Dragons' Den has competition as James Watt, founder of the popular pub chain BrewDog, is set to launch his own business investment reality show.
Titled House Of Unicorns, the Scottish businessman, 42, is on the hunt for a startup company with promising potential to invest in.
In the business world, a “unicorn” is a privately held startup with a valuation of at least $1billion (currently around £808million).
Unicorn startups are highly desirable to investors because they have the potential to be extremely profitable, can disrupt markets and introduce new consumer trends.
House Of Unicorns will see ten of these businesses go head-to-head over the course of six weeks as they compete to win £2million - the largest cash prize in UK history.
Millionaire entrepreneur Watt - who co-founded craft beer giant BrewDog in Aberdeenshire in 2007 - will invest £1million of his own cash into the winning business, with another £1million from Founders Capital – Europe’s largest founder investor community.
Viewers have the unique chance to get involved as well as they have the ability to vote for which company will be handed £1million and can also invest in the winning business. Watt will decide which firm will win the other million.
The producers, Sony and Whisper Productions, are currently shopping the format around to networks, but if there are no takers then it will be broadcast on YouTube.
The move by Watt is poignant as Dragons' Den, which airs on the BBC, once turned him down as a competitor in 2009 when he hoped to go on the show to attract a £100,000 investment.
He even auditioned to be one of the Dragons a few years later but was rejected after a screen test.
There is no bitterness according to Watt, who - is engaged to former Made in Chelsea star and I’m A Celebrity winner Georgia ‘Toff’ Toffolo. He said his latest venture stemmed from frustrations over the current choice of business investment shows, such as Dragons’ Den and The Apprentice.
He said: “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. 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.”
Applications for the show are now open at www.houseofunicorns.com.
