TWO entrepreneurs have revealed how they turned down Peter Jones' biggest ever Dragons' Den cash offer of £200,000 for one bizarre reason.
In an exclusive interview, Ben Fry and Phil Pinder, who appeared on the BBC One show last week, said they turned down the huge cash injection because they felt Dragons' Den star Jones was not "magical enough" for their wizarding-themed attractions.
"The Potions Cauldron are the makers of magical drinks and the creators of magical experiences," Ben, chief enchantment officer at the company, told The Sun.
"We have range of magic potions drinks, our apothecary in York and our magical golf courses in Blackpool and York and we went on to Dragons' Den asking them for an investment to open a third wizarding golf course in Edinburgh.
"We got offered Peter's biggest ever cash offer. He's been in deals before where he's offered that amount with three or four other Dragons but this is the biggest amount of money Peter Jones has ever offered in one deal.
"It was a lot of cash you could see the other Dragons rolling their eyes. They were shocked that one Dragon would be parting with so much cash.
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"It sounds terrible but we turned it down because we just didn't feel like he was magical enough.
"What we wanted was someone to buy into the whole idea. We wanted a trainee wizard as well as a business guru and he seemed to only be interested in the numbers – not the magic, which is what our business is about.
"When it came down to the crunch and we thought what would he actually be adding, it was just money, we wanted him to add magic."
The self-proclaimed wizards say they have received a lot of criticism for turning down the cash – with people even calling them "idiots".
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"I think it will be something that will haunt my dreams forever," Phil said.
"We've already had people telling us that we are idiots for turning down the money.
"In terms of the business we have no regrets but we'll never know if saying no was the right decision, it's like that Changing Doors scenario.
"It's like did you get on the train or did you not and what exactly would have happened?
"As Ben said on the show I think we're 'ploughing our own furrow' now and we have to go with our journey and see what happens.
"But we're rolling out our cauldrons brand in Edinburgh and we've just been to London to look at a property there to see if we can do the same there, so things are looking good."
Ben added: "We filmed the show last May and I knew it was coming – the reckoning of people assessing our decision.
"It's like nobody agrees with what we've done."
The pair, from Yorkshire, also revealed some of the behind-the-scenes secrets from the hit show.
They revealed that the Dragons and entrepreneurs are separated from each other and are not allowed to even pass each other in the corridor – so the pitches remain a secret until the reveal.
They were shocked to be grilled for a massive three hours and said it was extremely stressful to be quizzed on facts and figures for so long.
"We've spoken to other people who said it's one of the longest pitches they've ever heard of. It's usually a max of two hours," Ben said.
"We definitely got a grilling. Obviously, 200 grand is a lot of anyone's money so they were very thorough and very in-depth.
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"Peter did a bit of gameplay because he was very critical towards us which not only put us off but it put all the Dragons off investing in us too. It was very clever of him.
"But ultimately it cost him this deal because it made us think he wasn't that interested in us."
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