Dragon disciples

Some people are made a laughing stock of when their ideas get slayed on Dragons' Den, but sometimes the beating drives them to follow their dreams and they end up having the last laugh After I slayed the other three dragons, I rescued Peter Jones and Richard Farley. Now I have two pet dragons

JAMES HALLIBURTON'S idea is the one we all wish we'd thought of first: a floating key fob with a light-emitting diode (LED) light that inflates on contact with water, thus saving your yacht keys from sinking without trace, should you lose them over the side. It's so obvious now, isn't it?

And the 28-year-old aquatic entrepreneur from Crewe - who unveiled his Waterbuoy gadget on Dragons' Den last November - had the last laugh when he rejected the dragons' agreed investment of £200,000 for a quarter of his company after signing a deal to sell his keyrings direct to Millets (among others). Why give up 25 per cent of your profit when you can get 10 solid minutes of product placement on BBC2 and waltz off with 100 per cent of the spoils?

Those brave souls who do parade their wares in that dreaded attic usually meet with short shrift from the panel of sneering millionaires. Scottish gym magnate Duncan Bannatyne and telecoms tycoon Peter Jones are the worst. But despite the terror of public humiliation and the spitting scorn of the judges, some inventors have retrieved their dignity from the floor and returned to the drawing board, determined to make it alone. These are some of the inventions that have succeeded.

Eggxactly egg cooker. In possibly the most disastrous demonstration of any product on the show so far, James Seddon unveiled his waterless egg boiler - a little plastic pod that could cook a single egg in 60 seconds. He forgot to put the egg in during his demo, but still secured a £75,000 (€93,000) investment from two of the dragons. Seddon, 52, from Staines, Middlesex, subsequently pulled out of the deal and months of redevelopment followed, owing to problems with mass production of the heating element.

His hard work finally looks to be paying off as the ecologically sound ovum oven is due to go into production this autumn, backed with a green innovation award from E-On EnergyLab. You can pre-order yours - as 5,000 customers have already done - for £25 (€31) from eggxactly.com.

Caveman's bat guano. Perhaps the hardest sell of all came from agricultural entrepreneur Michael Witham, 27, from Kent. He pushed a bucket of bat poo under Jones's nose and asked him for £50,000 (€62,000). The droppings are a powerful and odourless plant fertiliser. "Peter Jones opened the tub and had a smell, then he noticed shortly afterwards that it says 'do not inhale' on the pot," says Witham. "He actually stopped the camera, because he was terrified that he was going to die."

Having narrowly failed to kill his potential investor, Witham left with nothing. But, undeterred, he subsequently flew to Indonesia to source his guano direct from the miners who collect it from local caves. Witham is now in the later stages of talks with Oxfam to stock the fertiliser in its new gardening range. The guano is also available direct from his website, cavemans.co.uk, from £13 (€16) for 2kg.

Reggae Reggae sauce. One man who spectacularly avoided becoming dragon food was musician and chef Levi Roots. His spicy Reggae Reggae sauce tempted two dragons and elevated him to minor celebrity status. "After I slayed the other three dragons," Roots laughs, "I rescued Peter Jones and Richard Farley. Now I have two pet dragons. They call themselves dragons. And if you slay dragons and you keep them, they become your pets."

Jones and Farley eagerly stumped up the cash, smelling success from the moment Roots walked through the door.

A Comic Relief single by Roots with a video cameo from Jones swiftly followed. More than 2.5m bottles have since been sold. And he opened his own restaurant in south London, with some of the substantial profits.

Has his TV appearance made him a rich man? "Oh, yes. I left that show in a limousine and it's been limousines ever since."

Shewee. This device caused a particular stir among the dragons. Sam Fountain came up with a white plastic funnel called the Shewee that enables women to urinate in a standing position. She had the idea at university and finally brought it before the sniggering dragons in 2005.

Fountain's mother, Sue, office manager for the rapidly expanding company, explains: "She didn't get funding from them, although they were very nice to her. They giggled a lot too," she adds.

But, three years later, 250,000 have been sold - including one to a female climber on Everest. The Americans, in particular, are big fans - with a large bulk of orders coming from the US Army. Fountain, 31, from Surrey, now employs eight full-time staff. Take that, naysayers.

- Guardian Service