Dragons' Den Stars - Hoppen, Linney, Jenkins and Campbell (part 3)

Welcome to the third edition of this five part series where we are diving into to the profiles of each dragon that has appeared on the BBC’s hit show ‘Dragon’s Den’.

Dragon 9 - Kelly Hoppen 

• Series 11 - 12

Kelly Hoppen is a South African-born British interior designer and author. When Hoppen was two, her family relocated to London. Hoppen briefly returned to South Africa when her father died. During her return to South Africa, she played in a rock band and was arrested and imprisoned for violating apartheid laws by mixing with black musicians.

Hoppen left school at the age of 16 and took on her first interior design job by designing family friends kitchen. The success of this led her to get her first big gig by designing famous racing driver’s Damien Hunt’s house, which subsequently opened up her work to other racing drivers and actors.

Hoppen has released thirteen books to date; her first being East Meets West, which was inspired by her travels throughout Asia and Europe, where she examined the diverse cultural origins and styles of different designs for contemporary interiors. She received many accolades and recognition following its publication in 1997. Following from this many years later, Hoppen launched her first e-commerce store with a self-designed interiors accessories range, and in the same year the Daily Telegraph ranked her as the second most influential female interior designer in Britain.

Her work is still recognised to date, as in 2021 Hoppen was included in the Architectural Digest China’s AD 100 list, which recognised her as among the top 100 most influential architects and designers working in China. She was also named among the top 100 designers in the 2022 LuxDeco 100.

Before Hoppen entered the Den, she presented her own show on Channel 5 called Superior Interiors with Kelly Hoppen, where she would work with homeowners who needed their homes to be remodelled and she would provide her expertise on the style and elegance.

Hoppen joined Dragons’ Den in 2013 as the replacement for Hilary Devey in 2013. She left the show after only two seasons in 2015 due to “timing commitments”. During her time on the show, she only made three investments which included Clean Heels; a device to stop high heels sinking in grass, and Skinny Tan; a naturally derived tanning cream which claimed to reduce cellulite. The latter investment was matched by Piers Linney, and she invested £30,00 in exchange for 5%. This proved fruitful as in 2015, Skinny Tan was acquired by global beauty giant InnovaDerma for an undisclosed sum.

Hoppen’s most successful investment was in Reviveaphone; a specialist in damaged phone repair kits. The interior designer put in £50,000 in exchange for 25%. Three years later, the entrepreneur which brought the idea to the table, Oliver Murphy, scaled the business overseas with sales in markets such as Spain and Japan, as well as securing a deal with Carphone Warehouse.

Since leaving the Den, Hoppen has been critical of the show stating that it is more of an entertainment programme than a show about business. Her current estimated net worth is reportedly around £50 million (Ignite SEO, 2021).

Dragon 10 - Piers Linney

• Series 11 - 12

Piers Linney (full name Jonathan Piers Daniel Linney) was bord in February 1971 in Stoke-on-Trent and he is a British businessman and investor. His entrepreneurial activities range across many sectors including technology, media, communications and additive manufacturing.

His first job was a paper round at the age of 13. Hilariously, and somewhat cheeky, he cut out his local newsagents and employer by going direct to the wholesaler in order to make a better margin for himself. Linney studied accounting and law at the University of Manchester and entered the working field as a solicitor with SJ Berwin. Shortly after, he left the world of law and worked as an investment banker, first at Barclays de Zoete Wedd, followed by Credit Suisse. His first foray into entrepreneurship was in 2000 when he started an internet business during the dotcom boom; however, this was short-lived as he experienced a full economic cycle in 12 months when the markets crashed.

In 2007, with his business partner Simon Newton, he led the buyout of Genesis Communications, a mobile voice and data resale company. The company would go onto acquire more firms, including Thus Mobile from Cable & Wireless. Linney was a founding member of the governance board of the UK’s Cloud Industry Forum and joined the Cabinet Office SME Panel, advising small and medium business issues.

Linney joined Dragons’ Den at the beginning of the 11th series with Kelly Hoppen. He invested in 8 companies during his stint on the show, with his largest investment going to the company Lost My name (now Wonderbly) - a prenasalised children’s book company - which he initially owned a 5% stake in and now owns 3.2%. This at the time was thought to be the highest valuation in the show’s history.

