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Sara Davies could see Gary Neville on Dragons' Den 'long term'
A Dragons' Den contestant has disclosed his business is now valued at $50,000,000, following two investments on the BBC programme and another behind-the-scenes deal.
Sam Jones presented his company, Gener8, to the Den in 2021, seeking £60,000 in exchange for 10% equity.
He had no idea that following the episode's broadcast, he would subsequently secure £2,000,000 in merely 48 hours.
The businessman previously worked at Red Bull, where he discovered there was a "crazy open secret within the entire advertising industry" that sparked his venture.
He explained: "What I believed was, at a time in the future when people realise that everything they're doing is being tracked, they want one of two things, either the ability to stop this from happening so they can have more control over their data, or the ability to get something back from it and passively earn from their data," reports Somerset Live.
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He then left Red Bull to build a form of technology that would do just that and empower people to control and earn from their data. He started with a free web page that allowed users to earn rewards or keep their data private and built up to an app, which has now had more than a million downloads.
Having founded Gener8 in 2018 with two investors, Sam was approached to apply to appear on Dragons' Den in 2021, despite previously thinking it would be "high risk" to pitch on the programme and risk having his head "torn off" by the brutal Dragons.
"I rolled the dice and took the risk, and it paid off."
Sam walked away with two investors, Touker Suleyman and Peter Jones, after four offers, including from Deborah Meaden and Tej Lalvani.
Peter declared Gener8 "could be a movement," while Sara Davies, the only Dragon not to invest because of her lack of experience in the tech sector, called it "outstanding."
Meanwhile, Touker called Sam's pitch "one of the best I've ever heard" and even offered him free office space as a way to convince Sam to accept his offer.
While his pitch may have gone down in history as one of the most successful, it was after the episode aired that "the magic really started to happen".
Sam revealed he went viral on Facebook and LinkedIn with millions of views of his pitch, and after it aired, following an appearance on BBC Breakfast with Touker, another Dragon insisted he must invest.
"We came off air, and Touker's phone was ringing, and he said 'Yeah Tej, I'm with Sam now,' and he handed me the phone - it was the most surreal thing ever - and Tej said, 'Sam I watched the pitch again last night, I know you didn't choose me but I cannot miss this deal. Please, can I invest? I want to put £300,000 in, can I come on this journey?'
"So then Tej came in as an investor even though he wasn't chosen in the Den, and then we had people like Harry Redknapp, Tinie Tempah, and Chris Gayle involved."
Sam drew the interest of Pass Out rapper Tinie, who slid into his DMs on Instagram after the episode aired and invested in Gener8. The entrepreneur now joins Sam at various speaking events in front of thousands of people.
Meanwhile, I'm A Celebrity star Harry connected with Sam after their mutual link to Poole, and told him: "I don't know too much about technology, but I love the sound of what you're doing. I don't know if I can help that much, but I'd love to be on board if you'd have me."
Now, Sam is ready to transform his company further, having already launched in America, saying: "I genuinely believe we're just at the start of this journey. I think there is absolutely an opportunity to build a billion-dollar business, and that's what we're shooting for."
He went on: "Our revenue this year has grown by more than 500% and we're on track to build a really, really exciting company that empowers people to earn and control from their own data. The aim is to shoot for the stars and become a tech unicorn."
Dragons' Den is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.