Comments on: The difference between men and women entrepreneurs played out on Dragons Den

By: joe brodie

joe brodie — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:26:28 +0000

i bought one of these after watching the show, and it has been lying unused in my van ever since, because it is basically useless. The magnet is nowhere near strong enough, and the rod is too short. A badly designed product which as has already been mentioned is just an inferior copy of an existing product, cable rods which do the job perfectly

By: Sarah Pritchard

Sarah Pritchard — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:47:14 +0000

Blokes – so typical, look it may or may not be a good product, we can all have our opinion on it, so none of us are right! the fact is she has done very well to get on, there is enough misery in the world, so lets just congratulate this person for getting on and doing well, I love dragons den, you have to have some nerve to go on national tv with your idea, and possibly get ripped apart, some great products on there to, my fav was the bra angel bra repair – another product thought of by a woman! and a great one at that, the only difference here is that her husband got behind her and went with it! shame not more blokes like that I say, I purchased there product and its fantastic, so well done to the woman inventors!!

By: Cally Robson

Cally Robson — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:06:27 +0000

I’ve coached and worked with both men and women with new products and inventions since 2003.

Sweeping generalizations are dangerous, of course.

But there ARE a number of interesting differences, which led me to focus on supporting women:

1) Women are usually less interested in tinkering to invent something per se, and more interested in helping solve an issue that they see real people are experiencing. In essence, they start off being much more customer focused. Which means their product is more likely to meet with success.

2) Women are more likely to put in the legwork themselves to do the research. Men will try to outsource work or bring in a partner, or especially for market research, will make it secondary to the inventing process. Doing the research yourself – into intellectual property, market demand, pricing and costings etc, – will always raise your chances of commercial success because you learn all sorts of things in the process that you wouldn’t have anticipated.

3) Women are more open to learning and understanding ALL aspects of the development and business processes before they leap into development. Maybe because they’re good at multi-tasking, they’re often able to draw all the elements together and realize important principles they need to stick to. They don’t treat inventing as a stage by stage process as men tend to (ie make, protect, sell – which rarely works). So they tend to anticipate problems down the line better and take steps to avoid them.

4) Women will tend to be underconfident about their abilities. Men, tend to overstate them. This has two effects:

i) Women can be enormously rewarding to work with. A small amount of coaching releases their confidence and they move forward at speed.

ii) Women are often less suspicious and confrontational in building business relationships, which tends to foster more cooperation, faster progress and bigger chances of success.

I suspect that I won’t be getting any more male Members at She’s Ingenious! now.

And as I say, they ARE generalizations. So now take me out and shoot me!

Cally Robson
Coach and Founder
http://www.ShesIngenious.org

By: Julie Hall - Editor

Julie Hall - Editor — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:03:16 +0000

Sharon’s product is an innovation on an old idea. The cable rods that you are talking about are not the same and the simplicity of her product makes it a winner. She has a patent on her product – patents can be difficult to get and are not handed out to products that are a duplicate of another

By: dragon slayer

dragon slayer — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:28:12 +0000

Fish sticks – Cable Rods, call them what you will, they have been around for years, she has just copied something that has been selling for years, because like most women she did’nt do that little thing called RESEARCH, no doubt she will sell a few, most of which will be to the hen pecked husbands that were told to buy one, I know a much better use for them – back scratcher anyone?

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:23:00 +0000

Agree with Edward. Cable rods have been around for years and unfortunately the basic practical skills that the dragons lack made them thought she had invented something marvellous. It’s just another piece of plastic that may be bought by DIYer’s used once then thrown out into landfill. I’d like to see that magnet hold together when snagged up on a piece of brick or flint in a solid wall construction. Made me laugh when she said she got the idea from watching a BT engineer struggling to fish a cable. They are not the most practically gifted tradesmen at the best of times. Cable rods are cheaper have more accessories and can be extended up to 10-15m. Barring all that just use a straightened out wire coat hanger. Benn using them for the lats 25 years and won’t leave home without one. So sorry Ms. Wright and the dragon’s but to me it is a waste of money and resources.

By: Caroline

Caroline — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:34:20 +0000

I totally agree – it was great to see someone (male or female) enter the den fully prepared – able to answer all questions, and with a product packaged and ready to go. I am constantly shocked at the complete lack of business acumen and awareness shown by people in the den that it was refreshing to see Sharon actually present in a way I think all business owners looking for investment should.

By: Julie Hall - Editor

Julie Hall - Editor — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 22:40:13 +0000

Hmm, interesting Edward – do you think it’s a ‘sob’ story that she’s a single mum? I didn’t see her pushing that side of it at all – it’s a fact of her life. The reason I liked the pitch is that she was articulate, knew her business and was professional. She was not phased by the dragons questions and she showed good business awareness.

I’m afraid I know nothing of whether she has a business partner or not, but I have searched on the pick up tools, as you suggested and while I did see magnetic tools, I didn’t see them being shown in the way her product works. She took an existing technology and improved upon it to create a commercial product that has found a market

By: Edward

Edward — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:59:35 +0000

It would be right that on a female based website you would of course like this ladys pitch, I note though you don’t mention how she did what all woman do so well, and thats the sob story, I’m a single mother bla bla bla! this program is edited very well so yes it made her look like she had invented the wheel! she hasn’t shes just copied products that have been around for years, if you dont believe me just search “pick up tools” on the net, this is not an innovative product just a copy of something already used by many electricians world over. Get a grip people this lady just got lucky, i wonder if her old business partner and the man that designed this new copy product will now be looking for his share?