[Music] First to face the dragons a siblings Chris and Mike Nell good luck we're done Yeah and when it comes to business they Like to keep it in the family working With your brothers better for us than Working with people who maybe wouldn't Understand this as much as we do each Other The brothers are hoping to set pulses Racing in the den with their game-based Business Ahoy dragons oh I hope we get To have a go for the dragons we've got a Small snapshot of what one of the games That's involved I do think we'll get to Have a go and I think what they'll want Is we put Peter in the cannon Fire him at the wall oh I'm in that's a Bit hard Hopefully we've made it easy enough They're surely smart enough right yeah They should be Hi I'm Chris and this is Mike my brother And business partner of Escape Kent Limited Today we are looking for a hundred Thousand pounds investment in return for A five percent share of our immersive Escape room company in our first full Year we made a turnover of 334 000 Pounds since then the figures have Improved year on year and that's despite The current coronavirus pandemic we've Now begun developing our latest form of
Escape game which will allow us to cater For over double the number of customers With just one third of the staff our Plan is to further develop this new Improved Escape Game format that we will Be branding as Timescape Adventures Your investment will support the Franchise of this concept which will Result in us becoming a well-known Global brand We'd like to invite two of you to come And play one of our bespoke pirate Themed games Um You can waste any time there Themed Escape rooms with the potential To be rolled out worldwide and the Offering from Chris and Mike now you'll Notice you've got a cannonball in the uh In the top of the the sail there your Mission is to get that cannibal from the Top of the Crow's Nest work your way Through the Labyrinth Maze and out at This end here the entrepreneurs are Seeking a hundred thousand pounds in Exchange for five percent of their Business come on sir what's the actual Way out that's it that's it come on You've got it The dragon Seymour bored with the Immersive experience be gentle with me Yes even if catching the tide doesn't Appear high on their agenda God you guys Are taking a long time aren't you okay
Yes yes yes [Music] Oh and there's your treasure the Treasure see you later losers Sarah Davies helps herself to some Pieces of eight oh good are these but Will she be interested in pocketing a Piece of Chris and Mike's company [Music] That's awesome guys I'm sure you already Know I absolutely love escape rooms and That was different to anything else I've Played in an escape room before we tried To make our games a little bit more Skill based a bit more Hands-On oh I Love this so just give me a little bit More flavor on those figures so your First full year you did 334 yes what's The years look like since then This following year we we turned over 479 000 and a net profit of 30 000. the Year after that was the covid year so we Had two months close we made 483 000 Turnover on that yeah and fifteen Thousand on the net last year where it's Been covered the net profit is higher at 93 because we had a coronavirus loan of 70 000 pounds And to talk me through how the new Escape room concept is going to work Essentially with an escape room you have One space and you'll have a collection Of puzzles a group will go in there They're in there for an hour no one else
Can use that space what we've done is We've stripped the puzzle out into Individual rooms with our format we can Actually get four groups in every hour At a minimum potentially with some Tweaking we could make that up to six A clear strategy for maximizing Revenue Without impacting on the customer Experience always goes down well in the Den Now Deborah meaden wants to discover More about the brothers plans for Rolling out their business As a franchisee what are you going to Charge me So for each unit it's going to be 200 000 pounds for the setup and it'll be Two thousand pounds a month for a Franchise fee so according to the Numbers that you've set out it would Take them about 10 years to get their Money back Because you've done about 20K net profit A year No because if money has gone into US Expanding they wouldn't need to spend The money expanding and the 200 000. First question I'm asking as a Franchisee is prove to me that I will Get my money back quickly show me I Agree with you about proving the point And that is why we are building our own So that we can actually show it in Action and we can show a good profit and
I I'm confident I know we will show a Good profit from that that is Hypothetical because there's no business You've got where you can say here is our First location and we've generated a Hundred thousand in net profit One thing I want to ask you straight Away is why franchise And the reason why I asked that is Because there are not many successful Franchises out there if you start to Open up a franchise now in its infancy You'll get different types of a level of Service you're not established as a Timescape brand and some others will see This and say do you know what I'll go And create Viking Escape I'll do Something similar but different but own It all I'll do it myself It takes a lot to to run a nine game Setup yeah and there's very few people Out there that we know of that have the Years of experience and that's why we're Extremely confident about the the future Plans that we've put in place [Music] Despite Dragon doubts the entrepreneurs Are standing firm on their plans for Franchising But Deborah meaden has past experience Which suggests that Chris and Mike could Face an uncertain future You might or might not know but I spent Most well all of my working career in
