On Wednesday 9 March, The Haberdashers’ Aske’s Boys’ School hosted the inaugural Dragons’ Den grand final.
Since the beginning of the academic year, the School has encouraged teams of pupils to explore their entrepreneurial instincts and submit business ideas to pitch to specially invited panels of Dragons. After a number of rounds earlier in the term, the four most popular teams were called back to pitch once more to a judges panel comprising former TV Dragon Piers Linney, co-CEO of Outsourcery; Lord Leigh of Hurley, founder of Cavendish Corporate Finance; and two Old Boys of the School, Magnus Djaba (OH 1992), CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon UK Group and Jyotin Sethi (OH 1998), co-founder of JKS Restaurants.
Team Jodana’s Alexander Mohan Morzeria-Davis, Year 11, said: “It was a really engaging experience that will no doubt boost the entrepreneurial spirit of Habs Boys for years to come.” Freddie Ugo, Year 11, added: “I’m completely shocked to win, but feel the hard work has paid off.” Tom Pedder, Year 11, said: It was a brilliant opportunity and all involved should be proud of their efforts.”
After the event all the competitors were lucky enough to be able to not only network with the judges, but also receive one-to-one informal feedback and take some ‘selfies’ with them!
Piers Linney, Habs Dragon, said: “I was very impressed with the quality of presentation and research into market opportunities for each product, as well as the ability of the pupils to answer questions under pressure. Each team showed great understanding of business and entrepreneurship.” Of the School, Piers added: “From walking in this morning, I can see that Habs Boys is a wonderful place with amazing facilities. Old Haberdashers I know speak very highly of the School and often talk about how it’s been key to their success.”
Magnus Djaba, Habs Dragon, said: “Today was fantastic. It was great to be back to the School and being an Old Boy naturally I expected a lot, yet they surprised me and surpassed my high expectations. The pupils impressed me with their confidence and maturity – they listened to the questions and the feedback from all of the ‘dragons’. They did brilliantly and even at the age of 15, seem ready for graduate jobs well ahead of their time.”
The School are extremely grateful to Khilan and his colleagues at Encore Capital for their support with this exciting competition. Immense thanks must also go to the judges for giving up their time to attend the event, as well as to those at the School for working tirelessly to make the idea a reality.
The aim of this initiative has been to encourage and develop some entrepreneurial spirit, as well as refine presentation skills and the ability to ‘think on your feet’. Although the ideas were hypothetical and no real investments were made, the event was a great success and one which will be built on in future years.
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