Best friends who turned down a Dragons’ Den offer for their business have proved they could go it alone now that their business is worth £2.6 million.
Alex Somervell, 27, and Jonny Pryn, 25, refused a £60,000 cash offer from Peter Jones in exchange for 20% of the business.
Dragons’ Den star Jones, along with fellow dragons Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman, Jenny Campbell and Tej Lalvani, were stunned as the friends rejected the offer in an intense exchanged aired last Sunday.
But, eight months on, the pair’s business One Third Stories – producing tools to help children learn foreign languages – is now worth a massive £2.6 million.
Having only been prepared to offer 7.5% equity, Mr Somervell and Mr Pryn were sneered at and dubbed “greedy”, with Meaden dismissing “greed” as “naivety”.
Mr Somervell told The Sun: “When Peter Jones made the offer we were tempted because he was the Dragon we really wanted. Before we went in we discussed the option of negotiating, but we gave our best offer and had to stand firm.
“We knew our business had a lot more potential than he gave us credit for - and we were confident enough to leave without a deal. Afterwards we did wonder whether we'd done the right thing, but we know now we did for sure.”
He added to the publication that it had been “one hell of an adventure”.
The Dragons’ – and viewers – were impressed with the duos business venture of creating storybooks to help children learn another language, with tales starting in English and ending in a second language.
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