HungryHouse.co.uk Dragon’s Den investment falls through. The best thing that could happen to them?
Back in last November I wrote about online statup HungryHouse.co.uk appearing on the BBC TV show Dragon’s Den and securing a £100k investment from 2 of the Dragons for a 50% equity share. At the time I really couldn’t make my mind up if this was a good deal or not. It seems it wasn’t meant to be though, as James Caan got cold feet and backed out of the deal.
However due to the popularity of the TV show, some other investors expressed their interest with the result being that HungryHouse.co.uk have just announced a £150k investment for a lower equity stake. So it seems that appearing on Dragon’s Den does have its benefits after all!
Press Release:
DRAGONS’ DEN WINNERS FIND THEIR ANGELS
The deal is agreed, hands are shaken, and the cameras stop rolling. But what happens next for entrepreneurs that find success in the Dragons’ Den?
Hungryhouse.co.uk, the website that makes it easier than ever before to find a local restaurant and order takeaway online, was one of the successful pitches featured on the BBCs Dragons’ Den in autumn last year. They won a £100,000 offer of investment from multi-millionaires James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne, in exchange for an eye-watering 50% of the business.
But, as hungryhouse’s founders Shane Lake and Tony Charles were to find, the investment is far from secure when you shake hands. Four months after filming, post-show due diligence ground to a halt after Caan became unsure whether the business would take off.
Now, the hungryhouse.co.uk team have finally found their business angels. Bryan O’Connell and Andrew Fuller were among those watching that night, and liked the idea so much that they made immediate contact to explore the possibility of backing the duo themselves. Bryan asserts, “We have experience in investing in similar website models, and we immediately felt that this idea had legs. On meeting Shane and Tony, we were particularly impressed with their passion for the business. The team had achieved so much with so little that it was clear that our £150,000 would have a big impact on the growth. We didn’t get the equity deal obtained in the den, but then the business has grown significantly over the last 5 months and of course we aren’t the Dragons.”
Andy adds, “We felt strong empathy with the founders in terms of our technical and business backgrounds and the way that we started our first business. It was clear that we could make a contribution beyond the obvious financial help.”
Shane Lake comments: “After appearing on TV, we had literally thousands of people emailing us. It took about 2 weeks just to read through all the messages. We were so busy, we almost missed Bryan’s initial approach - which came right at the time we realised that the offer from James and Duncan wasn’t going to work out.”
Tony Charles continues: “It was great when we were offered the backing we so desperately needed by the Dragons. The exposure of being on TV was massive for us too. But when you go into the Den, aside from the positives, the one thing you can’t expect is a good equity deal! On reflection, we’re glad the negotiations with the dragons fell through – the new deal, £150,000 for a smaller equity stake - values the business at over 3 times what was agreed in the Den. It was a long process, but we finally have the money we need for our nationwide expansion.”
-About hungryhouse.co.uk-
Hungryhouse.co.uk was launched in Putney in 2006 by Australian entrepreneurs Shane Lake and Tony Charles. The website allows visitors to read customer reviews before ordering their takeaway online – helping them find their area’s favourite restaurant without the hassle of sifting through piles of unwanted junk mail.
Launched with 12 restaurants, they now partner with 400 and are beginning their expansion beyond the M25. The website shot into the spotlight in 2007, when it attracted an offer of investment from Duncan Bannatyne and James Caan in the Dragons’ Den (view the hungryhouse pitch). It has since been nominated by Yahoo! as one of 2007’s most innovative websites.
What I’m listening to right now: Ryan Leslie – “Rescue You”
Popularity: 1% [?]
Lovin’ it
I just love this picture. Click here to see what’s in the box.
And while we’re on the subject, this guy must have the best job in the world.
What I’m listening to right now: Dallas - “Thugs Cry”
Popularity: 1% [?]
10% discount from Baltic Blog Design
The company who designed my custom wordpress theme for UKOffer and a few of my other sites have just launched their new website and to celebrate are offering 10% off for my blog readers.
So if you are looking for a custom theme and logo for your wordpress site, prices start at a very reasonable £300. Click here to visit Baltic Blog Design and mention this blog to get your 10% discount.
