Member Article

Newcastle entrepreneurs to star on Dragons’ Den

Two North East health experts will come face to face with five of the UK’s most formidable business minds in a top TV show this weekend.

Dr. Ganesh Rao and Tim Harwood, founders of Newcastle-based TreatmentSaver.com, a comparison website for laser eye surgery, cosmetic surgery and beauty clinics - will appear on BBC Two’s Dragons’ Den this Sunday evening in a bid to convince the multi-millionaires to invest in their business.

Ganesh, a medical doctor from Jesmond and Tim, a laser eye surgery trained optometrist from Heaton, set up Treatment Saver after spotting a gap in the market for an independent online portal where users could compare health and beauty clinics, book their appointment online and save money on their treatment.

The duo, who are both originally from Halifax and first met at college, saw the website as an opportunity to combine their industry expertise with their in-depth interest in digital technology.

Treatment Saver was the first site in the UK to launch online appointment booking for the health and beauty sector, which has proved to be a huge success. 40 per cent of bookings are now made online out of hours, enabling clinics to fill up quieter periods in their appointment diaries.

Visitors can also save money by booking through Treatment Saver instead of going direct, as they can take advantage of a range of exclusive online offers and discounts from clinics across the UK.

The service is completely free for those seeking a treatment - and clinics are only required to make a payment when they receive a new patient booking through the site.

The founders applied to take part in Dragons’ Den last year and were chosen as one of the 100 companies to appear on the latest series of the show, out of more than 5000 applicants.

Ganesh said: “We’ve nurtured and developed our business for three years and we felt the time was right to take the next step. We knew that being on Dragons’ Den would be an incredible opportunity to raise our profile and potentially secure investment and expertise to grow further.

“We put in endless hours of preparation for the show – it was as if we were studying for medical finals again! We dedicated a lot of time to watching the episodes, perfecting our pitch, testing it out in front of friends, being grilled by ‘dragons’ and preparing detailed answers to every potential question we imagined would be asked.

“Taking part in the programme was a great experience and we’d recommend it to anyone looking to grow their business. Not only does it provide good exposure, but it also pushes you out of your comfort zone, puts you under pressure, and causes you to thoroughly dissect every aspect of your company. We really enjoyed meeting the dragons and the other contestants on the show and we’ll never forget it.”

To see how Ganesh and Tim fare in front of the dragons, tune in to BBC Two this Sunday, March 2 at 9pm.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Uniquethinking PR team .