On the last Thursday of the Summer Term, we ran our first OS Dragons’ Den Workshop for Stoics.
The Old Stoic ‘Dragons’ who joined for the day were Michael Ferrier (Temple 54); Jonathan Keating (Cobham 73); Brian Marcel (Chatham 63); Oliver Nohl-Oser (Grafton 01); Guy Pelly (Bruce 00); Daniel Rubin (Chandos 66); Hugh Viney (Grenville 06) and Tom Wills-Sandford (Grafton 58). Forty Stoics signed up to take part in the workshop, which was held in the Ugland Auditorium.
During the morning, each of the OS Dragons gave tips and advice on entrepreneurialism and delivering pitch presentations, after which the Stoics were split into groups and had to produce a pitch to deliver to the Dragons that afternoon.
The Old Stoics lent a hand and gave ideas during the brain storming sessions before
watching 8 excellent presentations, delivered by the Stoics. Each group was scored by the Dragons on their ingenuity, presentation skills, marketing strategy and financial acumen. The groups generated fantastic ideas including:
Hire me: A service to connect trades people with clients
Pay Tech Tech: A service to remove middle managers and save money for large corporations
Hot Box: A lunch box which warms up your lunch
HJM Tailors: A service to supply tailor made suits via an app
Kings: A secure, high end vanity case product
Enguard: A private prison company
Protective Initiative: An indestructible phone case product using Line-X
Brain Booted: An online educational tool
After heated discussion and assessment of scores, Protective Initiative were awarded the prize. All of the Stoics did an excellent job, leaving the OS Dragons thoroughly impressed.
We are planning to run this workshop annually. If you would like to take part, please email oldstoic@stowe.co.uk