I was told I’d live to regret rejecting Dragons’ Den offer that was worse than a bank loan… but my business makes £2.4m
AS Hazel Reynolds walked out empty-handed on Dragons’ Den, the cocky investors claimed she would “live to regret” turning them down.
The mum-of-two, from Brighton, had just rejected Jenny Campbell’s £50,000 offer for 20 per cent of her business, dropping to 15 per cent if she paid back the money within two years.
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Six years on from her time on Dragons’ Den, the 37-year-old proclaims she is “the living evidence” that turning them down was the best decision she could have made.
Her party game company, Gamely, has gone from a £199,000 turnover to £2.4million turnover last year and regularly features among Amazon’s top games.
Hazel tells The Sun: “Peter Jones declared after I had left ‘She’ll live to regret that!’ but I can tell you I have absolutely no regrets.
“Turning down that investment was a great decision… Jenny Campbell’s offer seemed like such a bad deal.
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“We could have got a bank loan fairly easily for £50,000 and paid it off in two years while still owning 100 per cent of the company.
“I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t very good’ but it was a difficult decision to make and the pressure is on with five Dragons looking at you.”
‘Bad offer’
Hazel was invited to apply for Dragons’ Den by a producer and says a few surprises lay in store for her when she went in to pitch.
She says: “They gave me these weird curls I’d never wear and a full face of make-up, so when I watch it back it doesn’t feel like me, it felt like someone else.
“I probably told the people in hair and make-up ‘do whatever you think’ because I was thinking so much about what I was going to say.”
Inside the Den, she asked for £50,000 for 10 per cent of her business. Soon into her pitch, both of her desired Dragons – Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden – pulled out.
Tej Lalvani and Touker Suleyman followed, leaving Jenny Campbell, who asked for 25 per cent equity.
“I was shocked,” Hazel said. “We valued our company quite conservatively – we believed 10 per cent for £50,000 was a really good offer.
“You expect them to negotiate but it felt like ‘Oh, that’s quite a lot of our company’… also Jenny was a wild card because I wasn’t clear the exact skills she would bring.”
After further negotiations, Jenny’s final offer was for 20 per cent of the business – dropping to 15 per cent if the investment was repaid within two years.
“At the time, I was kind of surprised,” Hazel said. “I thought it was quite a bad offer, the two-year payback for me didn’t make financial sense. “
Staged reactions
Hazel turned the Dragon and left the Den believing she had a “pleasant experience” – but on TV it appeared very differently.
After she rejected them, the cameras flashed to the Dragons’ shocked faces and after she walked away, surprising remarks were made.
They included Jenny, whose jaw dropped as she mouthed the word ‘mad’ and then said: “I’ve got a new game, words fail me.”
Peter Jones added: “Wow, oh my god, that is a complete charade. That was an amazing offer and I think she’s going to live to regret that.”
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Their animated responses came as somewhat of a surprise to Hazel, who suspects they may have been added in the edits.
Hazel said: “It was funny to see those reactions on TV, they were quite dramatic. When I turned down the offer it didn’t feel that surprising given the negotiations and how it went.
“The ending I got was very pleasant, it was ‘Ok. No worries. Good luck with your future.’ I received a nice ending.
I love that comment now. It’s brilliant. ‘She’ll live to regret that’… I really, really, really don’t regret it
Hazel Reynolds
“I don’t remember them being super shocked… I think those reactions may have been filmed after, all the ‘She’ll live to regret that’ was definitely filmed after I was long gone.
“But I mean they kind of need to have some drama at the end to make it fun for the TV but that was all filmed after I’d gone.
“I love that comment now. It’s brilliant. ‘She’ll live to regret that’… I really, really, really don’t regret it.”
Dragons’ Den stars – past and present
Dragons’ Den has been on our screens since 2005 and sees entrepreneurs enter the Den to try and win investment for their businesses from the Dragons.
Over the years there have been many wealthy investors sitting in the famous seats, here’s a rundown of them all and how long they were on the show for.
