David Chilton hopes he doesn't develop a reputation as the "nice dragon."
Best known for his Wealthy Barber personal finance books, Chilton has joined the panel on CBC-TV's Dragons' Den and was seen judging business ideas for the first time in last week's Season 7 première.
He prides himself on being "the nice guy" in real life but quickly found that being politely uncritical about bad ideas was the wrong approach.
"Frankly, I wasn't very good at that. My first week I tried to stay positive and encouraging," he says in an interview.
"And [fellow dragon Arlene Dickinson] pulled me aside and said, 'Look, I think it's great you're trying to be a nice guy, but in some instances people are putting too much time and too much money into a business that has no potential.'
"'And you have an obligation really to say, 'Hey, I like your entrepreneurial spirit here but you're on the wrong path.' "
So Chilton braced himself to act a little tougher. Even the "nicer" dragons like Dickinson or Jim Treliving have been known to get a little nasty when pushed by an eager but deluded entrepreneur.
And yet he was also coached not to act too tough and to avoid creating a persona for himself, since pro-ducers insisted he not "try to be something you're not."
"For the most part, I was myself. But early on I was thinking a little bit too much and I found the adjustment to 'being myself' was not easy," he says.
A longtime fan of Dragons' Den, Chilton says he was relieved to find that the dragons were in fact acting naturally during pitches and the filming of the show wasn't as staged as he feared.
"One concern I had was when I got to be a part of things, I would find the behind the scenes to be a little fake," he says.
"And maybe it is orchestrated a little bit but it's been quite the opposite. There's no rehearsing, there's no scripting, people walk down the stairs and off you go."
Without offering too much about the rest of the season, Chilton says he was impressed by many of the pitches and viewers will see him invest a lot of money.
"I've written cheques for hundreds of thousands of dollars so I've been very proactively involved," he said.
"I came in with an open cheque book and said I would get involved in whatever deals looked good."
As is often the case with Dragons' Den, some of the deals he makes this season won't end up going through. Chilton says he spent almost four months doing due diligence, further scrutinizing businesses before finalizing his investments, and in some cases the deal fell apart.
In a "surprising" number of cases, it was the business owners that ended up turning down the dragons' offers.
"We had a number of pitchers change their minds. Sometimes, yes, some just wanted the exposure [of being on TV] but sometimes life interferes. Some people have a marital challenge or they decide not to expand and therefore don't need the capital," he said.
"In one instance, I drove too hard a bargain and the person, I think rightly so, said, 'I don't think that's a good deal for me to go forward with."'
Dragons' Den airs Wednesdays on CBC-TV at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 9 p.m.
