Cat Black, who became the youngest female founder to secure offers from all five Dragons on BBC's Dragons' Den, has revealed why she and her sister walked away from a £50,000 investment. The 17-year-old, who appeared on the show at 16, negotiated the deal with her sister Honor, 18, for a 25% stake in their business, Maiden Cricket, which makes cricket equipment for women. The company was then valued at £200,000.
Nerves and GCSE revision
Despite the high-stakes pitch, Cat told Metro that she had little going through her mind at the time. 'I'm being honest, nothing was going through my head,' she said. 'I was so nervous that I wasn't thinking about anything; I was just like. "Oh my God, oh my God, it's actually happening."'
Cat admitted she had spent the night before revising her pitch, determined not to let nerves get the better of her. 'I was more thinking about how I can do that, how I want to present myself,' she explained. 'I was just trying to not stress myself out.'
The pitch was not the only important date in her diary. 'I had my Spanish GCSE the day after Dragon's Den,' she laughed. 'So, it was like, oh, we're going on Dragon's Den, and I need to focus on my GCSEs. So, even on the train up to Manchester, I was doing GCSE revision notes and flashcards, and then Honor said: "We need to look at the pitch," and I realised I hadn't even looked at it. So Honor and I were awake until 2 am revising and learning the pitch.'
Leaving the den
Cat described the Dragons as 'so lovely' and 'really encouraging' between takes, but she admitted she did not have a specific investor in mind when she entered the den. She did, however, express admiration for Deborah Meaden, saying, 'She's so iconic. I would love to be her when I'm older; she's so cool.' Cat also said she admired Peter Jones for starting his business as a teenager, and she was interested in what Gary Neville, as a sportsman, would think of Maiden.
Due to BBC wellbeing rules, which prohibit 16-year-olds from taking part in the Q&A section of the competition, Cat had to leave the den after her pitch. Her absence meant Honor and Nicole Muller, a mentor and business lead at Maiden Cricket, handled the tense negotiation. Cat recalled, 'I did my pitch and left. I obviously had no idea what happened until my chaperone said: "Oh, the Dragons want to meet you. They want to congratulate you." So I thought, "OK, so clearly we've done something right." It was "Dragons", plural, so it's not just one. But then we get into this backroom stairwell thing, and all of them are there going, "Congratulations, well done," and I was like: "Oh my God". I heard little snippets of "we've got a Dragon or two Dragons", but never all of them.'
Walking away from the deal
Despite agreeing to the deal on camera, Cat and Honor decided they needed more money than the Dragons were offering and walked away from the £50,000. According to the BBC, nearly half – around 50% to 58% – of all deals agreed upon on Dragons' Den do not go ahead after filming ends.
Cat said, 'I personally think that it was the right decision. A lot of them didn't have a lot of knowledge in women's cricket, or women's sport for that matter, and I think the only useful kind there was Touker Suleyman, who had a factory in Bangladesh, and we could use it. So in the grand scheme of things, I don't think it was such a big loss, and lots of other opportunities came up for us.'
The Times reported this year that Maiden is on track to generate about £400,000 in sales this year alone. Looking ahead, Cat said, 'I hope I'm running Maiden. I hope my dad (Oliver, who chaperoned his younger daughter during our interview) is fully out of it at this point, 'cause I feel it's really stressing him out. Hopefully, my sister and I are running it; we don't have any arguments. [I hope] it's an amazing business, and it's international, and everyone knows about it; I just hope that Maiden will be big and that we can help lots of girls out.'
Dragons' Den airs on Thursdays at 8pm on BBC One.
