On Wednesday 6 March, the Boys’ School and Girls’ School hosted the Habs Dragons’ Den Grand Final. Taking place during an extended morning assembly, the event was attended by a glittering array of special guests. With TV and radio presenter, Sonali Shah acting as host, our panel of Dragons featured Lord Alan Sugar’s adviser, Tim Cambell MBE, along with 2022’s The Apprentice winner, Harpreet Kaur, and Khilan Dodhia from competition sponsors, Encore Capital. 

In a thrilling finale, five student teams took turns to present. After a hotly contested round of pitches, it was VitalGuard Innovations who came out on top. 

In a unanimous verdict, each Dragon on the panel chose VitalGuard Innovations as their winners, stating they would love to see a working prototype of the concept. 

The winning team featured an all-girl line-up of Ishana, Amaya and Hiira, all from M5 Alpha. The four other teams in the den were: 

Nanohealers                                                                                                                          UniPloy
                         

 

VetiGrow                                                                                                                              The Waiting Room

                       

  • Nanohealers: Rian (10C1), Vivaan (10C2), Moksh (10H1) and Keshav (10C1)                                           
  • UniPloy: Vivaan (10M2) and Aaarav (10H2) 
  • VetiGrow: Amar (11R2). Ishan (11H2), Rian (11M1) and Laksh (11M1)                                                   
  • The Waiting Room: Amayah (M5 Ansuz), Yanxl (M5 A) and Jessie (M5Aesc) 

The road to the den 

Before the Grand Final could take place, a large and excellent field of teams had to be whittled down. Meaning the competition was just as fierce in the semi-finals.   

All boys and girls across Years 10 and 11 delivered outstanding pitches, responding impressively to some very challenging questions. It was an agonising choice for the judges, with the panel made up of our 2022 Dragons’ Den finalists, now part of the Sixth Form committee. 

Contestants had to answer detailed questions from our judges about their business plans. With 43 students pitching over a two-week period leading up to the semi-finals, it was an incredibly popular event and quite the achievement to make it to the final. 

The heats were on 

Even before the semi-finals, earlier heats saw students across both schools pouring the effort in to ready their pitches. Having undergone pitching preparation workshops with experienced entrepreneurs earlier this term, the teams delivered highly polished three-minute pitches to our panel of external judges.  

In the process, they received valuable feedback on all aspects of their business ideas. With three heats in total during February,  it little wonder our finalists stood up so well to the scrutiny of our visiting Dragons.  

We are extremely grateful to Laura Rudoe and Emma Harvey for delivering the pitching workshops, not to mention Khilan Dodhia, Rajesh Shah and Gemma Lyons for their time, support and invaluable feedback during the contest.  

 

 

 

 

More amazing teams 

Finally, thank you to all our Dragons and everyone who took part. Not least the other teams who competed so brilliantly. The other contestants were: 

From Habs Girls:
DR. M: Mia (M5 Aesc), Diya (M5 Alpha), River (M5A)
AbleChefs: Ameila, Karis and Jesse (all M5 Alpha)
Why Waste It?: Sajini (U5 Aib), Larissa (U5 Aesc), Kheya (U5 Ansuz) 

From Habs Boys:
Air Reformers: Joshua (10R1), Kian (10H1)
Aztech Solutions: Shiv (11M2), Mike (11C1), Jamie (11J1)
EcoPrint: Hari (10C2), Shay (10C2), Richard (10R1), Lucas (10C2)
SecondLife Threads: Ben (11M2), Sahil (11C2), Jeet (11R2)
Kai and Dan: Kai (11M2), Dan (11S2) 

 From both schools:
SpikeStop: Eva (U5 Alpha), Deveshu (11H2), Nathan (11R2)