‘On the first day of filming I was really polite – I didn’t want to interrupt or speak over people, and the producers took me to one side and said, “Hey, you’re never going to get a look-in here, just go for it,”’ she says.Sara was just 20 when the first series came out and recalls watching it at university with her fellow management studies friends. Primarily, I’m looking for a fantastic person. ‘The size of investment being asked for by entrepreneurs is greater these days,’ he reflects.‘Before, typically, it was £15,000, £25,000 – now you’re getting entrepreneurs coming in asking for £100,000, even £200,000.’All of them agree that the real lure of the show, for them, is what Touker calls ‘the big one’. 'I love the fact you never know what or who is coming through when the lift doors open.’Sara Davies, 35, (pictured) who is the Co Durham-born founder of Crafter’s invests over half a million pounds after replacing Jenny Campbell in the DenPart of the show’s ongoing appeal is the sheer variety of ideas, and emerging this year alongside the would-be entrepreneurs is a supporting cast of horses, dogs, babies and even dancing bears, mixed in with the likes of toilet brushes and tanning products.There are also a couple of firsts (which we can’t reveal at this stage), not to mention some hitherto unseen tears. 'I want to find the next Levi Roots.’ In fact, it seems he thinks he has. Sara Davies is a new additionAt 53, he’s the show’s longest-standing Dragon, there from the very first series 14 years ago and still in one of the five hotseats as the show returns for its 17th series this month. Amusing snaps show fearless pets stealing food from their owners - and they don't even...'Well converted' studio apartment with a bed suspended over the stairs and a bookcase to stop you 'falling...Sophie takes the cockpit!
‘By the time I graduated my business was bigger than the family business they’d had for 25 years,’ she recalls.That turnover has since increased to £34 million, a phenomenal success that has latterly brought Sara an MBE, presented by Prince William. Sara Davies, MBE, is an entrepreneur and television personality who was born in Coundon, County Durham in … ‘When I first came on the show the pitches mostly seemed to be about snacks and drinks, but now there’s a change in terms of different types of businesses,’ he says.Self-professed ‘details man’ Tej, meanwhile – now in his third season – believes ‘entrepreneurs are the new rock stars’, and that the latest crop all want the Dragons to give more for less. Series of challenging seek-and-find puzzles including spot the...A bit of all white! ‘I will say that Peter’s actually got a very good one – he’s got one I wanted, and it’s not often that happens, and it was a very, very good one, but I personally think that this time I’ve got one of the strongest sets of investments.’And with that the sparring starts again – although only, of course, until they walk off the set. She is the founder and owner of Crafter’s Companion, a company she started while a student at the University of York. An outstanding entrepreneur can carry a mediocre idea, but the most revolutionary idea wouldn’t be able to get off the ground with a mediocre entrepreneur. In particular, I love products where there’s been some real innovation and when they provide a genuine solution to a real problem. The Co Durham-born founder of craft supplies company Crafter’s Companion replaces the short-lived Jenny Campbell, who made a fortune from automatic cash machines but built up a reputation on the show for not putting her money where her mouth was investment-wise.It’s a criticism Sara is unlikely to attract: viewers will see her invest over half a million pounds in this, her first outing, including the show’s single biggest investment this series with a £150,000 stake.It’s one way of saying, ‘I’ve arrived’, and it seems her new peers agreed.