An audience of millions watched an inventor sweat it out on a reality TV show as he tried to persuade a group of millionaires to give him their cold, hard cash for his beer-chilling shelves.

Minicab driver Stef Matheou was on BBC2's Dragon's Den to ask the dragons, a group of entrepreneurial self-made multi-millionaires, to back his idea for making a mint. His invention, the Raka-Stakas, are a shelf that people can use to stack beer or wine bottles in the fridge. Mr Matheou hoped the dragons would give him the cash to develop it.

On last night's show, which drew an audience of about six million viewers, Mr Matheou was on screen for an excruciating 12 minutes.

But the 40-year-old inventor, of Livingstone Road, Hove, succeeded in taming three of the four dragons.

He was offered backing by football club owner Theo Paphitis, whose empire also includes Rymans and La Senza. Rachel Elnaugh, who pioneered the UK's £200 million life experiences industry with her company Red Letter Days, also liked the idea and health clubs guru Duncan Bannatyne also offered his backing.

But Mr Matheou turned them all down. He said: "They wanted too high a percentage.

"It was a really good, positive outcome because I was on TV for 12 minutes and a lot of people will have seen it."

He has spent two years developing the project at a cost of £45,000 to £50,000 and has sold £35,000 worth of shelves.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005