worked with me really well in order to ensure that would be the case.”