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London-based linguist Marcus Reoch delivers a fluent pitch in which he demonstrates the skills of his young after-school club students from the Charter School by inviting them to sing to the Dragons.

Despite delivering a pitch that combines entertainment with a clearly articulated business proposition, with the ambition to become the UK's number one provider of Mandarin Chinese teachers, it becomes evident that Marcus has alienated one of the Dragons from the get-go.

Julie Meyer wants to know why Marcus has been looking at her business rival, Shaf Rasul, throughout his presentation. She is piqued at his apparent indifference to her potential to add value to his business and wants to know if he’s offering to deal exclusively with Shaf. Full of chagrin, Marcus attempts to win Julie round by apologising and by assuring her that he would like both of them to invest.

However, his apparent focus on Shaf hasn't served his best interests at all. The Scottish Dragon wants to know why the entrepreneur is dressed like a court jester. Now Marcus has to defend himself against the danger that Shaf won't take him seriously at all.

Marcus explains that because his work is with primary school children in an extra-curricular activity it is important for him to engage them in their after school clubs with fun, magic tricks and music. Marcus explains how he attempts to enliven learning by taking it away from the drier aspects of linguistics.

Marcus seems to be winning back some of the ground he lost with Julie at the beginning. She is interested in learning how he came to be involved with language teaching. Marcus recounts his former experience of working in the City for over six years.

He said that he wasn't passionate about his job and he decided to take a career break – he ended up in Shanghai living with a family who didn't speak English and hence his need to understand and to make himself understood in Mandarin was born out of necessity.

Having established his history and credentials, Julie now wants Marcus to explain the size of the potential market. She wants to know in how many of the 23,000 primary schools would there be the opportunity to learn Chinese. Marcus estimates that Mandarin is currently taught in less than 1% of schools, implying that the scope for growth would be great.

Shaf is still worried about the longevity of a school's interest in Marcus's club – and feels that it is a potential weakness in the business model – after all, if it is successful, a school could incorporate Mandarin learning into their own curriculum and do without the entrepreneur.

Marcus's defence is robust.

He explains that he encourages Head Teachers to see the comparisons between language learning in the UK and in United States or France and by demonstrating what can be done in his clubs he hopes to show how the gap in learning between the countries can be narrowed.

Having convinced the Dragons of his commitment to and his belief in the teaching of Mandarin Chinese, the next step is to persuade them of his business case.

Julie Meyer wants to know about the accounts. She asks whether he has been trading in profit or not.

Marcus explains that he has three years unaudited accounts. In Year 1 he posted a small loss and by Year 3 a modest £36,000 net profit. Marcus explains that his projections for the next three years will post profits but by Year 6 these will have only reached £68,000 net.

Julie expresses consternation at the prospect of such a mature business making less than £70,000 profit in its sixth year of trading. She suggests that either Marcus goes after a big market and manages to add another two zeros to his Year 6 projected net profit or he concedes that it's a lifestyle business and doesn't warrant the injection of venture capital.

Shaf won't let the point lie. He wants to know which is more important to Marcus - being rich or running his business. Marcus confirms that he does want to be rich but that the value of the product to society is also important to him.

The Dragons are struggling to see where they would fit in to Marcus's plans when he has failed to persuade them of the scalability and commerciality of his proposition.

Julie decides to spell it out for the entrepreneur. She commends Marcus for his integrity and his hard work but regrets that he has failed to articulate the profitability of a potential partnership. For this reason she declares herself out.

In a surprising turn Shaf concedes that Marcus has won him round on the merits of learning Mandarin Chinese. Sensing an opportunity Marcus reveals to Shaf some of the success he has been enjoying in in Dumfriesshire and Edinburgh.

Shaf concludes that although Marcus's passion is very evident and he has done a great pitch, as a Dragon, Shaf must see his own prospective involvement in terms of an investment. And since the numbers don't stack up for him, he must declare himself out.

The deal done in the Den:

No investment

Last updated: 12 August 2009