From prison to Dragon's Den: the man who built Yo Sushi | Simon Woodroffe

<p>Nobody walked into Simon Woodroffe&#39;s restaurant on opening night. Two weeks later there was a queue down the block that lasted five years and it started with an idea nobody in Britain had ever heard of.</p><p><br></p><p>Simon Woodroffe OBE is the founder of Yo Sushi and Yotel, and one of the original Dragons on Dragon&#39;s Den. Before any of that, he lit Rod Stewart&#39;s stage show, worked in the rock-and-roll production world alongside acts like Ozzy Osbourne, sold television rights for Live Aid-era concert broadcasts, and spent time in prison in his late teens for dealing drugs. </p><p><br></p><p>At 45, with half a million pounds and a government-backed bank loan, he built Yo Sushi, Britain&#39;s first conveyor belt sushi restaurant, and turned it into a business with over 100 restaurants and a presence in 600 supermarkets worldwide. He later sold his majority stake to Primary Capital, but says he made more money from a single royalty clause than from either exit.</p><p><br></p><p>Chapters</p><p>00:00 &quot;I Got Lost&quot; Three Times in His Life
</p><p>01:51 He Wrote the Book Only When He Felt Like It
</p><p>05:31 The Dad Who Taught Him to Be a Showoff
</p><p>08:32 Confessions of a Lost Boy
</p><p>10:50 Busted for Dealing Drugs With Two Kids and Some Surfboards
</p><p>12:05 Why Prison Stopped Him Breaking the Law Forever
</p><p>15:07 A Newspaper Ad Got Him Into Rock and Roll
</p><p>16:36 Designing Rod Stewart&#39;s Stage With No Experience
</p><p>20:45 &quot;I Had to Get Out Before I Got Found Out&quot;
</p><p>24:45 Divorced, Broke and Starting Over in Chamonix
</p><p>25:33 The Idea That Changed Everything: Sushi on a Conveyor Belt
</p><p>26:25 His 100-Day Rule for Testing Any Idea
</p><p>32:50 The Envelope That Arrived From Japan
</p><p>37:43 The Queue That Lasted Five Years
</p><p>46:07 How He Built a Million Pound Restaurant on Half the Money
</p><p>50:39 The Contract Clause That Made Him Richer Than Selling the Company
</p><p>53:03 The ATM Screen He Couldn&#39;t Stop Staring At
</p><p>1:11:24 His Answer to &quot;What Does It Take?&quot;</p><p><br></p><p>Buy Simon’s book Yo! Man here: </p><p>https://yo.co.uk/yo-man/</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Simon:</p><p>https://www.instagram.com/yosimonwoodroffe/?hl=en</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Olly: </p><p>https://www.instagram.com/olly.303/</p><p>https://www.tiktok.com/@ollyfawcett303?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc</p><p>https://www.linkedin.com/in/olly-fawcett-668566177/</p><p>Get frequent behind the