- Peter Jones – series 1 – present
- Deborah Meaden – series 3 – present
- Touker Suleyman – series 13 – present
- Sara Davies – series 17 – present
- Steven Bartlett – series 19 – present
- Duncan Bannatyne – series 1 – 12
- Rachel Elnaugh – series 1 and 2
- Doug Richard – series 1 and 2
- Simon Woodroffe – series 1
- Theo Paphitis – series 2 -10
- Richard Farleigh – series 3 and 4
- James Caan – series 5-8
- Hilary Devey – series 9 and 10
- Kelly Hoppen – series 11 and 12
- Piers Linney – series 11 and 12
- Nick Jenkins – series 13 and 14
- Sarah Willingham – series 13 and 14
- Jenny Campbell – series 15 and 16
- Tej Lalvani – series 15 – 18
- Emma Grede and Gary Neville were guest Dragons during series 21.
Aside from landing a potential investor, another perk of appearing on the show is the publicity.
Former contestant Paul Stanley, who appeared on the show 2019, told us he “easily made £40,000 off the back of the show”.
But for Hazel that didn’t happen and she believes it was due to “unfortunate timing” because the show aired on December 23.
“It was probably the worst timing for us,” she says. “We’re a very seasonal business, we do 80 per cent of sales in November and December as everyone buys games for Christmas.
“Unfortunately back then, you couldn’t get an Amazon delivery in time for Christmas so it was too late to order our games.”
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Hazel believes they sold an extra 200 games thanks to the show but it was the following year where the impact may have been felt.
She explains: “Our sales doubled in 2019, I’m not sure if it was to do with the show. We brought out two new games too, which may have played a part in that.”
That year they were also named Amazon’s Small Business of the Year in a public vote, which earned them £10,000 advertising credit and a trip to the business’s headquarters in Seattle for advice.
‘Escaping nightmare job’
Such success was a surprise to Hazel, who admits she launched Gamely in 2015 to escape “a nightmare job”.
It followed the former journalist moving to Brighton to take what she thought was her dream role at a charity that didn’t pan out.
“I was escaping a nightmare job,” Hazel recalls. “After three months of crying after work, which really knocked my confidence, my husband said maybe you should turn that game you made into something.”
He was referring to Randomise – a game that she created to encourage her 12-year-old sister to spend quality time with the family rather than playing on her iPad.
Dragons’ Den and The Apprentice focus on being mean and ferocious and about treating people unkindly, which I don’t think is very representative
Hazel Reynolds
Now Hazel’s company turns over £2.4million and her products regularly feature in Amazon’s Top 10 Games online thanks to having fans across the globe.
Alongside 13 games in English – including their most popular creation Six Second Scribbles – they also have 22 European language variants, with Germany “turning out to be a big market”.
By the end of 2024, Gamely will have sold one million games and released four new titles – the most they have released in a year.
The success of the company, which has donated £125,000 and 10,000 games to charity, is “beyond my wildest dreams”, Hazel admits.
When asked if she’s a millionaire, she tells us: “The company is likely worth at least £1million, if not significantly more. Do we have £1million in cash? No. We’re reinvesting most of our profits to grow the company.”
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Hazel says the most surprising thing about her Dragons’ Den experience was how supportive they were.
“It doesn’t always feel like they are on the show, they make it seem like it’s a fierce, vicious place where the Dragons tear people apart and breathe fire,” she explains.
The entrepreneur believes Dragons’ Den – and rival business show The Apprentice – are outdated as they paint the wrong image of what business is like.
“They are the two biggest shows and they focus on being mean and ferocious and about treating people unkindly, which I don’t think is very representative,” she says.
“There’s also the idea that entrepreneurs have to work 80 hours a week, sacrifice their family and have really cutthroat negotiations but that’s not the case.”
Gamely has seven staff members, all of whom work part-time hours including Hazel, who works three days a week including one day from either the beach or a café.
She says: “We work part-time but we’re very efficient in that time and I think the reason we can be so efficient is because there’s no office drama, no politics and everyone has flexibility.”
This includes the unusual move to have ‘one-to-ones’ on the beach. Hazel says: “I text them saying bring your trunks in case we fancy a dip.
“I find you have different conversations when swimming in the sea and can get to things quicker and be more honest.”
Hazel, who has no regrets about appearing on the show, says she hasn’t been contacted by the Dragons.
She says: “I’m sure they are not thinking much about me, they see hundreds of companies… but I’m still waiting for the BBC to come round to film a ‘what happened next’ segment with us.”
Find out more about Gamely Games here. Dragons’ Den airs at 8pm tonight on BBC One and is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
