{"id":89362,"date":"2025-08-24T11:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T11:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/89362\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T11:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T11:04:08","slug":"jeering-dragons-den-panel-called-my-business-a-delusional-disaster-now-im-worth-40million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/89362\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeering Dragons’ Den panel called my business a ‘delusional disaster’ – now I’m worth \u00a340million!"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those who walk away\u00a0cash injections of tens of thousands of pounds, the daunting prospect of going on Dragon’s Den<\/a> is well worth the anxiety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for the entrepreneurs who walk out of the Den empty handed, there’s a drive to prove the Dragons wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of those very people is\u00a0Alessandro Savelli, who co-founded currently serves as the CEO of Pasta Envangelists – a fresh pasta chain which started as letter box posted kits.<\/p>\n

Alessandro and his business partner\u00a0Finn Lagun stepped into the Den back in 2018 asking for\u00a0a \u00a375,000 investment for a 2.5 per cent cut of the company.<\/p>\n

But their pitch was rejected, with\u00a0Dragon Jenny Campbell even calling Finn ‘delusional’ and ‘a disaster’.<\/p>\n

Now worth around \u00a340million, Pasta Evangelists’ success grew and grew in the years after its ill-fated appearance on the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"For <\/p>\n

For those who walk away cash injections of tens of thousands of pounds, the daunting prospect of going on Dragon’s Den is well worth the anxiety – but for the entrepreneurs who walk out of the Den empty handed, there’s a drive to prove the Dragons wrong<\/p>\n

\"One <\/p>\n

One of those very people is Alessandro Savelli, who co-founded currently serves as the CEO of Pasta Envangelists – a fresh pasta chain which started as letter box posted kits<\/p>\n

The company is set to open\u00a0100 new restaurants across the UK in the next five years, in the south of England, the Midlands, and Scotland.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Grocer, Alessandro revealed the chain’s plans to expand and shared that they are pumping \u00a330million into the new restaurants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The demand for our fresh, beautifully cooked artisan pasta is growing,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘Our intention is to become the UK’s fastest-growing, casual dining hot spot and the hottest place to eat for pasta lovers of all ages.’<\/p>\n

Alessandro added: ‘The hospitality industry is going through tough times at the moment, but we are confident that our business model is robust and dynamic,<\/p>\n

‘…and the proof of this is we have already bucked the trend with the confirmed opening of five more restaurants in the space of three months, and more to come.’<\/p>\n

Many other businesses walked away from the Den with nothing spoke about how they went on to make millions, including BrewDog.<\/p>\n

When the boys behind BrewDog, James Watt and Martin Dickie, applied for the show in 2009, they were seeking a \u00a3100,000 investment for 20 per cent of their business.<\/p>\n

\"Alessandro <\/p>\n

Alessandro and his business partner Finn Lagun stepped into the Den back in 2018 asking for a \u00a375,000 investment for a 2.5 per cent cut of the company<\/p>\n

\"But <\/p>\n

But their pitch was rejected, with Dragon Jenny Campbell even calling Finn ‘delusional’ and ‘a disaster’<\/p>\n

They were turned down, but went on to find enormous success anyway, and the business was valued at\u00a0upwards of \u00a31.8billion<\/a>\u00a0in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It had a revenue of\u00a0\u00a3366milion in 2023, a 14 percent increase from the previous year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If one of the Dragons had invested the asking amount, they would have seen returns in the ballpark of about \u00a3360 million.<\/p>\n

They’ve since gone on to build strong relationships with some of the Dragons, who were each disappointed in the missed opportunity to work together.<\/p>\n

‘Overall, they make some good decisions and some questionable ones,’ James previously told MailOnline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It’s very hard to judge a business in five minutes, which is what you get to pitch.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"If <\/p>\n

If one of the Dragons had invested the asking amount, they would have seen returns in the ballpark of about \u00a3360 million<\/p>\n

James, who is now married to Made In Chelsea star Georgia Toffolo, described it as a ‘stroke of luck’ that they didn’t sell 20 per cent of their business at the time.<\/p>\n

He had in the past expressed disappointment in the entire process of seeking investors.<\/p>\n

He said: ‘In the US, people who take risks and create jobs are celebrated; in the UK the best they can expect is to be tolerated. We are far from alone in this regard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The BBC in particular has a barely disguised distaste for entrepreneurs (the whole purpose of Dragons Den, for example, is to present entrepreneurs as deluded fantasists. The same is true of The Apprentice).’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For those who walk away\u00a0cash injections of tens of thousands of pounds, the daunting prospect of going on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97,26923,59,86,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-89362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-dragons","10":"tag-gb","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}