Dragons missed out on serious beer money with BrewDog snub

James Watt, the co-founder of Scottish craft beer giant BrewDog, has revealed that Dragon’s Den investors missed out on “by far the best deal” in the show’s history.

The brewing and pub chain CEO made the revelation in a recent Linkedin post.

He wrote: “Back in 2009, after BrewDog had been running successfully for two years, we applied to go on Dragon’s Den and pitch to the Dragons.

“We got through the initial application process and were selected for a screen trial in Manchester. Martin and I put on our best clothes, practised our presentation and drove down to the BBC studios where we pitched our hearts out during the screen trial and thought we did quite a good job.

“However, the producers did not.

“They thought our business wasn’t a good-enough investment proposition for the Dragons and that BrewDog was not unique enough, special enough or with enough growth potential to make the grade and appear on the show. So at the last minute it was decided that we would not get to pitch our business to the Dragons.

“It was a huge kick in the teeth for us at the time and that stinging rejection still burns today.

‘Neat little business’

Our pitch would have seen us offer the Dragons 20% of BrewDog for a £100,000 investment.

“Since the producers turned us down, we have gone on to build a pretty neat little business which is currently valued at £1.8 billion and which has raised over £250m.

“Had we been able to pitch (and had any of the Dragons invested) that £100,000 would now be worth a whopping £360 million. It would have been by far the most lucrative investment not only in the history of Dragon’s Den but pretty much in investment history overall.”

As of March 2021, the company has raised some $100 million across various crowdfunding and private equity rounds, exports to more than 60 countries, has a turnover of around £200 million as of its 2020 accounts, and employs close to 1,000 people worldwide.