Steven Bartlett Thinks 'One Hundred Group' Aren't Going To Like What He Has To Say | Dragons' Den

Hello Dragons.

My name is João Andrade, I'm an ultra runner and the founder of 100 Group Limited.

Hello Dragons, my name is Camilo Franciscarcelli, I'm from Italy and I am the CEO of 100 Group.

Today we are here to offer you an exciting opportunity to invest 100,000 pounds for a 2% equity stake in 100.

I've been an entrepreneur for over 15 years, working 18-hour days, 120-hour weeks, mainly in biotech, and that took a toll on my mental and physical health, and so I decided to make significant changes in my life.

So I came across this race called the Badwater 135, which is worldly renowned as the world's toughest foot race.

An ultramarathon held in the Death Valley in the United States, under scorching heat with temperatures rising up to 55 degrees.

So that's

135 miles.

And I decided to complete that race.

Why?

And

And I came across the fastest growing sport in the world, trail running.

And so when I left my previous company in 2019,

I decided to start 100.

After four years since we started the company, I was introduced to Camilo.

I'm a newcomer.

He's a newcomer.

He brings with him his vast experience organizing world championships for diverse sports and also working with the Olympic committees.

And now we want to develop a trail running world championship.

And we now have this year race in Brazil, then Portugal, and we have the final stage in Italy.

In the next three years, we want to explode the competition in nine stages in other countries.

In all the five continents.

Now, let's talk about our finances.

We are projecting 12 million pound revenue by 2028.

Last year we did 200,000 pound revenue.

This year we are on our way to 500,000, and here we are with you today.

To ask your help to drive the company to the next level.

A trail running world championship.

Is the proposal from business partners João Andrade and Camilo Francky.

They're seeking a 100,000 pound investment in return for a 2% stake in their company.

Peter Jones is the front runner with the questions.

João, Camilo, hi.

Hi, Peter.

That was an interesting story.

So you obviously had a very stressful job.

But then what you went on to do feels even more stressful.

Why on earth in your right mind would you go through a stressful life and then say,

I'm now going to go and run 135 miles?

Because I had to fulfill my what I have here somehow.

And I don't think running Badwater 135 is the toughest endurance sport in the world.

I think the toughest endurance sport in the world is entrepreneurship.

Tell me about it.

And that's why, to be fair, I don't go running.

I see Sara on her social running 5K every day.

She looks like she's half dead at the end.

That is not true.

At least one of us gets up and goes for a run.

You can't even run to the loo, Jones.

Right, guys.

So this is trail running.

Yes.

So are there other competitors in this sector doing a lot of trail running, or are you pioneering the trail running sector like ultra marathons are a sector?

Uh, we are pioneering in trail endurance,

which is the long distance running, 100 kilometers and then 100 miles.

That's exactly why the company is called 100.

Right, okay.

Got that bit.

Yeah.

Commercial model.

What's your income stream?

Where's your revenue coming from?

Basically, it's on the the license.

So the license is something that we can compare to the Formula One way.

Okay.

Selling the possibility to bring a competition, one of the only nine races in the world.

In nine magnificent spots.

So the governments of the countries that we are dealing with are very interested to to to have the chance to be promoted in all the circuit.

Okay.

So if I just relay that back to you how I've understood it, the nine countries that you are selecting for the trails,

you get the government of those countries to pay you to host the event there.

Right.

And broadcasting rights as well.

Because there are already 20 million athletes doing trail running.

So already we have 20 million people that might be interested to watch the global competition that was missing.

And so just to check then, so you said you've done three of the nine races.

Yes.

So the way that you scale from where you are now to the 12 million that you're projecting in 2028 is to both scale the three races to a bigger level and to introduce the additional six.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, I think I've got the model.

João, Camilo.

I love this this area.

And I love this area because I've observed in my friendship circle, suddenly,

it seems like a significant percentage of my my friendship group have become into ultra athletics.

I bought a road bike last week, I've been out riding, trying to do 140 kilometers,

because I'm going with my girlfriend from London to Bordeaux.

So I've been training.

Um, very much into this space.

And I really, really believe it represents the future.

So who do you compare yourself to in terms of a comparable brand in the ultra athletic space?

Well, if we look, for example, into triathlon,

you might have heard of Ironman.

Ironman.

So what Ironman did for triathlon is what we want to be doing for trail running.

