A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE businessman dubbed the Twitter Dragon is in talks with producers of the hit BBC show to become an official member of Dragons' Den.
Simon Dolan, 43, an entrepreneur from Chelmsford, hit the headlines after appealing on Twitter to find the best British company to invest in back in 2010.
And with the announcement that famous faces Theo Paphitis and Hilary Devey are leaving the Dragons' Den, rumour is rife that Simon will be stepping into one pair of their very expensive shoes.
"I can't say an awful lot but I know that they are looking for two people and that I'm talking to them. But nothing's really been decided," he said.
Having grown up on the Tile Kiln estate near Galleywood, Simon was thrown out of King Edward VI Grammar School at just 16 and has since embarked on an illustrious career that has earned him a place on The Sunday Times Rich List.
In the early 1990s Simon started his own accountancy firm called SJD Accountancy, which employs 200 staff and serves 11,000 clients.
He has since amassed a £72 million fortune and owns a racing team.
Now, it seems as though his next venture may involve the real Dragons, helping other entrepreneurs put their ideas into reality.
And the challenge is something Simon would relish.
"From reading some of the comments around the place, the programme has become a bit formulaic, I think probably because they have had the same people on there for a long time," he said.
"From my own point of view I could probably give a fresh take on things. I see things a bit differently to the others. At the moment if you don't know your numbers, you're out, but I would be looking more for the validity of an idea."
Simon has publicly let the world know his feelings about university education in his book, How To Make Millions Without A Degree, and feels strongly about supporting innovative business people – not only the well-educated.
"I think it's also important to try hard not to be too intimidating with people. There are other ways of getting the best out of people. You don't call them idiots because they don't know the numbers," he said.
"The programme is quite heavily edited anyway so there are an awful lot of pitches, but it generally comes down to the likeability of a person."
When it comes to programme ideas Simon, who has just returned from testing racing cars in Spain for his company Jota Sports, said: "The car-related ones would certainly interest me but I don't think I would invest in them because I know the money it takes.
"I kind of like the web-based ideas and the half-developed ones. I would like to see something that's already done, but that is not at the stage that it has a full order book."
In the meantime the father of two will keep his fingers crossed that his is the next business brain to breathe fire into the Den.
"I have doing this for a long time and I'm used to doing TV work," he said.
"If I got it, it would be exciting and certainly good fun. This is what I know."
