How do you make a small fortune in business? You start with a large one! Or so the wisdom of Dragons’ Den seems to go these days, as the well-heeled former footballer Gary Neville returns to the series to offer business mentorship to aspiring CEOs. But his presence is sending the wrong message about what it takes to be successful in 2026.
You can see why the show’s producers like Neville. He is a chipper presence in the studio, full of praise for the young entrepreneurs who appear before him (“you’re driven, smart, likeable and authentic,” he tells one pitcher, leading to much blushing). Like any good footballer, he seems keen to collaborate with his fellow investors, often deferring to their areas of expertise. “You definitely can’t win a game on your own,” he says.
It is natural that young entrepreneurs with businesses doing sales via social media would be interested in Neville. After all, he has two million Instagram followers, whereas fellow Dragon Touker Suleyman has just 68,000. In essence, they are offering equity in exchange for a few social media endorsements: not a bad trade given the price that successful brands like Hawes & Curtis, Norqain and Pepsi have presumably paid to partner with Neville in the past. But it is hard to see why anyone would select Neville on the strength of his business acumen.
