Page 347 - James Caan - The Real Deal

33 · Into the Den

with hardly any overheads – Sammy was running everything on
the phone from her council flat – so that £1000 was virtually all
profit. And she had already sold 147 of them. I sat there looking
at Sammy and admiring her: she was single mum in a council flat
but she was determined to do something with her life.
She needed investment to place more orders, but the panel
suggested she could either do that by getting some customers to
pay upfront in exchange for a discount – which was perfectly
plausible with her profit margin – or from a loan. And that’s when
her pitch crumbled: she revealed she’d been turned down for a
loan and at that point Deborah, who was the only other Dragon
showing any interest, pulled out. But I wasn’t going to do that: I
was in.
‘Sam, I’m going to make you an offer.’
As I said those words there was a huge smile on my face,
because I knew what they were all thinking: He’s mad. Everybody
just stopped and looked at me. Peter was shaking his head. Theo
was trying not to laugh.
‘Sam, I’m going to offer you the full £100,000 you’re after, but
I want 50 per cent of the company.’ She had only been offering 25
per cent.
Everyone was silent. Then Duncan spoke.
‘You should rip his arm off!’
So Sam said yes and we all shook hands. As we walked out for
a smoke, Peter said he would eat a packet of dog biscuits if I made
any money on the deal and Theo asked which planet I was
orbiting.
‘Seriously guys, I think she’s a great investment.’
And you know what? It has been a great investment. The first
thing me and the team at Hamilton Bradshaw did was update
Sammy’s website with a video demonstration on it so she no
longer had to take the treadmill to potential customers to
demonstrate it. We looked at her pricing, at her manufacturing

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