I don't think there's a week goes by without some sort of headline
which tells us how badly the high street's doing.
And we think we've got the silver bullet.
And dad-of-four Chris already
has at least one backer outside the Den.
My eldest daughter, she's incredibly supportive.
She wrote me a little note which said, "You're an inspiration."
I'm welling up now, so just be careful.
Hello, Dragons.
My name is Chris Reed.
I'm the founder of ProxiSmart Ltd.
I'm here looking for an investment of £80,000 in exchange
for 32% in equity.
Now, then six out of ten town centre businesses
cite car parking as the biggest barrier to trade.
Why? Because it's a long established pain point for consumers.
Have you ever had to rush back to your car because your ticket
was about to expire? Have you ever had to queue
to validate your ticket, just so you can get out of a car park?
Even the current crop of pay by phone options have got you
scratching around looking for a location code, or worse still
you're shouting down the phone at a voice recognition robot
which just doesn't understand a Geordie accent.
We've created a multi-award-winning solution which removes
all of these issues and we call it Parking Perks.
Parking Perks offers consumers hassle-free cost-free car parking
and we use this as leverage to uplift footfall, sales and loyalty
in offline town centre businesses.
So how does it work?
Well, we use smart beacons like these, which we deploy
in and around car parks and parking spaces.
When you arrive at a car park a wireless handshake
between the beacon and your smartphone triggers
a proactive message - it'll say something like,
"Hello, Deborah, welcome to York Street car park.
"Are you parking your...Ford Fiesta?"
And you simply tap yes. Yeah, no...
You can manage your parking event and be on your way
in under ten seconds.
And best of all it can also be free, because when you make qualifying
purchases at participating merchants in the town centre, you will earn
a credit that you can use to reduce or eliminate the cost
of your parking.
With your help and your investment we're looking to change
the way you stay and the way you pay for your car parking.
Thank you, I'll take any questions.
A mobile phone app which boosts high-street spending whilst
saving you money on parking is the offering from Chris Reed.
Chris is seeking £80,000 in return for a 32% share
of his parking business.
Jenny Campbell is first to take the concept
out for a spin.
Chris, hi.
By the way, mine's a Jaguar. Before you ask it's not a Fiesta.
It's a neat idea. Thank you. Thank you.
You drive in the car park and your phone suddenly goes,
"Bleep-bleep, you're in this car park.
"Do you want to use this app to park today and do you want to use
"the vouchers that you earned in McDonald's?" Yeah. Yes. Yes.
Thank you very much. Done. Absolutely. This is exactly
what it's all about. I just need to download the app
and off I go. OK. Absolutely.
And what is your background?
Well, I've been in software primarily
for the last sort of 25 years or so.
I took a business to a successful trade sale, to a PLC.
How much for? 2.2 million.
How much of that was yours?
500,000.
OK, good.
Unfortunately, the next business I set up,
which again was in software, became a victim of the recession.
OK. And how much of your 500,000 did you lose? All of it.
Whoa. Gosh. Yes.
So, it's been a tough couple of years.
This business is kind of my phoenix from the flames.
Chris is no stranger to success or failure
and a resilient entrepreneur
generally strikes a chord amongst the Dragons.
Now Deborah Meaden wants to find out more about his latest venture.
Chris, just so I understand
where the business is at the moment, is it developed, is it in use?
We've completed effectively a pilot of the solution,
up in God's country, up in the North East, in Sunderland.
What we did is, we tested amongst the merchants and the consumer.
So amongst the merchants, 45 businesses we interviewed
in the survey, 37% say they would contribute towards parking.
OK.
So you did a trial, 45 businesses.
Yeah. And 63% said they wouldn't sign up.
Why?
Good question.
Probably most significant, I guess, would be the bigger nationals
who have maybe a proprietary loyalty system.
So whilst the local managers of those that we approached
thought it was a great idea.
As soon as that sort of decision went up through the chain of command
they were looking at it thinking, "Well, why would I reward somebody
"with money off the parking when we can stick some money
"on the loyalty card or whatever it might be?"
That's a really important point. It is, yeah.
How do you overcome that?
Well, the plan is to build momentum from the small, independent shops
within a particular location. Get enough of those signed up
and then we believe that a given tipping point when enough people
are spending through these platforms to earn their awards
that the nationals would have to take notice. OK.
Chris is confident that he can generate sufficient momentum amongst
the smaller stores to convince the high-street big boys
to get on board.
And Tej Lalvani wants to find out how much headway he's made
with those other key players -
the car park operators.
Chris, have you had conversations with car parks?
Have you got any one of them committed to deploying this?
Good question. We had two city centres committed to it.
Unfortunately, we had an investment lined up which didn't quite work
and that kind of stopped things moving. So, that fell through.
That fell through. So, today, if you were to get the investment,
are those contracts still available? We'd have to revisit them.
I'll have to be honest.
How much value were those contracts worth?
We estimate that each location
was worth between £100-250,000 per year.
Chris, can I just unpick something?
Sure, certainly.
£250,000 revenue to you.
Yeah. So how much is the car park that you're looking at here...
How much does that take in terms of revenue a year?
Well, we're looking at the turnover for the location as a whole,
not one car park.
