It’s a cutthroat world, the world of business. With big money at stake, you can’t really blame people like investors when they don’t mince words and tell young entrepreneurs how it is.
But rich investors, at the end of the day, are just like regular people with normal feelings. Proof of this is the way the ‘Dragons’ of the BBC show ‘Dragon’s Den’ reacted to a business proposal from a young Asian businessman.
Facing the dragons
William Chew, an entrepreneur from Malayasia, went into the den trying to find funding for the chili paste startup he’s been working on. He appeared on the show’s third episode of season seventeen and faced the five multi-millionaires dubbed as the ‘Dragons.’
And while he didn’t get the resounding approval of the panel, he did manage to convince one of them to put money into his company and even made the other tough judges tear up.
It wasn’t because of the spice
Apparently, the graduate turned entrepreneur’s story is what got to them.
Mak Tok, as William called his business, began when he received some anchovies from a former student’s grandmother. The fish ended being the missing ingredient he was looking for to complete his chili sambal.
Because of this, he even named the startup after the same kind old woman. Mak Tok reportedly means grandmother in Malay.
However, it was really his own mother, Agnes Kong’s recipe, which inspired him to further grow his business. He currently runs Mak Tok as a family enterprise together with his cousin Ng Shang Yin.
The duo has been marketing their product in Yorkshire’s local delis, farm shops, and even supermarkets.
Similar experiences
Four of the five Dragons had to decline William’s proposal after he wasn’t able to give them sales figures.
Luckily, he found an ally in multi-millionaire Sara Davies. The crafters’ supply businesswoman decided to invest $61,000 into William’s venture after hearing his story and perhaps seeing a little bit of herself in the young entrepreneur.
Back in the day, Sara was also just another fresh graduate who was trying to get her business to take off. Now, she’s one of the youngest panel members of the Den and has a reported net worth of approximately forty-five million dollars.
Tough love, soft hearts
This isn’t the first time that tough investors were brought to tears by a business proposal, though.
In the show’s American version, Shark Tank, the ‘Sharks’ have actually shown their human side quite often.
One of the more notable times they did so was during the 2013 pitch of entrepreneur Johnny Georges for his venture ‘The Tree T-Pee.’ Johnny was hoping to secure a $150,000 investment for his business which seeks to create a product to protect trees from frost and subsequently aid farmers in saving money on irrigation.
One of Johnny’s biggest supporters ended up being Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary who was impressed and moved by the entrepreneur’s willingness to help his own community.
It was self-made billionaire John Paul Dejoria who struck a deal with him, though, and it seems that ‘The Tree T-Pee’ is still going strong.
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