A dragon in the den

Two days before Christmas and I’m finally getting round to writing my blog; David Sweeney I expect you to follow suit.

I’d like to share with you my Bizworld (www.bizworldireland.ie) ‘Dragon in the Den’ experience that I had a couple of weeks ago. I visited St Olafs National School in Balally to be the ‘dragon’ (investor) that five pairs of 10/11 year old kids would pitch to for funding their companies movie production. After the daunting experience of being introduced to the class I was moved to the Den to get ready for the first pair of entrepreneurs. Ciara and Aoife, representing ‘Shooting Stars’ company walked in with a mission – to get as many of my $BB (BizBucks) as possible for the minimum share of their company. They pitched their horror comedy movie idea to me and informed me that the cost associated with production of the movie amounted to $89BB. When asked how this cost was calculated, Ciara clearly explained to me the breakdown of wages, studio rent, ticketing, merchandise etc included in the cost. Aoife then told me that they would sell enough tickets and movie merchandise to make a tidy profit on the production. Shooting stars needed funding and I was the fat cat with the cash. The request for my investment began by Aoife and Ciara offering 30% of their company to me for $90BB. Chancers! My counter-offer was met with assertive shakes of the head, they were having none of it. We negotiated some more before I cracked under the pressure and Shooting Stars ended up taking $60BB of me for a mere 40% of the company. Professionally and politely, Aoife and Ciara thanked me for my investment and left the Den. I was left wondering would I fare any better with the next company and its two representatives?

Being a Dragon in the Den in St Olafs’ lasted only an hour and I would highly recommend all MBA’ers to be a dragon in semester 2. If anyone is interested please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me and I will arrange with Bizworld.

Peter MacMahon

Full Time MBA

MBA Charity Club

Peter.mac-mahon.1@ucdconnect.ie