OK, so your £250,000 revenue is for an entire city
and location. Yes. It's not for one car park. No.
Right.
Deborah Meaden is left disappointed, as her questioning
reveals a much more modest potential return than originally thought.
Will a tech-savvy Peter Jones set aside the forecasts
and predict profits in this parking app?
Chris, I'm going to be really quick with this,
because I really do like it.
And yet, I think you are so up against it.
Parking is moving towards full automation,
full tracking reg recognition.
That is where this market's going.
I don't believe in Britain in six to seven years' time
there will be a car park that will not have reg registration tracking.
That reg recognition now is being deployed across seven regions.
It's a very big contract, taken on by two very big players.
Without joining forces with them with regards to your app,
I don't believe you've got a business.
For that reason, I'm out.
A major setback for Chris as the Den's technology titan
dismisses his vision for the future of city centre parking.
Is Deborah Meaden any more inclined to green-light
the Geordie entrepreneur's plans?
Chris... I...
I don't like it.
OK.
I did like it and then I went quiet and I thought about it.
And I thought, shopping has already changed.
And anybody who thinks
that it's going to go back to city centres is wrong.
What they are having to rethink is, "What is a city centre now?"
I'm not sure that parking is part of that,
so I think you've got an in-built obsolescence.
We absolutely recognise that parking as a market
will shrink. Parking space in city centres,
from an environmental point of view,
it's something we're trying to sort of reduce.
So part of our development road map is to build a sister application,
which we've codenamed very cleverly Travel Perks, which basically uses
the same model, but rewards city centre spending
with reduced public transport fares.
We believe that that's potentially an even bigger opportunity.
I completely get that.
I cannot tell you how much conversation is going on to say,
"We actually don't want loads of cars."
You know, "We can't have this. The environment can't take it."
And although you're thinking
about that and you're a smart guy, so I can see why
you're thinking about that, it's not what
you're standing here today offering me as an investment.
Because of that, I can't invest.
So I'm out.
Thank you for your feedback.
Further disappointment for Chris
as a second Dragon walks away from the deal.
Will supplement supremo Tej Lalvani
be prepared to swap multivitamins for multi-stories?
Chris, it's a slick idea.
I like it. It simplifies things, which is good, but I think
the real issue is that you don't have one contract.
You don't have any established data to show us it's working.
And you need the capital to scale that across the country.
I think if you had that, that would make sense.
I think it's a bit early. Because of those reasons
it's going to be challenging for me to make an investment today.
So I'm out.
Chris, you've made it very complicated.
It's not complicated.
Well, maybe it's complicated for me.
Whether it's for the merchants,
whether it's for local authorities, the motorists.
You've got all these different components, and today's world,
people want simplicity. And if I'm going to invest in something,
it's its simplicity.
And for that reason I'm not going to invest and I'm out.
A third and fourth Dragon have shut the barriers to investment.
This entrepreneur's hopes of getting his business
back on the road now rest solely
with Cash Point Queen Jenny Campbell.
Chris, I don't think it's complicated at all.
Complex... Yes. ..but that doesn't mean that it's complicated.
Jenny thinks it's very simple, so it'd be easy for her to invest.
No, I didn't say that, Touker.
I said it was complex, but not complicated,
and I could understand it, even if you couldn't.
I did run a business that was complex in terms of
cards in machines gathering money into a big pot, divvying it all up.
So I get it.
So why has it taken a year since your last investor dropped out?
You still haven't got it any further.
That's a very good question. You keep saying that.
Yeah, I know, well...
I've had different reasons from different investors
as to why they've not wanted to invest.
It's been a frustrating process.
Compare it to going on a date. I've been on lots of dates.
Have you? Yeah, and I've not got married yet, so.
Oh, my God.
I'm not sure where to take that line of questioning.
That's thrown me completely, now.
Right.
And you haven't been able to find that money
through friends or family since then?
Well, I'm from a council estate in the North East,
not many of my friends have got 80K.
This is a hard one to climb, isn't it?
Mm-hmm.
But I like it.
So I'm musing...
Do you own the business 100%?
I own 91%.
You've learned how to make money and learned how to lose it.
And you've brought an idea that might have legs.
Might have legs.
Let's see if we can make this work, then.
I will offer you all of the money...
for 45.5% of your business.
Ie, equal partners with you.
Do you want to go and talk to the wall?
The £80,000 Chris's business so desperately needs
is within touching distance,
but the price demanded by Jenny Campbell is high -
almost half of his company.
Time to seek the advice of someone... What do you think?
..or more accurately something that's seen and heard it all before.
The wall's an idiot, by the way, he said no.
But I said, yes. We're on a date!
A monopoly on success for Chris, whose free parking app
has now passed Go...
Appreciate it.
Well done. Thank you.
..and collected £80,000.
He leaves the Den with the backing of a Dragon
who appears the perfect match for both him and his business.
Well, I didn't get dressed up for nothing.
Delighted to get the investment. Touker didn't quite get it,
but Jenny certainly did and I think she'll bring a lot of value
and a lot of experience that I'm looking for.
Jenny, I'm so happy I'm going to get free parking
for the rest of my life.
That's going to be a tough one.
Anyway, I hope he doesn't think we're going on a date in a car park.
That took a turn I wasn't expecting.