James Watt, founder and former CEO of Scottish brewer BrewDog, is to launch his own reality TV show that will see entrepreneurs compete for a £2m investment.
Watt, who stepped down as BrewDog CEO last year, has teamed up with Sony and Whisper Productions to produce House of Unicorns. It is set to air later this year.
The show will involve founders, entrepreneurs and business leaders competing over six weeks for a chance to win the money. To apply to be on the show, entrepreneurs must submit a 10-slide pitch deck via the House of Unicorns website.
Dragons’ Den ‘supercharged’
Although the show was based on a similar concept to Dragons’ Den, the “delivery and results” would be “supercharged”, the show’s website claimed.
Dragons’ Den was about “pitching all sorts of ideas for entertainment”, whereas House of Unicorns was about “investment for growth” and “access to our millions of audiences”, it added.
The show takes its name from the business concept of a unicorn – a startup that goes on to achieve a valuation of more than $1bn (£833m). It is estimated the UK has just 86 unicorn businesses.
As lead judge on House of Unicorns, Watt will decide on the recipient of half the funds, with the other half being decided by a public vote.
The former BrewDog boss will invest £1m of his own money in the chosen winner, with the other half being put forward by Founders Capital – Europe’s largest founder investor community.
Big cash prize on offer
The £2m prize was “the largest in UK television history”, Watt claimed.
“I’ve always been so disillusioned and frankly fed up with the tired format of reality TV business shows relying on worn-out tropes and stale stereotypes of entrepreneurs for comedy value, which are well past their sell-by date,” said Watt. “And I’m sure many viewers are too. That’s why House of Unicorns was born.
“We’re on a mission to double the amount of unicorns coming out the UK and kickstart our economy. Over six weeks we will push some the UK’s most exciting businesses and entrepreneurs to their limits and take them way outside their comfort zone.
“There will be trials, tears and triumphs. And at the end of it all somebody will claim the biggest cash prize in TV history.”
Watt, who founded BrewDog alongside Martin Dickie in 2007, has previously spoken about being “crushed” by a rejection from Dragons’ Den. The pair took part in a screen test with Deborah Meaden in 2008, but were denied a chance to appear on the show.
BrewDog, however, has since grown from an unruly challenger brand to an established mainstay of the beer industry, with annual revenues of more than £300m.
Watt handed over the reins of the brewery to former Boots Opticians MD James Arrow last May.
No comments yet