About Time hits the screen and the airwaves

Didn’t we look smart in our suits – even if the epic 80 minute slugfest that was our time in the Den with the Dragons was reduced to a minute or so in the final cut of the show on 17 December – but that’s television editing for you!

Still, About Time was on display, with Deborah Meadon and Peter Jones trying it out guessing what was the year of Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon. Meadon won the round – although there after she gave us hell.

Right at the beginning of the show you saw Theo Paphitis saying ‘your rubbish, your pitch was rubbish..’, then cutting to Joe and Iain. What they didn’t show was Theo saying that the game might be brilliant, and we might go on to have great success, and then he would be annoyed and “come after us”. He then wished us good luck with a smile. It was the last thing the Dragons said before sending us on our way. We were pretty happy – despite them giving us a hard time over our business projections and pitch.

We live to fight another day – as our progress with sales and distribution since filming in September has shown. Borders, Hamleys, Amazon, dozens of gift shops, museums, UK and US distribution deals and some very healthy sales and excellent consumer reviews for the product.

Later that night on Radio Five Live, Joe and Iain talked to Richard Bacon about board games and Dragon’s Den. Our host pointed out that it was quite normal for businesses to make a loss in year one and two, and turn a profit in year three. He concluded saying the Dragons may have missed a trick. The way we were edited on the show – down to a soundbite – hardly represented what happened, but it’s fair to say that we fought valiantly and, despite a wall of scepticism over profit forecasts, they had nothing bad to say about the game – which was better treatment than that meted out to some of the other games on the show that night.

Our press coverage has been particularly good in Scotland (Daily Record, Edinburgh Evening News, The Courier and BBC Radio Scotland Good Morning Scotland) with Iain getting interviews across the board. Many thanks to Frances Anderson for all her work on publicity in Scotland.

Here is the Daily Record article in full:

Dragons’ Den Scot Invents Must-Have Board Game

Dec 13 2007 By Lisa Adams

IT survived the Dragons’ Den and looks set to become the must-have family board game this Christmas.

About Time, which tests your knowledge of historical dates, is the brainchild of Glasgow vet Iain McGill, who gave up his profession to chase his business dream.

He gets an 80-minute roasting on the hit BBC entrepreneur show on Monday as he battles to convince the multimillionaire panel to invest in his baby.

But the 43-year-old’s efforts are already paying off. His game is flying off the shelves at Borders book stores all over the country and has been snapped up by toy store Hamleys and Amazon have just doubled their order.

The game is even giving Dragon Peter Jones’ new board game Big Business a run for its money.

“The Dragons’ Den is terrifying and I was sweating by the end of it,” admitted Iain. “There’s a lot of mythology built up around the Dragons and going into the Den. The Dragons are hard but inspiring. It was a really excellent experience which galvanised us to get our sales and marketing strategy going.”

As Iain and his business partner Joe Gill recalled the longest day of their lives, it gave a fascinating insight into one of the most popular shows on telly.

After six years developing About Time, they had a screen test and then were given just 48hours to prepare for the show, which is filmed at Pinewood studios, Buckinghamshire.

Iain said: “They were filming the new Batman movie next door. At one point, a guy in a body-builder outfit burst in looking confused. We explained this was the Dragons’ Den and he was probably looking for next door.”

Tensions are turned up long before Dragons James Caan, Deborah Meaden, Duncan Bannatyne, Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones are even on set.

The producers use clever tactics to keep the budding entrepreneurs on edge. They are banned from making phonecalls or using a computer and Iain explained: “We got there at about 7.30am, then you’re put in the green room with all the contestants.

“You can practise your pitch with the producers but you never know when you’re going to be called. That’s quite an interesting way of doing it because you’re cocooned from reality.

“There is loads of nice food, coffee, fruit and chocolate. Then suddenly they say: ‘Right, you’re up.’ “You’re relaxed then suddenly you’re thrown into the Dragons’ Den literally.”

But Iain’s bid for £50,000 investment risked failure before he even reached the Den. At 4.30pm, producers explained to the three remaining teams there was only time to take one more. “The producer asked who could come back tomorrow,” said Iain. “We were right in the middle of our production run for the game. We were working 24/7 getting it manufactured in China, checking proofs, doing corrections. Luckily we got selected to go through.”

They had just three minutes to make their pitch to the Dragons.

“It’s difficult when you’ve only got three minutes to convince someone your game is going to be as big or bigger than Trivial Pursuit,” said Iain.

“We described the game and why it’s really good – it teaches you history.

“There’s a unique selling point because everyone plays in every round.

“There’s no waiting around for half an hour for someone to finish their go. You can always take control of the game by winning a particular round.”

About Time, which costs £29.99, is designed for two to eight players and combines discovery, cunning and chance. Each player selects a historical character from a list which includes Cleopatra, Napoleon, Genghis Khan and Joan of Arc.

They then have to guess dates which range from 1000BC up to the present.

The object is to collect tokens but players also risk losing them to a highwayman, the plague or in a duel.

When Iain was quizzed by the Dragons on finance, he started to feel the heat, especially as statistics show 90 per cent of new board games fail.

“Although we had a deal with Borders, we didn’t have any income from sales,” he said.

“Our figures were projections. We hadn’t actually sold a single game. That’s the kind of thing the Dragons pick up on very quickly.”

But after an hour of filming, Iain’s confidence grew.

“We thought they must be seriously thinking about investing otherwise they wouldn’t still be listening,” he said.

“Most people are in there from between 20 minutes and an hour, although they have had people in there for two hours.”

Iain and two flatmates came up with the idea for the game with the help of a trivia book on history. Since then, they’d ordered an initial run of 3000 from a factory in China.

“The Dragons didn’t have a single criticism of the game,” said Iain.

“They were hard and interested, a mixture of the two. They were a little bit sharp about our figures. Where did we get these from? Why didn’t we have the finance director with us? It’s all about the figures for them.”

It will be revealed on Monday’s show whether Iain eventually leaves the Den with an investment.

“Seeing the game in shops feels great,” said Iain. “I’m passionate about it and confident it’s a winner.”