Dragons’ Den’s Deborah Meaden appeared on Channel 4’s Countdown on 22 September 2014. In the episode she spoke about meeting Swing Patrol on Dragons’ Den and how she knew she’d made the right decision to invest in us:
The first pitch that comes in is a dance pitch… I thought I’d left my dancing behind, but, you know, it was amazing. I stood up and between pitches we go off and have a cup of tea. So I take my shoes off and I put my flatter shoes on and in the bottom of my little flat black shoe was a Strictly sequin… And I thought, there you are, absolutely the right investment.
For a full transcript of the conversation between Deborah and host Nick Hewer, see below:
Nick: Deborah, Strictly Come Dancing, at last you’re back with Dragons’ Den, but I hear there’s been a bit of a meeting of shows, in a way?
Deborah: Well, there has. I mean, I thought I’d hung my shoes up — of course, I did Strictly, I met the wonderful Rachel at Strictly. So I had a fantastic time, but got back to my real life, sitting in my chair in Dragons’ and looking my usual stern Dragon, and the first pitch that comes in is a dance pitch.
Nick: Yep.
Deborah: And I thought, “This is going to be a jokey one.” But actually they were fantastic, called Swing Patrol, and they do sort of Lindy Hop and swing dance, [and these] big [KL: dance!] balls they do around the country, and I ended up investing in them, and it was like, I thought I’d left my dancing behind, but, you know, it was amazing… I stood up and between pitches we go off and have a cup of tea. So I take my shoes off and I put my flatter shoes on and in the bottom of my little flat black shoe was a Strictly sequin.
Nick: Isn’t that wonderful?
Deborah: And I thought, there you are, absolutely the right investment.
Nick: It’s an omen.
Deborah: Yes.
Nick: In you went, ploughed some money in.
Deborah: I did.
Nick: And where’s this Swing Patrol based now?
Deborah: Well, at the moment it’s in London, but we’re actually going nationwide, so there’s going to be a big swing ball in Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Belfast, this autumn. So that’s the plan, we’re going to roll it out.
Nick: [It was] Started by whom?
Deborah: Wonderful guy called Scott.. Scott Cupit, who used to be an investment banker. Got very disillusioned with the whole thing and said, do you know what, I want to live my life doing the thing that I love doing. And I understand that — we understand that having done Strictly! It’s amazing. And he decided to give it all up and start this Swing Patrol, and he’s got 1,600 people going to his classes in London a week. It’s fantastic.
Nick: Has he really? And it’s fun and exercise.
Deborah: Exercise. That’s the thing, that’s the… you know, the fitness levels, it’s great.
Nick: I hope it’ll be a great investment for you. Great stuff.
