BBC Dragons' Den hopeful details off-camera moment and what you don't see

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Dragons' Den hopeful Abeer Ibqal who runs Remy Interiors has opened up on what it is really like to appear on the show. The London-based entrepreneur appeared on tonight's show (March 28) to seek investment for his business which sells products designed to aid in sleep and rest.

Although he failed to secure investment, he did receive a job offer from Dragon Peter Jones. However, the experience also left him deflated and struggling with his mental health as he felt he had failed. Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk he detailed his experience on the show.

He began: "Dragon's Den would be something [I thought] would be interesting, but never really gave it serious consideration. But we actually got reached out to by the producer. I [still] had to go through the same application process, but it was someone on their team who emailed me saying, 'We love the product.' They said there couldn't be a quick fix For Dragon's Den - you have to go through the same application process that everyone else goes through, which is quite in-depth. And that's how it happened."

"I mean, obviously when someone from the BBC reaches out to me for Dragon's Den, I was like 'Yes'. I stopped everything I was doing. It was quite rushed," he admitted. "I went on to pitch the first week of June and my conversations with BBC started at the beginning of May, so pretty much within 30 days. Some other entrepreneurs that were there, they had started their process since January."

However, before he even got in front of the Dragons, he was advised to make a change to his pitch by producers. "It was funny, we went with a valuation and that's what I had presented to them in my entire application process. But when we got to set, the producers came in and actually told me to change it. They said 'If you want to,' it wasn't forced. We were asking for £100k but they said that £100k is on the higher end of things and the Dragons' are looking to do less than that. So we actually changed the amount we were asking for and kept the evaluation the same," he revealed. Ironically another business in the episode was seeking a £100k investment.

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Abeer Ibqal appeared on Dragons' Den seeking investment for his company Remy Interiors (Image: BBC)

While viewers see a few minutes of the pitches, Abeer admitted that the process is far longer than that. "I was in there for two hours, just under but the weird thing is, it felt like five minutes. It's like the blink of an eye and you're done and I've seen other people that have been in longer. I think someone I saw the other day said they were in there three hours so yeah, it was a very, very long day," he reflected

Abeer began his business Remy, which sells products designed to aid sleep and rest in general, just before the pandemic with just one product, a weighted blanket. Sales really took off during lockdowns and since then he has added other hero products to the range including bean bags and a hugger pillow, which was inspired by his Dragon's Den experience.

With a background in eCommerce and having worked for Shopify, Abeer was very familiar with the world of online sales but was hoping to gain the support of a Dragon to help him expand into that world. Unfortunately, his online savvy proved to be his downfall when it came to seeking wholesale representation as Touker pointed out that he had priced online and had no margin for retail. Meanwhile, Deborah Meaden wasn't keen on investing due to the use of polystyrene beads to fill the bean bags.

The other Dragons also choose not to invest, something which Abeer describes as devastating. He shared: "They were interested. We didn't come out with an offer, which was quite devastating at the time, but it was very, very positive across the board.

"I'm a competitive kind of type...an A-type personality person where it did feel like I failed. I can say this, but Peter Jones in the pitch offered me a job. He said why don't you come to work for my eCommerce company...which was quite flattering but it wasn't something that I was thinking about and when I left it did feel like I'd failed."

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Peter Jones and Steven Bartlett seemed to enjoy sampling Abeer's products (Image: BBC) SUBSCRIBE Invalid email

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"All the Dragons were very complimentary about what I've built, we're are quite a serious business. In the last three, or four years, we've turned over nearly £5 million in revenue. We're about to get our 30,000th order probably this week. So we've been around the block and we've made quite a dent in the industry, but still very, very small compared to what we want to achieve. But it was something that they felt the industry wasn't big enough for them to invest in, which I think I disagree with," he said.

Despite this, he did manage to make a sale on the day. As he was waiting to pitch, the crew were trying out his products and Abeer was thrilled when one of them actually went straight online and bought one. He also had another opportunity to interact with the Dragons as he had to return the next day to collect all the items he had brought for his pitch.

"After the pitch I was in a dark place, to be honest, and the next morning I was dreading going back to where not the best memories were made. As I was packing my car with all this stuff, the Dragons were coming in to shoot that morning and both Touker and Peter saw me and they walked up to me, next to my car and we had a really kind of off-the-record conversation.

"You never know if what the Dragons are saying, if it's for TV or if it's really how they feel about you and how they feel about the brand. This was kind of behind the camera and we were just out there having a conversation and Peter said, 'I was being real when I said you should come join me in my eCommerce company'. And then Toucker said we should connect. So it was really nice closure. I think after the last 12 hours of tough moments that felt like really nice closure. The BBC is very particular about you speaking to them [the Dragons] before and after the show. I just got really lucky that I was loading my car and they were walking right by me. So we had that personal connection. Not that we stayed in touch because no business cards were exchanged, but it felt like they remembered me."

Dragons' Den is on BBC One on Thursday nights at 8pm. Remy products are available from their website.