BUSINESS NEWS
By Nick Batten
Bath’ s pop-up publishing entrepreneur says the true value of his Dragons’ Den win has been more about validation than money
It’ s been a rollercoaster ride for David Hawcock – Founder of Pop-up Games Ltd- since he stepped calmly into the Dragons’ Den in 2022( broadcast in 2023) and then out again having secured investment from business tycoons Touker Suleyman and Peter Jones.
Already well-known in his field before he ventured into the den- his pop-up products have earned him a reputation which has secured some illustrious clients including Heyday Films and StudioCanal, pop group Duran Duran and Manchester United Football Club.
But the two years following his win have been unprecedented. Not only has he been able to bring his idea for a Pop-Up Chess Set to life but has also created a new range of pop-up products, done a deal with the British Museum and produced more work for the film industry including the newly released Wicked.
Speaking to The Business Exchange, the Bath-based paper engineer explains that, while working with the dragons has not been quite what he expected, their involvement has been crucial to expanding his business and product line.
“ We’ ve been very busy since the den win,” he says.“ In addition to the chess game, we’ ve developed eight new other products including lots of new traditional games like Row of Four, Solitaire and Draughts and we’ ve also produced pocket travel versions of these games.
“ But perhaps most significantly we’ ve been developing fully illustrated pop-up versions of games from history- so there is Hnefatafl which dates to Viking Scandinavia and then there is Senet which was played in ancient Egypt and is about the journey into the afterlife. Both of these have now been taken up by the British Museum to be sold in their shop.”
Due to the success of these games, David is now going to be expanding the series further.
“ We’ re working on a prototype of a game called Latrunculi which was played throughout the Roman Empire,” he explains.“ Again, this is fully illustrated, and we’ ve based it around the Boudicca and Iceni revolt. Interestingly, there is a statue of the commander of Roman forces during that battle at the Roman Baths in Bath! The other game in this series is one which dates back to ancient Greece.
“ We’ ve done all of this because trying to create a business out of just three products was very challenging- so I’ ve spent the first period since the investment creating new concepts and ideas.”
In addition to helping him develop the business, making these historical games more accessible to the mainstream market is one of David’ s motives for pursuing this new theme.
“ Until recently,” he says,“ if you wanted to play something like Hnefatafl you’ d have to buy a very expensive set of moulded plastic pieces – but we’ ve created something that allows you to learn about the game and dabble very economically.”
But that’ s not all. A long-standing relationship with a USbased publisher has also enabled David to create a Pop-up version of Harry Potter Wizard’ s Chess which was released in November.
“ I work with Insight Editions a lot because they own Harry Potter and other licenses, so I didn’ t need to buy the licence myself – so there was no massive risk for me in that respect!”
It seems that mitigating risk has also been the main benefit to come from going into business with the dragons. After his win, David was put in touch with an adviser, but he describes this input as being“ fairly minimal” and adds that the negotiations took a long time. But despite this, simply being on TV has impacted his brand recognition dramatically.
“ In a sense, I’ ve just been carrying on as before, but the one thing I have gained much more in is promotion and internet sales- an area which in the past has been a closed book to me.
“ But the bounce from being on the telly has been really helpful.
“ Although I have another business [ Infinite Jest ]- Pop-up Games Ltd is a separate entity and would not exist if it wasn’ t for the dragons. Their involvement made it a shared risk and that’ s ultimately what made it all happen!”
Originally, the Pop-up Chess set idea began as a Kickstarter crowdfunding project and then the BBC invited David to do the den. David stresses that while the Kickstarter
was an important part of the process, the dragons were what allowed the idea to take-off.
“ Although the whole games thing might have just faded if the Kickstarter campaign hadn’ t worked,” he says,“ the fact
that the dragons then got behind it gave me the impetus and confidence to really push the project forward as well as having the money in the bank to support the development.
“ I haven’ t touched the investment money yet because there was enough enthusiasm for the games once we started expanding the list, it’ s grown anyway without it – the money just provided the insurance. But we’ re growing quite nicely now, so it was definitely worth doing.”
As the creative force behind the business, David always has ideas on the go, and some can be kicking around for a long time.
“ Some things will suggest themselves,” he says,“ other times I work to quite a tight brief. For the most part, ideas just come to me and then I spend ages going around with them
in my head. While some see the light of day- probably most don’ t! When I did the Kickstarter, the chess set idea was about seven years old!”
While David admits that the security of capital investment has been key to bringing his idea from dream to reality, the benefits have not only been financial.
“ The investment provides the inspiration from a very basic idea,” he says.“ If you get somebody interested in it, then you have to follow the idea through.
“ There’ s a lot of half-made concepts lying around my office! But once you find a home [ an investor ] for them then you have to solve all of the problems rather than just ignoring them and putting it to one side. It validates your product and forces you to sit down and really make it work.”
In addition to appearing on Dragons’ Den – David’ s products have also had a promotion on the big screen, one of his pop-up creations was memorably featured as part of a sequence on the film Paddington 2 in 2017. As his reputation has grown, the film industry has become a recurring source of work.
“ We created a book for the film Wicked,” he says.“ We made several books for the actors to interact with and I was lucky enough to be on set for quite a while watching Ariana Grande do her thing! Also, Pop-Up Games has now made a replica of the book that features in the film.”
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