Last night saw all of us at LEWIS watching with excitement as trueCall, one of our newest clients, appeared on the BBC 2 TV programme Dragons’ Den and became dubbed the “Dragon Slayer”, thanks to his perfect pitch and unprecedented response for investment.
Steve Smith, 49, impressed the panel so much with his trueCall device that Duncan Bannatyne, Deborah Meaden, James Caan, Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones all made offers for a stake in his company. Steve finally accepted telecoms, media and property tycoon Jones’ bid of £100,000 for a 12.5 per cent stake – the smallest equity he has ever taken on the show. He will use the investment for research and development, and further stock for the expanding retail channel.
The father-of-two, who set up his first business at the age of 14, has been working on trueCall since 2005 with partner John Price. They launched the product after research showed that 2.5 billion telemarketing calls are received annually in the UK – with just 10 per cent of the population receiving half of them. trueCall allows the user to decide who they want to speak to with special patented software which screens all incoming calls into the home. The gadget acts as a buffer between the phone and the outside world and learns to distinguish between welcome and unwelcome callers and is available from the trueCall website, the BT Online shop, the QVC Home Shopping Channel and from John Lewis stores.
As a business born from entrepreneurism, LEWIS couldn’t believe more in investing in start-ups. Steve Smith is a great example of a British entrepreneur who has creativity, modesty, business acumen and inventiveness by the bucket load.
It is in a recession that these type of people thrive and, when they thrive, so does the industry.
We're extremely proud to be working with Steve and John. To check out trueCall device for yourself, have a look at the website or follow Steve on Twitter.
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