I was on Dragons' Den and BEGGED the BBC to give me more time to prepare - they were having none of it and I couldn't believe what they cut from the show
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A Dragons' Den star has confessed that she begged the BBC to give her more time before taking to the den - and was also shocked about what didn't make the cut on the show.
Entrepreneur Reedah El-Saie, founder of Brainspark Games, appeared on the programme last Thursday in a bid to get £10,000 for 1% equity for her educational, multi-award winning gaming company.
The qualified barrister, who was previously a portfolio manager in the Middle East on culture, heritage, nature and education on tech led regeneration programs, was inspired to come up with the idea with Brainspark Games in 2019, after helping her son revise for his 11 plus.
Reedah put forward the idea of studying through a game to her boy, and after getting the green light, she decided to go for it.
After a lot of hard work, by August 2021, the app had 70,000 downloads and Brainspark Games has just kept growing from there.
The mobile games are made for primary and secondary school children that align with the national curriculum in subjects such as English, Maths, history and physics.
A Dragons' Den star has confessed that she begged the BBC to give her more time before taking to the den - and was also shocked about what didn't make the cut on the show
Entrepreneur Reedah El-Saie, founder of Brainspark Games, (right) appeared on the programme last Thursday in a bid to get £10,000 for 1% equity for her educational, multi-award winning gaming company
Reedah was inspired to come up with the idea with Brainspark Games in 2019, after helping her son revise for his 11 plus
Before heading to the studio, Reedah spent a month watching the last three years of the show to get a feel of what she had to come - and it definitely paid off.
The businesswoman left the studio with not one, but three new partnerships with Sara Davies, 41, Deborah Meaden, 66, and Touker Suleyman, 72, as well as £10,000 from each mogul.
Despite her incredible success, Reedah was extremely nervous about her pitch and nearly didn't go ahead with it.
Speaking exclusively to Daily Mail about her time on the show, Reedah said: 'So in the morning, I remember saying to the BBC, "can I come back another day and do it some other time?"
'I just thought, I really don't want to do this, and I was so nauseous. It's a very unusual thing to do.
'The pitch is fine, and you do it in front of four people, but when you realise that you'll be seen by millions of people - that was quite tough.
'But then I just let go, and I just thought, I'm going to give it my best shot, prepared as much as I could.
'It's more important that people know about Brain Spark Games and what we're building and our potential to really impact next generations and adults, but really to revolutionize the way children learn.
The businesswoman left the Dragon' Den studio with a new partnership with not one, but THREE Dragons - Sara Davies, 41, Deborah Meaden, 66, and Touker Suleyman, 72, as well as £10,000 from each mogul
'That for me was far more important than how I was personally feeling.
'But I'd made sure I'd gone to the gym.
'I'd been working out for like, weeks and months.
'I really kind of worked on my mental and physical strength, so that if there was a negative comment, I was ready.'
Although the app is based on the national curriculum, Brainspark Games don't want to be Eurocentric, and their aim is to build a best of breed global curriculum.
Reedah explained: 'The idea is that once we've built up all the UK curriculum.
'So the first step is to build out all the primary, secondary and IGCSE content from the UK curriculum that is our core like we want to raise attainment levels, literacy and numeracy levels in the UK.'
And she was shocked that one of her cheeky comments didn't make the cut.
Reedah (pictured with Touker Suleyman), said of the businessman: 'Touker was that was such a pleasant surprise at how complimentary he was, on the the screening where he said, "I really respect and admire you"'
Redaah continued: 'I was born and raised here, and my parents came as immigrants, and I feel that sense of gratitude, and I do want to give back to my country.
'Once we've built the British curriculum, because that is a curriculum that lots of different countries aspire to, our aim is to then bolt on elements of other kind of world class, leading education systems and curricula so that a child can learn any language, any kind of new, cutting edge innovation.
'But we also are adding on topics like entrepreneurship.
'So there's quite a lot of detail around the conversation with Peter Jones on Dragons' Den that wasn't aired.
'Where he was telling me the challenges he'd faced with trying to get his entrepreneurship programme into schools.
'He spent a lot of money on it, and I said to him, "Well, why didn't give us your money? And we'll do it for you, and we'll do a better job!"
'But they didn't put that in.'
And while the Dragons get a bit of a bad rep for their harsh exterior, Reedah was 'pleasantly surprised at how thoughtful they were' - and one particular Dragon really shocked her.
Reedah recalled: 'I think I was surprised at how how kind they were, because I think in my head, I prepared myself for absolutely every worst case scenario.
Reedah said: 'Deborah and Sarah (pictured)came behind the scenes to say "well done, and we're really excited to work with you". And that what that was really surreal'
'So I'm a great believer in inversion thinking and risk mitigation, so I identified all the risks going into the den, and kind of mentally prepared myself, and obviously, you know, physically and intellectually prepared myself.
'But I was really pleasantly surprised at how how thoughtful they were, because I've seen some previous episodes where it wasn't as thoughtful, but I think I was really firm that I wasn't going to be undermined for what we'd built and how I'd built it.
'Touker was that was such a pleasant surprise at how complimentary he was, on the the screening where he said, "I really respect and admire you".
'And even Peter, when he said, "I think you're a shining light in this".
'Now that I've watched the episode at the weekend, because you don't get to see the episodes, I was really worried about what the edit would be like, and how negative it would be.
'I came away feeling really positive, well, obviously, I knew the result then, but the experience then was was just really, really positive, and not what I had prepared myself, like I just prepared myself for the worst.
'And then Deborah and Sarah came behind the scenes to say "well done, and we're really excited to work with you".
'And that what that was really surreal.'
Dragons' Den is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
