Pitching may not be up there with sculpture or oil painting, but it certainly is a fine art. Equal parts knowledge, preparation and smooth talking, a good pitch is flashy enough to grab attention and tough enough to handle the inevitable holes investors and customers are waiting to poke through it. Or in the case of Dragons Den or Shark Tank, burn or bite through it.
The “entrepreneurs as entertainment” franchise has spread to more than 15 countries worldwide, most recently hitting the US. It seems you learn almost as much from watching the successes and slip-ups that others make in their pitches as you do from making your own. I can’t speak for all the series, but in the UK version it seems that the pitch to investment ratio is pretty realistic, and by that I mean it is very low. Producers tend to stock the show with plenty of weirdos just for entertainment value, but the real spectacle comes when a good business idea comes through that the investors are salivating over. It can be excruciating to watch, especially when it strikes cords in your own life, to see some pitchers desperate for money over a product they have invested their life and oftentimes their lifesaving in. But even though this is a cut throat form of entertainment, it’s real and it’s a nice education if you are about to put your own company on the line.
Without reading too much into it (and having not yet watched it) I’m wondering why this global phenomenon has run for seven seasons in the UK, three in Canada and many in multiple other countries but only survived one in Australia? Granted, it seems the format was changed a little bit in the Australian market (a bit more like The New Inventors) but I’m wondering if it isn’t tall poppy syndrome.
