Manda_Jones

James Caan was a total diva drama-queen and a breathtaking misogynist. The rest of the boys were true to their on screen personas whereas Deborah is MUCH warmer in person. Mr Caan excepted, they're actually really good fun to hang out with; lots of playful insults and good natured banter.

Yes, and yes ;)

A water purifier on wheels; because I was young(er) and thought it was a good idea, which it mostly was; and very little :)

After a short time it became clear that the 'Dragons' could offer no support to such a specialised product and market, and raising our profile in the uk was mostly a vanity exercise.

Don't worry, they were fairly bought out! Though their general advice was helpful and shaped my ideas of business to this day, they knew nothing of the humanitarian industry and had no connections there. The time they were spending with us could have been more value to another start-up and we got more value from our, to be, later investor.

Yup. 1) Make your opening sentence the TL;DR something like "this is X, it does Y for Z" - and expand from there 2) if there is allocated time for questions pitch the bear minimum - people will ask about the things they want to hear more about 3) If you're a nervous speaker take a bottle of water and have a little sip to buy yourself time and calm yourself if you have a blank. 4) Don't be afraid to show your passion for the project 5) But don't necessarily expect other people to share your passion!

Hope that helps!