Okay, so can you give me a view of their performance financially?

So they're almost a billion dollar brand.

I think they generate close to 150 million dollars in revenue.

Can I just say that, just just take me through this because this is the bit I don't get.

So when you look at the sports and you mentioned Formula One,

when you look at those sports and you see the success,

Yeah.

And there's obviously huge success because of the investment from the manufacturers that are participating.

Yes.

You know, you can see the the money that's been created from it.

And then you've also seen the adoption and the following that that's brought.

Yes.

I get that because you've got a level of excitement.

You've got a shortened time frame.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You've got amazing cars.

So you've got the glamour and the glitz.

And then I'm about to turn on the television and watch a 21 and a half hour race.

With three or four sort of people, what I'm trying to understand,

how are you going to televise and make this exciting to watch?

There are different layers to that.

The first one, you mentioned something very important, manufacturers in Formula One.

So in trail running, you have the brands which are almost, some of them are almost solely dedicated to trail running already.

So for example, trail running shoe market is worth 6.9 billion dollars today.

Yeah, now I get I get that.

And I get I'm talking about I'm sitting at home.

Yes.

In an armchair and I'm flicking over through a race with Lewis Hamilton and it's like nip and tuck and it's lots of noise, lots of excitement.

Over to a trail race.

How are you going to make it exciting?

That's where I wanted to get to.

Because these brands,

so for example, you have Salomon.

You have now the Nike Trail team, the Adidas Terrex team,

just for trail running.

So these trail running shoe manufacturers have their own teams.

And not only the athletes are competing, but now the teams are competing for the ranking as well.

There's so many things that you could possibly do here.

I'm trying to figure out like if it becomes the billion dollar competitor you described earlier,

or it becomes meh based on the core competence of the founders.

Completely agree.

But the branding's not great.

The logo isn't great.

So I looked over at that and I thought, okay, maybe they're not very good at like brand marketing.

And branding generally, and that's a big part of it.

You want to you want to strike at the heart of culture.

This takes off maybe because you get a Netflix deal or something like that.

And then it'll just catch culture and off it becomes culturally relevant.

Everyone, Tom, Dick and Harry influencer wants to do it.

For sure.

So to get that, you have to understand culture, and the only way that I could see for you to understand culture was by looking at that brand.

And I go, they don't quite get it.

They don't, you know what I mean?

One section we need help is exactly what's at the core of the company,

which is communication.

So you you need help and you're offering 2%.

Yes.

Yeah.

I love it.

I believe in it, I think it represents the future.

The challenge is this 2% thing.

Okay.

Immediately becomes not interesting.

You're not even close there.

What could be appealing to you to get involved?

What's your feedback to Stephen's offer?

I wanted to make a counter offer.

Okay.

Before coming here, of course, we study very well the profiles for everyone.

In your case, particularly, this element of communication.

And we see the importance of digital marketing, social media.

So my counter offer is, if we could go back to 100,000 pounds,

we give you 5% of the company and 3% royalty on sales until you recover your money.

I'll do I'll do 100K cash investment.

For 5% of the company and a 5% royalty until the cash is recovered.

Done.

Done.

Yep.

Cool.

Thank you.

Gosh.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Well done.

In the blink of an eye,

a hasty João accepts Stephen Bartlett's offer without waiting to hear what the other Dragons had to say.

You have four other Dragons.

What about you?

No, no, you've got your deal.

Yeah, yeah.

Let me say something to that.

I was looking at Stephen and thinking he really wants to be involved in helping with the main element that we are looking for.

That's why we've taken the deal.

That's it.

Thank you so much.

No, João, I was going to offer you all of the money for 2%.

Yes.

Do you know what?

I'm shocked.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We took Stephen's offer because we knew exactly what we are looking for in terms of cash and expertise.

When we see one person very excited and the others thinking too much, the deal is on the table, we don't we cannot miss it.

Because sometimes the conversations change in Dragons' Den and then everybody is out.

So that's why I took the offer before different conversations could take things downhill.

What is very important for us that we have Stephen in the team.

That's absolutely correct.

I'll tell you what though, I'm going to use that strategy again.

When you've got four other Dragons poised waiting to make an offer and you just get up and offer your hand out.

There you go.

Straight in.

Perfect.

We'll call it the Stephen Bartlett move.