TVSA can exclusively reveal that the fourth shark on M-Net's upcoming Shark Tank SA is none other than former Dragon
Vinny Lingham.
He joins another recently announced Dragon-turned-Shark, advertising mogul
Gil Oved.
To celebrate the return of Vinny, a tech start-up entrepreneur, we caught up with him to ask him some questions:
TVSA: Will you be different on Shark’s Tank to Dragons’ Den? If so, how? If not, why not?
Vinny: I think I've learned a lot from Dragons' Den and I will definitely be a little tougher on Shark Tank SA. Shark Tank is, after all, a more intense, turbo-loaded version of Dragons' Den.
TVSA: What are you looking for in an entrepreneur?
Vinny: I'm looking for sophisticated entrepreneurs. People who want to build meaningful and sustainable businesses. They cannot be afraid of taking risks and must have demonstrated that to me. Passion, intelligence and commitment to their mission is a pre-requisite for me.
TVSA: What’s a total no-no when it comes to pitching to the Sharks?
Vinny: Please don't come into the Shark Tank selling other people's products. I'm not investing in businesses where you don't own the intellectual property or if you're simply a reseller. Those are not the type of entrepreneurs I want to back. Build your own product and business, and you’ll have my attention.
TVSA: What’s your no.1 rule when it comes to making money?
Vinny: Price the deal right. It needs to be fair for everyone, but at the same time, if it's too expensive you won't make a good risk adjusted return, and if it's too cheap, the entrepreneur won't make enough money to keep them motivated.
Entrepreneurs in South Africa need to move away from the mind-set that they need to own most of their businesses. Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates both own less than 25% of their companies...there is a reason for that!
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Vinny joins these previously announced Sharks in the tank:
Gil Oved
An advertising mogul and venture capitalist who started his advertising company The Creative Counsel in 2001, with his best friend Ran Neu-Ner. The company was bought by French agency Publicis for an eight-digit figure in 2015.
Marnus Boordyk
Self-made millionaire and bean counter who made his first million by the age of 24. Marnus went on to launch several multi-million rand companies and is currently the CEO of the accounting firm The Beancounter.
Marnus is known to kykNET viewers for hosting the financial insert Winslyn.
Dawn Nathan-Jones
Dawn is the former CEO of Imperial Car Rental and Europcar. She joined Imperial at the age of 21 when she was hired to set up Imperial's Durban branch.
Her achievements include taking the business from a fleet of five cars to a fleet of 20,000 by the time she stepped down from her role as CEO at the end of 2015, after 16 years at the helm.
Dawn was also instrumental in the rebranding of Imperial Holdings in 2009 as Chairman of the Imperial Brand Council. Imperial Car Rental and Europcar merged in 2007, and she was responsible for the repositioning of the car rental division and consolidation and rebranding of Imperial Car Rental to Europcar in 2009.
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Entries for the show are still open so if you're an entrepreneur who wants funding for your business, there's still time to enter. Entries close on
Sunday (31 July). You'll find the entry details here:
Shark Tank: the world's most exciting entrepreneurial show.
The show starts on M-Net in October.