THIS is the moment a Dragons’ Den star ‘belittled’ a 23-year-old entrepreneur in scenes that have left fans slamming the star.
The hit BBC business show continued on Thursday night as the den reopened for more pitches from hopefuls.
During the show the dragons were introduced to Indian-born Nitya Dintakurti who was hoping to secure a £100,000 investment.
Nitya, 23, presented her menopausal cooling device to the dragons, which is designed to provide instant relief during hot flushes.
However, despite being sure her product would be a roaring success on the market, Nitya failed to secure an investment.
As she left the den empty-handed, Dragons’ Den viewers at home were left seething over guest dragon Emma Grede over her comments to the young entrepreneur.
Emma – who appeared on the show herself – asked Nitya how she planned to get the product to consumers.
While she said it would be initially through clinicians, the answer wasn’t what Emma wanted to hear.
She told her: “Already this tells me you’re not really thinking about bringing this to market in the right way.”
Explaining she should bypass the doctors, the 42-year-old said: “You want to bypass the doctors and get straight to the sufferer.”
Emma continued: “This is a consumer facing product, you need to figure out how you’re going to get it in their hands.
“It doesn’t seem to me like you’ve got that far yet.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=” Vet asks for backing for vegan dog food on Dragon’s Den” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6368815079112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]“I think it’s interesting that you’ve come here asking for £100,000 when your competitor’s just raised £50 million.”
In awkward scenes, she concluded: “I don’t think you’ve come and told a compelling story.
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D107434%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]“I don’t think you’re in the running when you think about where the competition is.”
While fellow dragon Steve Bartlett branded the comments as ‘savage’, viewers at home took to social media to vent.
One said: “That was quite harsh from Emma – don’t think her team could do it. So rude. Steven said it better.”
A second fumed: “Emma is nasty. Didn’t like her the last time she was on. So arrogant. There’s way’s of speaking to people but note like that.”
“Twenty-five minutes of the show to belittle that girl about her business to all say no #dragonsden,” said a third fan.
While a fourth commented: “Emma did not need to be that rude & condescending to that poor girl. She will smash it with her business.”
Dragons’ Den is available on BBC One and iPlayer.