Inside the Dragons lair -Behind the scenes of CBC's the Dragons Den.

Team Beardo was given the chance to pitch our beard hat invention to the business tycoons of CBC's the Dragon Den.   A lot of people have asked what it was like and what really goes on behind the scenes.  So here goes..
After being accepted onto the show you are told by the producers to gather your info and facts and prepare your pitch which could be anywhere from 5-30mins.
On our scheduled filming day we met at the CBC building at about 7:30 am and went through registration and meeting our unit producer.  She was great and gave us a pretty cool tour of the building and the Dragons den set, but at no time before or after the filming do you get to meet the dragons. 

I must tell you that seeing the set takes a lot of the magic out of television.  It is on the top floor of the CBC building and there are hidden cameras and producers all around you, behind one-way tinted glass.  The stairs that you walk down are really interesting too because behind the stage you walk up about 15 steps which is all unfinished wood and timber.  So when you walk down, you are not really coming from a second floor or anything, but just a scaffolding made for effect.

Once we did the tour, we were put with a group of presenters for that morning shoot…there were about 8 in total.   We were told to setup as we planned to stand on the floor during the presentation and go over a quick run-through with the producers.  The producers tried to grill us and put us o the spot to prepare us for the dragons.   We then were sent to the waiting room and told it could be about 2 hours until we present.   From there we were called to makeup (which had tonnes of candy and food), and got a bit of foundation and our hair tended to.
After that, back to the waiting room where we watched as one-by-one, the other presenters were called. 

At this point we were all a bit bored, and sleepy and just couldn't wait to get out there, and then finally we were called!  The producers seemed more nervous than us, they were rushing around and panicking to get us to the stage.  Jeff rushed up the top of the fake stairs and the producer basically counted 3-2-1 and shoved him away….

Calm and composed, Jeff took his time to setup, took a breath and got into his pitch!   It was a really great opportunity and we all feel it actually was the best result for us. The taping went for about 25 minutes during which time the Kevin O'leary went into an off-topic discussion about where Jeff got his suit.. he really wanted one the same!  We also discussed snowboarding and different parts of Canada, but none of which made it to air. 

You can watch the full aired version by checking out the CBC Dragons Den video, or the below clip.