Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Dragons' Deal

By the traffic on this blog tonight I can tell that the CBC has just re-run the Dragons' Den episode in which the Dragons do a deal with four nattily-dressed Toronto guys who have a job-posting website called JobLoft.com. (I started watching, but having seen it before, I left halfway through to eat some watermelon on the back deck. It is that kind of night.)

This was probably the most notorious deal closed on the first season of Dragons' Den. All 5 millionaires collaborated on the deal with four recent Ryerson grads, with the Dragons promising to work the team to the bone in order to get their business to the next level. It seemed a happy ending all 'round.

But in the real world, about half of all equity deals fall through in the end -- and this one was no exception. A follow-up show last November (which will be repeated this summer) showed how the deal fell apart at the last minute -- in a televised showdown between the four principals, one of their mentors, and the dragons. It made for great TV, but it cost the kids a lot of money, as they were on the hook for all costs related to the deal (as is also standard in such things).

Here's a link to my post from last fall talking about the deal: Hot Times in the Dragons' Den.

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