A version of an BBC and AustraliaBC show that was modelled after a Japanese show and aired in Sweden too is now coming to New Zealand … and Canada. The basic concept of the show is that business hopefuls, entrepreneurs, pitch to potential investors, venture capitalists, and try to negotiate a investment deal.

I am interested in seeing how the show turns out. I am skeptical whether it will right trade-offs between “good television” and “reality experience for the viewer” will be made for my taste.

Here are what some other people are saying about the upcoming show:

Who said what? Contest insidethedragonsden.com

Below are 5 quotes, each uttered on set to one of the pitchers. Your job is to correctly guess who said what. The prize is a Dragon’s Den crew shirt and a place on the ARMCHAIR DRAGONS honour roll. First to get all 5 correct wins. Just post your answers below. One entry per person please.

Who said:

1. I invest in good people, for that reason, I’m out.

2. You’ve got two chances, slim and none, and slim has left the building.

3. I’m going to show you why the call me Mr. Wonderful.

4. You have invented skis but you are trying to sell them to people in the desert.

5. We are like a lending committee at a bank, but way tougher.

Dragon’s Lair Rick Spence Canadian Entrepreneur

If this show, which airs in October, gets this one message across – that most small businesses deserve to be financed only with debt (loans), not equity – I think the CBC will be doing business (and a lot of starry-eyed entrepreneurs) a huge favour.

Rednecks seek $75,000 for t-shirts The Tea Makers

One of the CBC’s new reality shows is Dragon’s Den, where entrepreneurs apply for venture capital.

Wait, where are you going? Just listen to me for a sec.

One of the biznob consultants keeps an exuberant, confusing, kinetic blog that also acts as a kind of production blog for the show.

Q: Why would you be a good bet for the Dragons to invest in?

A: I have built a strong reputation as a product launch specialist in the global technology and consumer products industry.

Dragons’ Den - A CBC Reality TV Show Voices.com - The Voice Over Blog

The Dragons had great questions such as “what would you do with a $1 million?”, or “how many customer’s do you currently have?”, “what makes Voices.com different from a talent agency?” — all of which I provided very strong and compelling answers to.

Although no deal was signed on the spot, I’m confident that we’ll continue to grow and the right opportunity will present itself.

What a great experience!

The Guelph Tribune featured Norfolk Pharmacy and CanadaHomeHealth.com last week.

There are pictures of Ali and his dad.

There is a graphic of the website.

And the article.

Norfolk Pharmacy … great service in store and now online
The people at Norfolk Pharmacy are taking the same great service from their store in downtown Guelph to your computer and your front door. Now, with its new home health shopping website — CanadaHomeHealth.com — Norfolk Pharmacy has opened its doors to the world.

The pharmacy, which has been an important part of downtown Guelph for 24 years, launched its Internet site in January of this year. Since then, it has helped customers in Guelph and across Canada with their home health shopping needs – from the comfort of their own homes.

Owner and pharmacist Sultan Asaria said he had been thinking about an online health-care store for several years.

He really wanted to reach out to people who might not be able to come to the store on Norfolk Street; and to make shopping more convenient for his existing customers. The opportunity arrived once Sultan’s son, managing director Ali Asaria, was available to partner with him.

Ali, a computer engineer, graduated from University of Waterloo and then went on to work for Microsoft and later Research in Motion.

“My dad really cares about people,” Ali says. “He really worries about people and he really wants to help them. The question was: How do you take that community attitude of caring about people to the website.”

With Ali’s computer software experience and Sultan’s commitment to his customers, CanadaHomeHealth.com has achieved that goal of making sure people know how important they are to Norfolk Pharmacy.

“We go out of our way to talk to our customers,” Ali says. “We make sure we write notes to our customers in every box we send out. People feel comfortable with us.”

The staff are always willing to talk to customers, whether through the website’s e-mail address or the toll-free number. Ali said people often call or e-mail to ask for advice. Even if those customers aren’t shopping, pharmacy staff will answer their questions and help them out with whatever they need.

