159: Gener8, The Great Hack & Derek Sivers

Love it or hate it Dragon’s Den (find out how to take part here) has, over the years, seen quite a few pitches and not all of them have been particularly well delivered. Often, when it comes the all important ‘numbers’ even the most well-constructed pitch can fall flat on its face. A recent episode saw Sam Jones of Gener8ads.com present an eloquent, entertaining and entrepreneurial pitch with excellent dragon appeal. You can see how he did it here. Nowadays, we have become used to cookies on our computers gathering information and big data being used to influence our buying habits but Sam has developed an idea that puts the pennies back in our purses and control back in our ball court. Needless to say the story doesn’t begin and end there as this story piqued our interest and saw us heading to Netflix in search of another big data story, this time not so empowering for most of us. The Cambridge Analytica scandal is the subject of The Great Hack and tells the story of how data mining can be used to influence decision making. This isn’t just about shifting your preference from one type of cat food to another, this is about shifting the choices we make in a way that has the power to change the world. Tracy may have seen the documentary before but Heather’s mind was, and still is, completely blown by the extent of this fascinating story. It’s probably worth noting that in usual circumstances Tracy would be the one raving about data but this particular story turned those tables right over. Just when we thought we couldn’t get any more excited we dip into our profile this week which is of self-made entrepreneur Derek Sivers who cashed in his chips with CDBaby.com and hasn’t needed to do paid work since. Instead, and fortunately for us, he is generous in sharing his knowledge, anecdotes and enthusiasm with us via his website sivers.com and in his writings and interviews across the internet. His enthusiasm is infectious and his knowledge knows no bounds. Certainly one to watch, listen to and read about. If you like what you hear then perhaps you would considering buying us a coffee (we love coffee!), or a book (we also love books!) www.buymeacoffee.com/tbcpodcast