Dragons’ Den viewers were left furious after Thursday night’s episode, accusing guest judge Emma Grede of ‘belitting’ a young female entrepreneur’s business proposition.
Nitya Dintakurti, who lives in London and is from India, went on the BBC show in the hopes of securing £100,000 for her menopausal cooling device.
Her product, the Coolzen, was pitched as a wearable cooling device designed to provide instant relief from hot flushes.
Having graduated with a degree in biomedical engineering from Kings College London, Nitya was convinced her innovative product for women could be a hit – but sadly failed to score an investment from any of the five dragons.
The young entrepreneur, 23, who had graduated university just three years prior, had hoped to secure the money in return for 2.5 per cent of the corporation.
But the dragons were immediately skeptical of the product, as it had not undergone clinical trials.
Guest dragon, Emma Grede, who has appeared on the BBC show before, was initially complimentary but quickly fired out criticism when she asked the entrepreneur about her distribution of the menopausal product.
While many agreed with what she was saying, others disliked the delivery of her comments, with one alleging she had spent 25 minutes ‘belittling’ the business founder.
Dragons’ Den viewers slammed guest judge Emma Grede, accusing her of ‘belitting’ a young female entrepreneur’s business proposition on tonight’s episode
Beginning her pitch, Nitya said: ‘Imagine every cell of your body on fire – sweating profusely and turning red unannounced.
‘This is how dome women would describe their menopause,’ she added before going on to unveil the product, demonstrating on a friend and offering the dragons to try for themselves.
The product, which is designed to detect the onset of a menopause-induced hot flushed, purported to deliver cooling effects within just 45 seconds to reduce discomfort caused by symptoms. The device could also be connected to the ‘Unpause’ mobile app to easily control the settings.
After delivering her pitch, Emma, 42, immediately had questions, asking Nitya how she planned to get the product out to consumers.
She explained that she hoped to reach consumers through clinicians – a response that didn’t impress the guest dragon.
Emma said; ‘Already this tells me you’re not really thinking about bringing this to market in the right way.’
She noted that rival companies targeting of customers directly was the better approach since it reached ‘the person suffering’.
‘You want to bypass the doctors and get straight to the sufferer,’ said the judge, adding that many women struggle to get through to doctors when discussing their symptoms.
Nitya Dintakurti, who lives in London and is from India, went on the BBC show in the hopes of securing £100,000 for her menopausal cooling device
Her product, the Coolzen (pictured), was pitched as a wearable cooling device designed to provide instant relief from hot flushes
Emma (pictured), who is was a guest Dragon on the episode, told Nitya she wasn’t sure if she was the ‘right person’ to be the face of the brand
Despite their initial enthusiasm, the 23-year-old didn’t get any offers from the Dragons
‘This is a consumer facing product, you need to figure out out you’re going to get it in their hands,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t seem to me like you’ve got that far yet.’
‘I think it’s interesting that you’ve come here asking for £100,000 when your competitor’s just raised £50 million,’ she added, giving the example of a rival business in the US.
She complimented her efforts but said she would have ‘rather’ she’d asked for money to spend on clinical and market trials instead.
‘But you haven’t said that today,’ she said, while Nitya struggled to hit back.
‘You’re picking up a ton of information and if you’re smart as an entrepreneur, you’ll gobble up. Because this, here, with these dragons, is an amazing opportunity for you to think about future of your business and what you’re doing,’ she lamented.
‘I don’t think you’ve come and told a compelling story. I don’t think you’re in the running when you think about where the competition is,’ she said, adding that she wasn’t sure Nitya was the right person to spearhead to product.
Fellow judge Steven Bartlett was quick to call the commentary ‘savage’ but went on himself to turn down the offer of investing.
And viewers at home agreed, taking to social media to lament their frustrations following the ‘brutal’ takedown, with one even calling the judge’s comments ‘nasty’.
After the pitch, dragon Peter Jones also leapt at the opportunity to ask Nitya questioned about the product
Nitya confirmed that while she was based in London, her co-founder and most the team resided in her native India, and that they had sold ‘close to 130 devices’ that had generated £16,000
‘Emma is nasty. Didn’t like her the last time she was on. So arrogant. There’s way’s of speaking to people but note like that,’ one wrote.
Another described the outburst as ‘harsh’ with another calling it ‘rude’.
‘That was quite harsh from Emma – don’t think her team could do it. So rude. Steven said it better,’ another penned.
‘Emma is nasty. Didn’t like her the last time she was on So arrogant There’s a way of speaking to people and it’s not like that!’
‘Twenty-five minutes of the show to belittle that girl about her business to all say no #dragonsden,’ said another.
After the pitch, dragon Peter Jones also leapt at the opportunity to ask Nitya questioned about the product. ‘You’ve basically invented an air conditioning unit stuck to your neck,’ he said.
After Nitya explained how the device worked, Peter then noted the device was ‘quite big’ and that the testing dragons ‘look like cyborgs’.
Deborah Meaden said the device was ‘uncomfortable’ and asked whether there would be the chance to reduce it in size, to which Nitya said ‘absolutely, this is only iPhone 1’.
Steven Bartlett asked whether the device was backed by any data beyond anecdotal testimony. She said it was classed a ‘general electronic device’ but that she hoped it would go to clinical trials in the future.
Several took to the comments to lament their frustrations following the ‘brutal’ takedown, with one calling the judge ‘nasty’
Nitya confirmed that while she was based in London, her co-founder and most the team resided in her native India, and that they had sold ‘close to 130 devices’ that had generated £16,000.
Nitya noted that the company did have a rival, a US based company that had raised over $50million.
Despite her criticism, Emma was initially complimentary. ‘I think first of all, I think it’s impressive that you’ve come here fresh out of university,’ Emma had praised. ‘I’ve had it on [the device] since I got here and I don’t find it uncomfortable – and I am someone who is very easily irritated.’
‘As a biochemical engineer, i’m impressed that you’ve got this far,’ she added.
In the end, none of the dragons chose to invest in the device.
Elsewhere in the episode, viewers praised Emma after she chose to invest in brothers, Brendon and Jaydon’s hot sauce company.
In an emotional pitch, the 31 and 21-year-old unveiled their hot sauce company, sharing their background of growing up in a council flat with their single mother of four.
The brothers said their company, The LumberjAxe Food Company, sells a range of BBQ rubs and hot sauces and has been seeing a significant rise in sales over the years.
Their heartfelt pitched pulled the heartstrings of Emma, who decided to invest in the small business, despite none of the four other dragons opting to do so.
In a sweet moment after the deal was sealed, the dragon stood up to give a hug to the pair, who were overt the moon with the investment.