Features

The Dragons in their Den.

If the cap fits...

When Richard Lee and business partner Daren Duraide entered the Dragons Den, they were hoping for the best but expecting the worst. 

Their new business, which specialises in selling designer baseball caps to the fashion conscious was in need of a large capital investment to assist their rapid expansion plans.

Before the Dragons.

But as fans of the successful BBC 2 show Dragons' Den know, going before the panel of highly successful entrepreneurs is never easy, and you've got to keep a cool head to walk away with the money.

However, for Richard Lee, the prospect of coming up against stiff opposition is not something that fazes him easily. 

In his normal capacity as first team goalkeeper for newly promoted Premiership side Watford he has to be at the top of his game; last week he faced the best that Manchester United could offer and he has Arsenal and Chelsea coming soon.

Dream job

While some would say that being a goalkeeper in the Premiership is already a dream job, it wasn't enough for Richard, who, joined by his school friend Daren, decided to take on the world of fashion retailing as well and set up Dr Cap.

"The concept of the idea was that it is a store selling purely baseball caps." 

"The idea was to be similar to how Tie Rack provides ties, Suits You suits, Dr Cap is purely headwear," explained Richard, fresh from successfully taming a dragon.

Their fledgling business has already expanded from a market stall in a shopping centre into two shops. 

Richard knows all about goals.

"We currently have two stores and they are both doing well and the idea was that we wanted five more stores and hopefully build the business."

But going before the Dragons' Den is never easy, with that many high-powered business egos in one room it can be daunting.

"Obviously they know their stuff and they are very confident of themselves and some people go in there and get a lot of stick." 

"Fortunately we went in there and we tried to give as good as we got and thankfully it went well," said Richard.

Pitch perfect

Their pitch proved to be perfect and despite offering just 20 per cent of their business for £150,000 investment, they walked away with the money but gave away 50 per cent to Duncan Bannatyne.

"Duncan has been good and we've spoken to him a couple of times since then and he is a really nice man. " Said Richard, attempting to dispel the Scottish businessman's fire breathing reputation.

Hornet fans need not worry that their star keeper is about to hang up his gloves at the tender age of 23 years old in the pursuit of business success.

"For me now this is always going to be a side interest for me football is everything."

"We started this business and thankfully it is doing well but my friend suggested we should try Dragons' Den and we both watched the show and thought why not," said Richard.

Richard's business partner and school friend from Aylesbury Grammar, Daren Duraide, explained how they first got the idea to start Dr Cap.

"Richard's dad actually distributes the caps and we were thinking we could make use of our ties and things went from there." 

"We sort of drifted into it, we tested the market on a stand in a shopping centre and we knew it was going to work in our first week when we took £3,000 in that first week just from a  6ft by 4ft stand."

"We went from there really and opened up some shops," explained Daren

From humble beginning came superb success and now with the help of Duncan on board the rise to a nationwide fashion chain is not that far away.

"We currently have shops in Leicester and Croydon and we are expanding to Birmingham, Nottingham, two in London and one in Manchester." 

"Milton Keynes was one place we did look at, at the moment the rent is quite expensive and we have to target places where the rent is cheap because we do target a niche market,"  said Duncan.

Aggressive

While the investment is now sorted the empire must still be built, but it isn't something that's going to faze Daren.

"We have quite an aggressive expansion strategy.  The deal we have struck means that we have to give Duncan half of the business, at the end of the day we went in and we were willing to give away half."

Duncan Bannatyne, top entrepreneur.

"The way we looked at it was that we could leave with nothing or we can leave with the investment and with the help of a guy who charges £10,000 an hour for his business consultancy and that is if he has got the time to do it," explained a jubilant Daren.

With dreams aplenty Dr Cap is hoping to cash in on the latest of street trend fashion and strike while the iron is hot.

"It is an urban thing and it is the style at the minute and it is good."

"We have a lot of regular customers who always want the latest cap, the brand we sell have new caps every month, they are quite a Hip Hoppy brand and you see all the celebrities wearing them,"

"David Beckham was pictured recently wearing one," said Daren.

So if you happen to travel to Vicarage Road in the near future to watch the Hornets play on a sunny day expect to see Richard with an array of caps to deal with the situation.