What I’m listening to right now: Uness – “Taste your Heartbeat” - Lovin’ this track!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Last seat available on my table at the A4U Awards
If anybody hasn’t yet booked a seat at the A4U Awards in June then please get in touch as we have one seat left at our table. As long as you like Peroni and Champagne you will be OK 
Prices are £95 plus VAT for affiliates and you will be in the company of some super affiliates………………….and Frostie
Please drop me a line if you want to join us.
What I’m listening to right now: Day 26 – “In My Bed”
Popularity: 1% [?]
a4u Awards 2008 - shortlist now published, make your final vote!
The first round of results are in for this year’s annual Affiliate Marketing Awards that will take place on the 5th June 2008 in London.
These are the votes that were cast by A4U Forum members and I’m delighted to be once again nominated in the category of “Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2008″. A huge thanks to everybody who voted for me, I really, really appreciate your vote.
The next stage of voting is now open and Members of A4U can now cast their vote in the final round by visiting http://www.affiliates4u.com/awards/ - Voting closes at 3.00pm on Wednesday 28th May. It’s vital that if you are involved in Affiliate Marketing that you cast your vote and make your voice heard. It’s your industry so please support it.
The final nominations are detailed below, along with my thoughts.
Affiliate Manager of 2008
• Chris Bishop (Hotel Chocolat)
• Chris Clarkson (Sunshine.co.uk)
• Daniel Morley (Alpha Rooms)
• Graham Keen (Buy a Gift)
• Jasper Van Der Bliek (Jackpot Joy)
• Zak Edwards (Prezzy Box)
A really strong selection here, I voted for Graham but to be honest they are all worthy.
Affiliate Marketing Agency of 2008
• Equator
• Existem AM
• Media Vest
• Quantum BLM
• R.O.EYE
Again, a good selection. My choice was Equator but it could easily be Existem or R.O. Eye too.
Affiliate Marketing Blog of 2008
• Jason Dale (www.onelittleduck.co.uk)
• Kieron Donoghue (www.here.org.uk)
• Kirsty McCubbin (www.affiliatestuff.co.uk)
• Lee McCoy (www.leemccoy.co.uk)
• Paul Wheatley (www.mooseontheloose.co.uk)
I’m delighted to be nominated again, and it’s great to see my choice for this year - Jason and my choice last year - Kirsty nominated too.
Publisher’s Account Manager of 2008
• Jonathan Erwin (OMG)
• Julie Wood (AW)
• Kier Marston (Webgains)
• Thuy Pham (AW)
• Vicky Long (OMG)
I voted for Kier so it’s great to see him there. Julie is great too, so very pleased she has been recognised.
Publisher (affiliate) of 2008
• Click Angel
• Net Media Planet
• Quidco
• Spear
• UK Web Media
• eConversions
A few people have been moaning about the affiliate nominees saying that they are all PPC affiliates and one cashback site. While I see their point I think it’s only fair to point out that UK Web Media have at least three content sites that they invest very heavily in. These sites generate traffic from generic ppc terms as well as natural listings and are of a very high quality. I can’t speak for the other affiliates but in this day and age and successful affiliate can’t afford to have his/her eggs in one basket and I’m pretty sure that they will all have a varied portfolio of sites in different sectors.
And anyway what is wrong with being a PPC affiliate??
Publisher’s Choice Of Network 2008
• Affiliate Future
• Affiliate Window
• Buy.at
• OMG
• Paid On Results
• Webgains
I voted for Webgains but will be happy if Affiliate Window, Buy.at or Paid on Results win. All stonking good networks.
What I’m listening to right now: Uness - “Can’t Take The Music”
Popularity: 1% [?]
How much shall I sell BroadbandGuide.co.uk for?
It’s time to consolidate again as I’m finding myself spread too thin, with loads of projects getting neglected. So I’ve decided to sell one of my broadband domains/sites, namely BroadbandGuide.co.uk.
First thing I need to say is that the site has been negelected - hence the sale - and hasn’t been updated in over a year. Nor has there been any linkbuilding done. As a consequence traffic is pretty low, but there is some. Here are the stats for this year.
Month Page Loads Unique Visitors
May 2008 171 90
Apr 2008 986 530
Mar 2008 1,058 506
Feb 2008 1,223 534
Jan 2008 1,201 514
Here are some reasons why I think this domain will be attractive to the right buyer:
Generic: It’s a great geneic term and does exactly what it says on the tin. All other generic terms relating to the broadband sector have long gone. This name is also really brandable, easy to remember and contains no hyphens.