The Leisure industry My company had those paintball zones Greatest rage but they actually went out Pretty quickly so where would you Describe you are at the moment in terms Of escape games on its Journeys because It's certainly a little way down the Track We see it going on for years and years Especially with the last year year and a Half Um where people have been stuck indoors Everyone's going to be wanting to get Out and about that's not quite the Answer so that is true of every single Craze that I've ever seen but all of These things have a lifespan it worries Me you can't describe that honestly I I Don't know at this stage when it's going To drop and I don't think it will it Will can I challenge that as well it Will in the last five years things like Bowling alleys and Flight Club and the Crazy golf formats have seen this huge Spike and one of the key factors is they Are incredibly instagramable I found out About Flight Club because I saw it on 10 People's Instagram when it came to Manchester and then there's even the ax Throwing thing that's now emerged it's Almost like these are Trends because It's super instagramable And this is not the same could be said About uh an escape room really but it's
Not though is it it's been around Forever Do you know what though guys as well Everything's about Instagram with him It's is this instagramable is it great For the gram the world we live in I Think Escape rooms is enough all to do With Instagram it's just about having a Lovely afternoon out and I don't want to Go somewhere so that I can take a Picture and put it on Instagram Stephen how many have you played Probably about 30. and I just it's just Not exciting anymore I want to invest in formats of the Future and I don't believe that is So for that reason I'm out Chris and Mike have lost their first Dragon a social media Mogul Stephen Bartlett declares his intention to set Trends rather than follow them Will their escape room style concept Spark greater enthusiasm elsewhere in The den I've never been to one And as a dragon it's gonna excite me how Can this man absolutely come on I'm Going to take you to one it's gonna Excite me in business you know and I've Been very honest I've been very credible But for this one I'm going to escape Invested So guys I wish you all the best On this one I'm out thank you appreciate
That thank you So guys Um I really think you should rethink the Franchise model This is a considered franchise this Isn't something where you pay twenty Thousand pound up front and then buy Product you know these people have got Half a million pound in the bank because They're going to need two hundred Thousand pound for your setup they're Going to have to have the working Capital these are grown-up business People who are doing this having worked In the Leisure industry I see the people who you're talking About they can put this stuff together You know they will think they can do it As well as you can do it He disagrees but I know these people Okay they're smart they're Savvy they Are on to the latest and greatest And I can just see if this has got legs On it then I can name you the families That will be doing it that name will be Us it will be it will be doing it I hope So Chris I hope so I have a fear that it Won't be So I won't be investing I'm out Chris and Mike are in danger of sinking As a Leisure industry Savvy Deborah Meaden becomes the Third Dragon to bail Out on a deal Sarah Davies profited from the Pirate
Puzzle but has she heard enough to Convince her that this Enterprise could Be an ongoing source of booty Right guys I like the escape room I believe Possibly a little bit more than some of The other dragons here in the future of That concept And I believe that you have the skills To build and run really effective Escape Rooms Don't believe you've got the business Acumen to be able to roll out a Franchise model that's where I think you Need some help So on that basis I would like to make You an offer So I will offer you all of the money a Hundred thousand But in return for that I would be Looking for 25 of the business An offer for Chris and Mike all of the Money albeit in exchange for five times More Equity than the pair we're looking To give away Peter Jones wasn't buying into the Brother scheme to scale up is he Prepared to buy into their business I think you know I Instantly environmentally completely Disagree with your strategy over Franchise and I can see looking at you Mike you're hearing that your face it's
Kind of Just trying to process everything yeah Because for me my strategy would be to Open up as many as you can on your own And potentially even sell those Individual franchises off after you've Proven you've put the staff in it's Under control you've shown profits and Then people are willing to then invest Their hard-earned cash in a sustainable Business model and that's when I think You'll get a decent return Okay so if we're agreed that that is the Strategy Then I too will make you an offer Otherwise it's not going to work between Us The reason we're here is because the Expertise that you guys can bring so if You're going to tell us this is the best Strategy then we would definitely take That on board Okay So I'm going to make you an offer I'm going to offer you all of the money But I too are going to ask for 25 Percent And I'd also be willing to share it with Sarah because I think we knocked the Game out of the park when we played it We were good Peter when we were we're Good I'd be up for that Thank you well we've built our own walls So we can uh you can go and stand beside
Your own while seeing a good job Tomorrow since then our walls Lovely thank you Zara Davies and Peter Jones have each Offered a hundred thousand pounds in Exchange for 25 of the company Foreign but the pair are also willing to Divide the spoils equally between them All right nice head yeah yeah Decision time for Chris and Mike Thanks for your offers guys really Really do appreciate them We do want both dragons on board and We're hoping that If we could make your money back within Two years Um you've dropped down to 10 from there Each Foreign I'd be happy with that if Sarah is Would you take that as well sir I'd do that guys It's a deal Thank you victory for the entrepreneurs I'm gonna come and play please don't Make sure you Instagram it who set sail In a New Direction with the hundred Thousand pounds they were seeking and Two captains of Commerce as part of Their crew you smashed it can I yeah it Really well good it hasn't completely Sunk in yet and it's been extremely Surreal it's tough on it yeah it's Definitely a life-changing experience
And I'm buzzing so I'm a bit all over The place we were a good team on the Room we'll be a good team in business Absolutely yeah good luck guys yeah
