Battle of the Dragons
Jul 16 2009
Steve Smith and John Price with business giant Peter Jones
An entrepreneur staked a place in Dragon Dens' history as all five Dragons battled to invest in his high-tech invention to stop nuisance telephone calls.
Steve Smith, inventor of truCall, finally accepted telecoms tycoon Peter Jones’ bid of £100,000 for a 12.5 per cent stake – the smallest shareholding Jones has ever taken on the show.
Says Smith: ‘The Dragons were falling over themselves to invest in the product. They realised how marketable it is because there is a desperate need to combat nuisance phone calls.
‘I’m really excited to be working with Peter. Support from any of the Dragons would have been terrific, but he offered me the best deal, telecoms expertise and brilliant business know-how.’
Smith set up his first business at the age of 14 and has been working on trueCall since 2005 with partner John Price. They launched the product after research showed that 2.5 billion telemarketing calls are received annually in the UK – with just ten per cent of the population receiving half of them.
Peter Jones said: ‘I’m delighted to be teaming up with Steve and John. For me, trueCall was a no-brainer. It’s a perfect fit for my portfolio of companies and products and will help consumers whose lives are being made a misery by nuisance and malicious calls. The fact that the other Dragons all wanted a piece of the action shows what an exciting product this is.
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