Age: The site has been live for around 2 years now, maturing nicely so already has an edge over any newly registered domains.
Sector: The broadband sector is very competitive and as such pay per click is really expensive. Therefore a site that does well in the natural serps will be able to compete in a market otherwise dominated by merchants and super affiliates with deep pockets. Some article writing and link building, and I think this site could fly.
Commissions: This is a really rich sector. CPA’s start at around £30 and go up to £100. If you do well you can command much higher than published commission rates as well as tenancy and placement deals. Lots of cash kicking about in this sector.
Google Ready: I used this site in my article “How to build a landing page site for Google that won’t get banned“. So it ticks all the boxes that Google require when it comes to quality score etc.
So that begs the question, how much shall I sell it for? I know of other affiliates sites in this same sector that earn £5k to £10k a month in commissions purely via organic rankings. As I mentioned above, CPA’s are so high in this sector that this is easily achievable.
So what does everyone think? Leave your thoughts in the comments below on what you think I should sell the site for. Then probably next week I will start marketing the sale of the site through the usual channels.
What I’m listening to right now: Mary J Blige – “Lady”
Popularity: 2% [?]
Next - do you allow affiliates to brand name bid or not?
As most of you are probably aware today marks the day that Google implements it’s new trademark policy on AdWords. Read all about it here. Having a quick browse around the web today I haven’t really seen any affiliates bidding on previously trademarked terms - the recent glut of emails with revised ppc terms from merchants has seen to that.
There is one exception however and that is every affiliate’s favourite merchant, Next Retail.
Here are the first 3 results that I saw when I searched Google for the term “Next” today May 5th 2008.
As you can see there are now 3 affiliates appearing for the term, all with thin landing pages that have no other purpose than to drop an affiliate cookie and push the visitor to the official Next website.
Now I could be wrong - but I don’t think I am - but before today Next had a pretty tight control of affiliate ads on Google. In other words they didn’t allow anyone to bid on Next trademark terms. Here’s the relevant bit from the affiliate terms and conditions:
Brand and brand generic bidding is not permitted on any search engine. This includes, but not limited to, next, next directory and any related misspellings. To avoid accidental broad matching we recommend you set next brand terms as a negative match in your search campaigns.
Affiliates are not permitted to use next.co.uk or any of its extensions as a display URL in PPC ads. The terms Next and Next Directory may be incorporated within your url, for example, next.sitename.com or sitename.com/next.
Affiliates must also not bid on competitor terms or misspellings.
Affiliates found to be breaking terms and conditions may have all commissions generated from the activity reversed.
This was backed up when iLevel held a teleconference in early April to respond to the heavy criticism the affiliate programme has received. The following is an extract from the minutes that were circulated to the teleconference attendees in late April.
Affiliate brand bidding
• Next do not currently allow affiliate as it is currently not perceived as adding incremental value.
• Next’s affiliate brand bidding strategy is being reviewed given Google’s recent trademark policy changes.
• If, after 5th May it is determined that affiliate brand bidding is necessary a full RFP will be implemented.
The important thing to take from these minutes is the last bullet point where it states that if, after the 5th May, (i.e. today) it is determined that affiliate brand bidding is necessary a full RFP will be implemented.
So it would seem there are 2 scenarios that could be possible here.
1. The 3 affiliates that have put up landing pages and are bidding on the Next terms are all breaking the terms and conditions and will have their commissions reversed. Naughty.
2. iLevel have changed their mind and already determined before 5th May that brand name bidding from affiliates is necessary. However if this is the case then where is the RFP that was promised from the meeting minutes? I haven’t seen one and there wasn’t one published on any of the affiliate forums.
What do people think?
What I’m listening to right now: Novel – “Solo”
Popularity: 2% [?]
Prince was just awesome at Coachella
Regular readers will know that I am a huge Prince fan. It would seem that the LA Times is too, given their review of his appearance at Coachella the other week in the US.
The musician’s dazzling performance Saturday night uses hits, guest stars and killer covers to cement his status as perhaps the top live act around.
I couldn’t agree more and he is the best live act around. Apparently his version of Radiohead’s “Creep” was nothing sort of genius.
I just wish there was something on YouTube I could see but Prince’s lawyers have been really busy and I couldn’t find anything from the concert. Shame.