The entrepreneur also invested £100,000 for 15% in Mainstage Travel - a company which offered low-cost clubbing holidays for the 18-24 market. Linney remains and investor to this day and the company has gone onto generate millions in revenue.

Linney has gone onto create several foundations which aim to propel and inspire young people into work. His current net worth is estimated to be around $100 million (Celebrity Net Worth, 2023).

Dragon 12 - Nick Jenkins

• Series 13 - 14

Nick Jenkins was born in May 1967 in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire and was educated at Haberdashers’ Adams Grammar School, before going up to Birmingham University to study Russian literature. Jenkins moved to Glencore in Moscow to work as a commodity trade, working for a sugar operation. In an interview with the Financial Times in 2015, Jenkins said he left Moscow with his first million, used part of it to pay off his mortgage, and the rest he poured into starting Moonpig.

Jenkins launched the greeting card business Moonpig in 2000. The name of the company was a nod to a nickname he had at school. He has gone on the record stating that Moonpig was having the right product at the right time and the company was the UK’s first online card retailer. The firm’s incorporation coincided with the dotcom crash, which made progress difficult at first. Jenkins raised further investment from private investors and venture capital, and they saw their first profits in 2005. A few years later, Moonpig launched internationally and created their Australian and American website in 2008 and 2010 respectively.

Their famous (or infamous) television advertisement campaign was launched in 2006 and this allowed greater coverage for their products. In 2007, they launched their gift section and by 2009 they were getting more traffic compared to any other flower and gift companies. By the Summer of the same year, they had sold cards to 2.57 million customers. In 2011, Jenkins sold Moonpig to the Photobox Group for £120 million in a cash and shares transaction.

Although Jenkins’ time in the Den was short lived, he made a number of investments. Known as the ‘nice Dragon’, Jenkins made all of his investments during his first season on the show (13th season) which totalled £842,000. These included dating app Double, Slappie Watches, baked beans company Masons Beans, dog lead connector Magloc, children’s science show provider Sublime Science, alongside Sarah Willingham, and clothes steamer Fridja, alongside Deborah Meaden. His largest investment of £100,000 into Magloc and his £70,000 investment into Fridja were not completed after the show aired. After three hours of negotiation, he beat off his competitors to win 20% equity in Mason Beans.

Jenkins did a very compelling interview with now Dragons’ Den star Steven Bartlett in 2022, where you discussed his entrepreneurial journey. You can see it here.

It is estimated that Jenkins currently as a net worth of £150 million (The Sun, 2022).

Dragon 13 - Jenny Campbell

• Series 15 - 16

Jenny Campbell is a British Entrepreneur born in 1961 in Cheshire, England. She was born into a business orientated family of bankers, builders and printers and left school at the age of 16, having rejected further formal education to work at a bank counting cash.

Campbell achieved a Chartered Institute of Bankers prize at the age of 23, and this would set her career for the next thirty years in the banking industry. Having several important jobs within this industry, including playing a vital role in the integration of NatWest into the Royal bank of Scotland (RBS), Campbell left the banking world to try turn around a failing cash business originally owned by RBS.

Firstly, however, she joined Hanco ATM Systems in 2006 as Director of Operations with the task of turning round a company that had grew too quickly and was rapidly losing money. Within a few years, she had conducted a major operational restructure and within a few years Campbell had the company entering profitability and started to thrive across major European countries. During the financial crisis, she was tasked with selling the company; however, Campbell realised their was true potential in the business and decided to buy the company from RBS.

By using a debt financing structure and a secondary buy-out, Campbell was able to become the majority shareholder in 2013 and take full control of the business. This enabled the company to progress in a constructive way and she led the now rebranded YourCash to become the biggest ATM provider in the European retail market, handling millions of transactions and billions of cash value transactions. In 2016, Campbell sold the company for approximately £50 million to Euronet.

Campbell joined Dragons’ Den in 2017 and made 12 investments during her time on the show, including companies like Didsbury Gin and ParkingPerx, and she invested a total of £295,000 across both seasons. She was infamously known for quickly saying “I’m out!” despite her making quite a lot of investments. This has also been acknowledged by the official Dragons’ Den YouTube channel, where they made a video titled “6 times Jenny Campbell Forgot to Say "I'm Out””, referencing the deals she actually made.

Campbell’s reported net worth if approximately £50 million (DailyMail, 2023).