“We will help them,” Ali said. “All of our staff are ready to help. We only hire people who really care about helping others. This is a neat opportunity for us because we’re meeting people all over the world. We were confined to Guelph, but now even people in rural communities have direct access. The website is just one of the pieces of the whole puzzle. It’s really ideal for our customers.”

CanadaHomeHealth.com offers an extensive selection of items for sale, including – but certainly not limited to – allergy care, cold and flu, products for diabetics, first aid, vitamins, athletic braces, a full line of hard-to-find ostomy products and much more.

The website also offers informative articles in a monthly newsletter, which can be read on-line or received, by request, over e-mail. Those who request the newsletter will receive a discount coupon with each issue. The articles, often with a seasonal theme are written by a pharmacy employee who has a science degree. All articles are reviewed by Sultan, so he can provide a pharmacist’s point of view and suggestions of suitable products to manage the subject being discussed.

The website offers many products – yet remains easy to navigate. Norfolk Pharmacy also has its certificate of accreditation by the Ontario College of Pharmacists, which is crucial for a responsible and reliable organization. The on-line store does not sell prescription medication.

“We have thousands of products online and we made sure we have pictures of everything,” Ali says. “We designed the website to be friendly and we want to make sure people know we’re not a warehouse. We’re real people.”

Norfolk Pharmacy is the largest independent pharmacy and home health-care store in Guelph. Already, the new website is following suit. CanadaHomeHealth.com has already become the country’s largest home health store on the Internet.

With continuing efforts to meet the specific needs of customers, the website will soon be launching a line of compression stockings.

“We’ll be the only people in Canada to sell them online,” Ali says. “There are not a lot of options in Canada, so the Internet is a really good way for us to reach a large market in need.”

For more information, visit http://canadahomehealth.com, e-mail info@canadahomehealth.com, or call (519) 837-3800 toll-free 1-866-640-3800.

You can still visit the store Norfolk Pharmacy at 85 Norfolk St., Suite 100, or call 837-1820.

I am looking for companies that were started by students, faculty, staff, and alumni from Waterloo. It is part of my Business index Project at uwRyan.com.

This project will benefit the university by furthering its entrepreneurial reputation and will encourage motivated students by inspiring them with stories of venture creators that have gone before them.

I have compiled information from lists published by the university (Spin-off Profiles, EA’s list, and the PwC economic impact study). Those lists combine to about 300 companies. Through my research I have added more than 100.

Look at my working list to see the companies that have a Waterloo founder.

This list only represents a starting point for research. Their conneciton with Waterloo may need to be confirmed and other information collected. I don’t have complete information on each company and am still looking for more.

Contact me if you have information about companies on the list or new names ot addd to the list.

I ran into Simon today. I recognized him from a distance at University Plaza and went over to say hi.

We spoke briefly I told him about what I was up to and asked him how things were going at the Accelerator Centre. He said that it’s great and the program is really helping him. His company, Semacode, is part of the program at the R+T Park
He also mentioned BarCamp to me and suggested maintaining a list and feed of UW-business related blogs.

Semacode

Semacode’s Software Development Kit is a system for ubiquitous computing. Using the Semacode SDK you can create visual tags for objects and contexts, and read them using a mobile camera phone. [...] The SDK software contains the capability to detect and decode the tag very rapidly with the camera on your phone.

Bar Camp

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees.

Accelerator Centre (acceleratorcentre.com)

The Accelerator Centre will encourage the growth of high-tech firms and act as a catalyst for the creation of new products and services. [...] It goes beyond simply providing office space; it provides entrepreneurs and new companies with access to coaching, mentoring, professional management advice, and even services, such as accounting, IP management, high-speed internet access and vital business networks. [...] To maximize the economic return to the community, the Accelerator Centre will help systematically evaluate the innovations, protect the intellectual property, help form companies from the most promising technologies and license other innovations to established companies.