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Charity chef gives Dragons food for thought.

One of our clients, Simon Boyle of Beyond Boyle appeared on Dragons’ Den, the BBC television programme, in September 2008. In the programme entrepreneurs pitch in the Den for investment from the Dragons – five venture capitalists willing to invest their own money in exchange for equity.

Simon wanted £150,000 from the Dragons to develop Beyond Boyle, which is a new concept in catering – a business with a social mission that combines fine dining with corporate workshops and meeting facilities.

Simon began his presentation to the Dragons by explaining that: “Beyond Boyle is a unique hospitality business that uses food as a catalyst to bring people together”. He then offered them home-baked honey and hempseed bread, which they declared “exceptionally good”. Then, Simon revealed another key ingredient in his business mix. “We also open our doors to people that have experienced homelessness, to get them back into work. Twenty six people have completed the course and another fourteen have just joined us.”( View further information here.)

The hard-nosed investors were genuinely impressed. “That’s fantastic,” enthused James Caan. “I love it,” Deborah Meaden said. “I have to say, sitting here listening to this… it’s amazing.”

But, regretfully, the Dragons decided that Simon’s social entrepreneurship model simply wasn’t right for profit-led investment. As Peter Jones put it: “outside of the Den, you’d hear me say I’m in, but as an investor, I actually wouldn’t want to make the returns – I’d want to feed it back in: but I wish you the best of luck – it’s a fantastic story”.

Will Simon get the funding he’s hoping for? You’ll just have to watch the programme to find out! But if you miss the transmission, you can catch up by watching the show on demand via the internet, on BBC iPlayer www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer. It will be available until the next programme in the series airs, on 15 September. More information about Dragons’ Den is at www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden

Our involvement with Beyond Boyle has been to design their logo, enhance their branding and develop their website in conjunction with Giant Arc Design, who provided the design concepts (view further information here).

The day after filming for Dragons’ Den, Deborah Meaden phoned Simon to book Beyond Boyle for catering at the Youdoodoll launch night, held at the Pepe jeans customisation store. On this occasion, the BBC was filming Deborah and Sarah Lu from Youdoodoll as part of a one-hour special on each Dragon and their investments through the programme.

Beyond Boyle catered for 170 people, including celebrities from the fashion industry, with a live kitchen in the heart of the party. Deborah said “Just because people don’t get investment, it doesn’t mean that we don’t believe in them and we can’t support them. Simon pulled out all the stops and delivered a unique concept for our event”.

 Simon has collected a host of awards and distinctions throughout his career as a chef. Trained at the Savoy, he moved on to hone his skills at The Chewton Glen Hotel and on the P&O Cruise liner, The Oriana, before becoming Executive Chef on the discovery cruise ship, the MV Minerva. He then became Head Chef and Manager at Mosimann’s Academy in London, before setting up Beyond Boyle.

Our involvement with Beyond Boyle has been to design their logo, enhance their branding and develop their website (in conjunction with Giant Arc Design, who provided the design concepts). We have also used their Soho facilities for a highly productive brainstorming day – so we can confirm that their food really is fantastic!

Beyond Boyle’s website is at http://www.beyondboyle.com/

More information about Dragons’ Den is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/

Read more about the web design and branding project here.

Published on the 9th September 2008

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