Dragons' Den
The Dragons are waiting!
Come into the Dragons’ Den – where you could win a £20,000 prize pot, including £3,000 from the Engineers in Business Fund, a years office space in ‘The Hatch’ and £1,000 worth of free legal support from Tughans... all ready and waiting to be pried from the Dragons’ talons - everything you need to breathe fire into your new business...
Shortlisted applicants will:
- Be in with a chance to walk away with everything you need to launch your business
- Master the boardroom pitch through training and first-hand experience
- Ramp up your business skills through pitching, networking and mentoring on; Pitching Skills, Marketing, Finance and Legal Issues
- Meet ambitious and successful entrepreneurs
Applications for this competition are currently closed.
Closing Date : Tuesday 1st February 2022
This competition is sponsored by MCS Recruitment, Tughans Solicitors, the Engineers in Business Fellowship, QUBIS and Santander Universities.
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Final
23rd March 2022 - Dragons Den Final pitches - Deliver a 10 minute pitch to our Dragons for your chance of winning a share of the £20k prizepot!
Your Dragons for the final round will be:
John McKee is Managing Director of Linkubator, a Management Consultancy based in Belfast, specialising in small and medium enterprises. John works with companies who have issues with strategic direction, sales management, succession planning and export selling. John McKee has been a Dragon on our panel for many years, so with his experience, he knows a winning business idea when he sees one!
As University Relationship Manager, Lindsey manages the relationship between Santander and 8 Universities in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, QUB being one of them. As part of Santander’s CSR programme, the Santander Universities team helps students, staff and communities prosper. They provide links to Business, Corporate and Retail banking, support student entrepreneurs and SMEs. Santander aims to create a positive impact on, provide support to, and promote access to education though all of their programmes.
Andrew is a Partner in the Commercial team at Tughans, and works with clients across a full range of commercial contract matters, with a particular focus on energy and technology law. Andrew is qualified as a solicitor in NI, England and Wales and the RoI. Andrew joined Tughans in 2013, having completed his training contract with another leading Belfast firm. After qualifying Andrew worked offshore as a corporate finance lawyer for a time, before returning to Northern Ireland. Tughans is one of Northern Ireland's largest commercial law firms, and provides legal advice to businesses throughout the UK and Ireland.
Head of Technical & Engineering at MCS Group with success in consistently delivering on challenging recruitment assignments across the Technical & Engineering industry. MCS Group is a market leading Northern Ireland specialist recruitment & talent acquisition consultancy. Our dedicated niche markets are; IT & Digital, Technical & Engineering, Professional Services, Accounting & Finance, Banking, Legal and Executive Search.
Anne Dornan Anne's role is to support the development of the Queen's spin-out portfolio, connecting companies to relevant resources, advisors, funding and investment opportunities to accelerate their formation and growth. She supports Queen's commercialisation and innovation programmes including Lean Launch and ICURe, working with academic and ecosystem partners across the UK and Ireland.
- Semi - Final
9th February - ‘Pitching Skills’ workshop to get you ready
16th February - Quick Pitch Round - Pre-record a 2 minute 'Quick Pitch' for our panel of judges and Q&AYour Dragons for the Quick Pitch round will be:
Head of Technical & Engineering at MCS Group with success in consistently delivering on challenging recruitment assignments across the Technical & Engineering industry. MCS Group is a market leading Northern Ireland specialist recruitment & talent acquisition consultancy. Our dedicated niche markets are; IT & Digital, Technical & Engineering, Professional Services, Accounting & Finance, Banking, Legal and Executive Search.
Andrew is a Partner in the Commercial team at Tughans, and works with clients across a full range of commercial contract matters, with a particular focus on energy and technology law. Andrew is qualified as a solicitor in NI, England and Wales and the RoI. Andrew joined Tughans in 2013, having completed his training contract with another leading Belfast firm. After qualifying Andrew worked offshore as a corporate finance lawyer for a time, before returning to Northern Ireland. Tughans is one of Northern Ireland's largest commercial law firms, and provides legal advice to businesses throughout the UK and Ireland.
Ciaran is responsible for the strategic leadership and management of Queen's Students' Union ensuring delivery of a wide range of services and meeting the needs of Queen's students. Previous to joining Queen’s, he worked for 15 years in enterprise development and has been a judge on QUB Dragons’ Den for a number of years.
As head of Entrepreneurship & Future Growth at Invest NI, Gren is responsible for leading Invest NI’s approach to supporting new start up businesses, particularly innovation driven enterprises with the potential to become high potential start ups
Invest NI works in close partnership with a range of other organisations in the ecosystem including the Department for the Economy universities, Further Education colleges, councils and a range of other organisations. Gren and his team work with students regularly to refer them onto relevant Invest NI and third party sources for support by way of access to funding, introduction to relevant contacts, and growth support.
Anne's role is to support the development of the Queen's spin-out portfolio, connecting companies to relevant resources, advisors, funding and investment opportunities to accelerate their formation and growth. She supports Queen's commercialisation and innovation programmes including Lean Launch and ICURe, working with academic and ecosystem partners across the UK and Ireland.
12 shortlisted for Round 2…
QUB Dragons' Den will open again for applications in January 2023.
