by Dan Matthews - Thursday, 30th August 2007

When Rachel Elnaugh failed, lots of people cheered. Just as we love to hate Big Brother contestants, Dragons’ Den’s stonyfaced millionaires can easily find themselves rebuked for flaunting their wealth - and apparent personality deficiencies.

When Red Letter Days slipped into administration, Elnaugh became the business equivalent of an evicted housemate. Journos sharpened their pencils excitedly, sniggering at the irony of her giving advice to Den hopefuls. And Elnaugh also revealed to Real Business that she lost a packet on her investments - £250,000, she claims.

Deborah Meaden, a successful serial entrepreneur and multimillionairess, wasn’t a huge fan of the show before she appeared on it (she doesn’t watch much TV), but she did read about Elnaugh’s nightmare run. Now she has replaced Elnaugh as the Den’s fiery female and already has been forced to absorb some venomous media flack.

But she doesn’t mind: "The Guardian says I’m sour-faced," she laughs. Actually, the offending article also says she’s "charm-free" and that in the opening credits she "looks down on the world with an almighty scowl". "I don’t really think about it. I’m on the show because I want to invest in promising businesses. Anyway, the Daily Mail thinks I’m great."

In reality, or at least on the phone, she comes across as a very nice person. She’s just paid a visit to her chiropractor and happily describes the accident that made the visit necessary. "Horse riding is about the only sporty thing I do. I crunched my back when I took on a jump that was too high for me. My instructor told me not to try it, but I hate hearing things like that. I suppose it’s part of being a risk-taker."

So why would an apparently nice, intelligent person go in for Dragons’ Den? If Meaden is to be believed, it’s not because it’s televised. She’s there to view investment opportunities (though most are opportunities to waste money).

She could have gone to a business angel network like Envestors, which tends to weed out the madcap entrepreneurs who pitch swinging beanbags, Coke can stacking systems and "crystal boots". But where’s the fun in that?

Maybe she’s earned the right to a wheeze. Meaden spent 17 years building up her parents’ business Weststar Holidays to £15m turnover. She’s no child of privilege either, having joined in 1988 as operations manager before rising to MD and buying her parents out (they remained as non-execs). In February last year, Meaden sold part of the company to Phoenix Equity Partners for £33m.

She’s now "acquisitions director" and spends her time looking for compatible businesses to buy. Her first purchase, sealed last November, is the biggest holiday park that Weststar owns. "I love acquisitions," she says.

It’s a bit of a switch for the 47- year-old, who’s used to running the show. Straight out of business school, she moved to Italy to launch a ceramics export business. Then she ran a franchise for fashion house Stefanel. Neither made much money, but they taught her invaluable business lessons. "I learned that I don’t like the franchising model because you make lots of money for the franchiser, not for yourself," she says. Her only real "job" was a stint as a model in a clothes shop at age 19. The job advert said models had to be 5’6"; she’s five foot nothing. Meaden talked her way in.

The consummate deal-maker says she’s done with the nuts and bolts of business. "Dragons’ Den came along at the right time," she says. "I’ve done my bit as a handson chief executive, and now I want to help young businesses find their feet." She has invested in two fledgling businesses off-screen, and stuck a cool £100,000 behind a truck-wash business that appeared on the show. After much squabbling between the Dragons, she eventually shared the investment with Theo Paphitis. Both took a 20 per cent share. "Lots of the Dragons were interested and there was quite a lot of gazumping going on. It made really compelling viewing."

That’s Dragons’ Den, isn’t it? Not always good returns. But great TV.

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