Delayed Drake KS

[Godfather Punk]

He has proven he can't handle money or planning. Who would give him money?

 

The Dragons offered him $300,000 but he declined and asked for $340,000.

 

@Beagle & others - restricted video, but this is what I got from the KS comments:

 

 

Benji came out, played up the "You're Dragons, these are Dragons" thing, and got them to play a bit.

He was asking for $300,000 in exchange for 40% ownership. He really stretched the truth, saying he's sold hundreds of thousands of minis.

 

He owned up to his mistake and having to shut down manufacturing. No mention of 2 failed KS.

Most of the Dragons were out, saying they didn't want to pay to clean up his mistake.

 

He got 2 offers though, one for a 10% royalty in perpetuity, the other for 51% ownership controlling the business side.

He took a minute to make a phone call. Came back and asked about the 2 Dragons possibly both being interested as partners. They said yes, that could be worked out.

 

Then he asked for an additional $40,000. All the dragons looked suitably insulted, and the two withdrew their offers immediately.

Edited October 8, 2015 by Godfather Punk

[Beagle]

Here's the link to the Dragon's Den episode. What a stupid stupid man Benji is

 

Edited October 8, 2015 by Beagle

[dwarvenranger]

Um, link?

[ahayford]

So....that means nothing for us? Blah.

[Ellusionist]

Bah...his passion is genuine but he lacks organization and a business mind. When I backed this I thought he would be similar to the great poots but sadly I was wrong. Horribly wrong.

[dwarvenranger]

Shame, greed got him

[greyhaze]

So, basically they can change the deal, but he can't?  I think taking 51% of someone's baby is where it gets really ugly for a creative person.  Also, "sold hundreds of thousands", that can't be accurate even with 120 different products that would 1,000 ea which I'm sceptical of.

Edited October 8, 2015 by greyhaze

[Knight of the Dinner Table]

Not involved in this (i.e. did not back the KSs), but yeah, I would not have taken the 51% offer, but the other one sounded reasonable. And asking for more money afterwards when you are in the shoes of the petitioner is just not a good move. I also agree that he was very optimistic about the numbers he sold and when he claimed to be a competitor of Games Workshop.

[SamuraiJack]

I think if he'd come across differently the leap to 340 wouldn't have been a big issue, but since he'd shown he couldn't run the company and seemed arrogant on top of that i'm not shocked.  I've watched enough shark tank to know that if you want to ask for more money, there are right ways and wrong ways..  Most of these shows due their due diligence ahead of time and the pitches can last over an hour and get edited down to the size on TV so I would imagine the failed KS came up at some point but they didn't find it interesting TV..

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Thanks for the link. Might as well consider this one a write off then.

[MonkeySloth]

A lot of people go in with the intention of refusing the deal or demanding more as just being on the show can get them sales or other investment interests (happens all the time with the US version). Benji's problem is he has no way to sell whatever stock he has and I'm sure his plan was to refuse the offer, unless really generous, just to try and get this outside backing (which is generally a better deal) from some other investment company. But he's going to have a hard time getting any as once people look into his KSer scam they'll walk. Even the Dragons\Sharks can walk after the deal if they find out things were presented to them in a less the honest manner.

Edited October 9, 2015 by MonkeySloth

[Shogun]

That was burtal to watch RIP DRAKE

[Berik]

That was so sad to watch. I have doubts over whether the deal would have completed after due diligence, but having business savvy partners would have sounded like just what he needed.

 

I mean, he had the options of either a silent partner offering a cash injection in exchange for royalties based off sales. Or a new controlling partner who would take over the day to day running of the company while leaving him to focus on creative. Sure there are compromises to both, but given the current situation it seems hard to say that they didn't offer a reasonable amount of hope.

[Suden]

Either option seemed viable, and the combined offer seemed even better. Instead, greed got the better of him and the project is probably well and truly dead now. And it definitely seemed greed driving it, he asked for and received an offer of $300k, he should have been happy he didn't get low-balled, asking for an extra $40k after getting the $300k asked for seemed to be very poor form. Which is probably why they withdrew it.

 

The 10% in perpetuity was a great offer. It would have given him a ton of capital (more than the $250k the two ks raised) and he would have had to reach $3 million in sales before it started costing him potential company profit. I think by miniature gaming standards that would mean he had built a very successful brand by that point.

 

I actually think the other offer was the better one for him. Of course a creative person might not want to give up control of their vision like that, but he clearly has no idea how to run a company. He needs some serious guidance from some savvy businessmen. I backed the two projects for over $600 total, which I think speaks to the quality of the product, but he was clearly over his head when it came to bringing it to market.

 

He seemed almost delusional in his presentation. I know it is common in business to oversell and exaggerate, but saying Games Workshop was his main competitor? Mantic, Privateer Press, Fantasy Flight Games, WizKids and some others might want to argue that point. Whatever your opinion of GW, it takes a massive ego to think you are a competitor.

[Orlando_the_Technicoloured]

Well to be fair GW is the main competitor for all war gaming companies, being the elephant in the room, (not that Drake as it stands is compting with anybody)