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William Berry
William's not burned by greedy dragons
Chris Barry29/11/2005
A YOUNG entrepreneur has branded two of the BBC's expert business "dragons" as greedy after he walked away from a deal to sell part of his company to them.
William Berry, 29, who will be seen on tonight episode of Dragons' Den on BBC2, is a director and co-founder of Manchester-based Accommodation for Students, a web-based property rental company.
Mr Berry, whose duel with millionaire businessmen Theo Paphitis and Doug Richard is a major part of the show, clashed over their valuation of his business.
He had been seeking £150,000 for a 15 per cent stake, while they were offering the same money for a 60 per cent stake.
Greedy
He said today: "Dragons' Den was a fantastic experience but I think Theo and Doug were unquestionably being greedy.
"Business leaders should share the risk of young entrepreneurs and not just try to take advantage of them. I was willing to be flexible on my valuation, maybe going to 25 per cent, but they were not moving on their valuation.
"I have learned a lot from the programme - it was a very intimidating experience - and I think it could be structured so that it's more of a win-win situation for the contestants as well as the judges."
Students
Mr Berry set up the business in his third year of a business studies degree at Manchester Metropolitan University after identifying the need for a web-based service, that was free to students.
"Basically I realised it was either look at a card in a shop window or going through long lists of university properties, neither of which were ideal. We launched the service, and in five years we now turn over £200,000. We make money by charging landlords a monthly fee. Students don't pay a penny.
"We know our business works, and we were looking for advice and investment to help us with our plans to expand into Europe."
Despite walking away from the deal offered by Theo Paphitis, who owns Millwall FC, the La Senza lingerie business and the Partners stationery chain, and US tech specialist Doug Richard, Mr Berry is confident the programme will help find an investor.
He said: "From a publicity and profile-building point of view appearing on Dragons' Den is fantastic, the exposure we get is tremendous and I am sure we will attract investment."
His sparring with the dragons promises to make compelling viewing.
Responding to judge Peter Jones, who claimed he could have built the site in two weeks, William offers to run naked around Trafalgar Square if this was done.
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30/11/2005 at 19:00
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With the value of the sterling so low, should the UK now join the euro?
13/03/2006 at 10:14
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