VeryPC: Dragons' Den savaging helped us
Eco PC firm responds to BBC show nastiness
VeryPC supremo Peter Hopton has told TechRadar that he was very disappointed with the BBC's editing of his ill-fated Dragon's Den appearance, in which his ecological agenda was ridiculed by a panel of investors.
Hopton had valued his PC brand at £5 million and asked for £250,000 from the panel of the popular TV show for 5 per cent of his company.
However, with Peter Jones scathing about how green his eco-PC line actually was, he walked away with no investment.
New investment
Hopton – who revealed that a family member has now invested – insists that the publicity he received has aided his company rather than hindered it.
"What we found was that anyone with technical nous watched the show and disagreed with the comments made by Peter Jones," said Hopton.
"They thought his comments were very personal and very nasty, but we have benefited from the publicity so it has backfired on the Dragons."
Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
Eco-credentials
"Of course we're concerned that our ecological credentials were questioned, but I wasn't in there for five minutes I was in for two-and-a-half hours and I was very disappointed with the way the BBC edited the interview.
"Because they didn't invest in us they obviously wanted to discredit the company. But on the same show the Dragons DID invest in disposable plastic and battery light-up glasses which cannot be disposed of properly."
"I did regret going onto the show after I walked off the set, but we have got a lot of support and flocks of emails from people who agree with what we are doing.
"At the end of the day our final motivation isn't business but ethics and they hate anything that isn't solely business on Dragon's Den.
"I suppose that, ultimately, it's an entertainment show."
Patrick Goss is the ex-Editor in Chief of TechRadar. Patrick was a passionate and experienced journalist, and he has been lucky enough to work on some of the finest online properties on the planet, building audiences everywhere and establishing himself at the forefront of digital content. After a long stint as the boss at TechRadar, Patrick has now moved on to a role with Apple, where he is the Managing Editor for the App Store in the UK.