Virtualgym.uk based on Medway City Estate, Rochester, is Europe's only online TV fitness centre and offers around 1400 different workout videos to thousands of people at a fraction of a gym membership cost.

After making a professional pitch and asking for an investment of £50,000 with a four per cent equity, Chamber member Richard boldly told Shaf his online gym made £15,000 in February this year although he felt the business was worth a million. Julie liked the business idea, but felt the figures were off the wall.

Richard then stunned both Dragons by suggesting that with the £50,000 investment he would have a turnover of £800,000 in 2009 with a net profit of £420,000. This would increase in 2010 to a £1.2million turnover with a net profit of just under £700,000.

Both dragons drew back. Richard said:" I loved the experience, really thrived off it and I love being under pressure in situations like that.

"I think that the most uncomfortable aspect of doing it was the numbers grilling. Being in the den where you present your profit and loss and cashflows type info verbally from memory is unrealistic at best and stupid at worst.

"In the real world you'd sit round a table and discuss a spreadsheet that all can see, and no-one would ever dream of reciting forecast models from memory. This is heightened when a dragon changes the scenario and you are trying to work out a new investment model in your head. I'm a sales guy primarily, not a walking Excel spreadsheet, so that part was frustrating.

 "Julie was great, really interested in what we are doing and thought she could bring some valuable extra input into helping us to expand our corporate sales - which was exactly the outcome that I was hoping for.

"Shaf was very much more hard-nosed and rather than looking at the potential for the company, was only interested in the numbers and little else. It's a shame, as I was actually in the den for more than an hour, but the footage was heavily edited to just 12 minutes.

"So a massive part of the negotiation was removed, including the various odd deals that Shaf was putting to me. It kind of looked like he just removed himself, but after he had offered me a mortgage type "loan", which we never really got to the bottom of, it was clear that he wasn't going anywhere sensible with it.
 
"The outcome was a little disappointing as Julie was actually right on the verge of offering me a deal, but it was Shaf's hard-nosed re-modelling stuff that seemed to put the kybosh on it.
 
"The other pain was that we only allowed to ask for £50k in this online version and actually wanted more. We had applied to be on the main programme and got ourselves a recording slot until one of the producers had clocked that we were winners of the 2008 BT Essence of the Entrepreneur competition and that Peter Jones had been the lead judge.

"They decided that we wouldn't be able to appear on the main Dragon's Den as he had advance information about our company and that put him at an advantage over the other dragons which is how we came to be on the online version only. Anyway, ready for more, just give me the opportunity. "

Outcome was no deal.