What I’m listening to right now: Prince - “Lovesexy”
Popularity: 2% [?]
Nokia 8800 Arte mobile phone review
I love gadgets, especially mobile phones. However in the last 6 months I just haven’t been able to find a mobile to suit my needs. All I wanted is a phone that is slim, has decent talk time and a half decent camera, but even that’s not essential.
I don’t want to pick up emails on it, browse the web or play music, I just want a mobile that’s good quality and stylish. Initially I tried he Nokia 6500 Classic but despite it looking good it was just too fragile and the buttons were too small for texting. So I binned that and got the Motorola RAZR2 V9. Now, I used to own the KRZR K1 which was actually a decent compact phone so imagine my surprise to find that the newer V9 was about twice the size. So much so that after living with it for a couple of months I just couldn’t get to grips with it and it’s now gone the journey to be replaced with…
The Nokia 8800 Arte
What attracted me to this phone is that it’s made from metal and glass - my friend has a Samsung something-or-other and it’s like a kids toy from a pound-shop Christmas cracker, except not as good quality. I wanted something that really felt solid with good build quality and having read reviews of the 8800 Arte I saw that loads of people were raving about it’s attention to detail and smooth sliding mechanism.
Then there’s the exclusivity factor, like the older 8800 models before it, the 8800 Arte isn’t a “mass market” product. Plus at £575 for a sim-free version it’s probably unlikely to be anytime soon. Good, as I like to be a little bit individual.
There’s also the fact that it has specially commissioned audio visual themes by top producers Kruder & Dorfmeister and visuals by Fritze Fitzke. Check out the official Nokia 8800 Arte page for examples of their work.
I’ve had the phone a couple of days now and apart from 1 minor complaint (more of that later) I really, really like the phone. It feels like such a solid piece of kit when you’re using it and the clarity of the voice calls really is excellent. Likewise the interface is easy to navigate round and texting is easy thanks to the solid keys, none of this touch-sensitive keypad nonsense here.
The camera quality is good too (3.2 MPS) and pictures come through crisp and clear. There’s no flash for the camera but that doesn’t bother me one bit as I rarely use the camera and when I do it’s almost always where there is enough natural light.
The phone also comes with a designer bluetooth headset, handy desk charger and leather case. So all in all a really good package.
So what about the complaint then?
Remember the specially commissioned themes that I talked about above? Well they don’t work. There are 10 of these “video ringtones” that come pre-installed on the phone and they look really good. I can view and play them but when I try to set them as active ringtones I get the following message:
Unable to select. File type unusable.
I haven’t messed about with any settings or downloaded anything onto the phone at all. It’s exactly how it is when I got it out of the box so I’m a bit confused as to why they don’t work. I’ve posted on the Nokia support forums but so far haven’t had a reply that helps me. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
I’m sure that it’s just a software bug or something minor so I’m not letting it spoil my enjoyment of the phone. If anybody is looking for a high end quality mobile then you could do a lot worse than getting your hands on the Nokia 8800 Arte. Quality.
What I’m listening to right now: Madonna ft Kanye West – “Beat Goes On”
Popularity: 2% [?]
Myspace.com lose Myspace.co.uk domain name
Q. If you happen to be in the fortunate position of registering the .uk domain extension of the name of the biggest social networking site in the world a full 2 years before they launch, what is the stupidest thing you can do?
A. Try to make money from it by putting up a “parking” page full of PPC ads.
As the moment you do this you can be accused of “kiting” and you will be asked to hand the domain name over.
Which is exactly what happened in February of this year. The owners of Myspace.co.uk, a UK ISP called Total Web Solutions were told to hand the domain over to Myspace.com as they recenty put up a Sedo parking page up when Myspace.com gained popularity, thus cashing in on type-ins.
Amazingly however this decision has just been overturned and Myspace.com have been told to hand back Myspace.co.uk to Total Web Solutions. However the domain is pretty much worthless now as the moment that TWS attempt to put up another landing page then I imagine the Myspace.com lawyers will descend like a ton of bricks. Why oh why they didn’t just sell it to Myspace.com a few years ago is beyond me.
Full story here courtesy of TechCrunch UK.
What I’m listening to right now: Day 26 ft Fat Joe – “Got Me Going” (Remix)
Popularity: 3% [?]
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passion, music. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
