Rachel Lowe was given a torrid time by the panel of BBC2’s Dragons’ Den when she pitched for investment in the first series of the hit show. Determined that her taxi-based board game idea, Destination London, would be a success, she sought alternative funding and took the plunge into the entrepreneurial world.

Startups.co.uk finds out how she’s been getting on.

What first gave you the idea for the game?

I was a cab driver myself in Portsmouth and I stopped at a set of red traffic lights and thought ‘red light – miss a turn’ and that’s where the idea came from.

What did you do next?

I entered the idea into a competition at Portsmouth University called the Enterprise Challenge in the design category. I won both stages of the competition and used the prize money to make a prototype and secure the rights to the game.

I had to do a business plan as part of the competition – during the plan I researched the industry and I found my niche market, which was the tourism element. I realised there was still a big market for board games too.

I approached companies like Hasbro to take the game under license, but they didn’t think board games were very hip and said no. After being miserable for a couple of months, I decided to have a go myself.

I went into it with no experience but muddled my way through it and learnt as I went along.

Why did you go on Dragons Den?

I was seeking funding at the time and someone at university showed me the advert, so I applied. I did the interviews and auditions and was lucky enough to make the final filming, but the auditions with the producers were a lot different from the actual programme.

It was a lot harsher than I expected – I got a complete roasting because I couldn’t remember my numbers.

They almost bypassed the product. Doug Richard didn’t think my Hamleys plans were very good but it ended up being Hamleys’ bestseller.

Duncan Bannatyne didn’t think I would get any press coverage but I got loads of coverage, including ITN, BBC Breakfast News and several national newspapers. Rachel Elnaugh didn’t think I could possibly compete with Monopoly but I outsold it in Hamleys and became its number one game.

I’m pretty proud of my achievements.

Did you find the Dragons’ Den experience daunting?

Yes, the filming was probably the most traumatic thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t take it very well because I was feeling fragile at the time due to personal circumstances. I wasn’t in the best frame of mind to take all the hostile comments – I took it very personally.

I can look back at it now and think it’s just entertainment, it’s just a TV programme that you can’t take very seriously, but at the time I took it very personally and was very upset.

Did you think you received unjust criticism?

Some of it was harsh – Rachel Elnaugh was saying I hadn’t prepared properly to come before them, but I was prepared. I had my business plan there with me but they didn’t let me take it in to the pitch.

I couldn’t remember my numbers from memory, I had to have it in front of me, but they didn’t let me. That isn’t realistic in a normal investment pitch – you’d normally have something with you.

I stressed out for five months until the programme was screened thinking I would be made out to be an airhead. I had worked so hard to get to where I was at the time – I already had the game in production and secured a deal with Hamleys to launch it.

I’d done quite a bit up to that point, so for them to slate me in the way that they did was soul destroying.

But it put me on a mission to prove them wrong – in a way they did me a favour.

Would you have done anything differently?

Had I gone into series two having seen series one, I would’ve known my figures inside out and rehearsed them over and over again until I memorised them.

I don’t have a brilliant understanding of numbers, I have to work it out on a calculator, so when Doug Richard was firing questions at me I was pulling numbers out of thin air and none of them made sense.

I had a complete brain freeze, I couldn’t think.

Going up the staircase is very daunting, you’ve got a 15-man crew and the Dragons give you as much crap they like and you have to stand there and take it. But it makes great television, and if it didn’t the doors wouldn’t have opened up for me after the show.

It’s upped the profile of the game and made me more determined to succeed. Some of their comments were valid and I’ve learned from them.