The traditional Dragon's Den panel has five investors.
Each entrepreneur enters the den and presents a business proposition to the investors, who are collectively known as the Dragons. The panel members may ask questions about sales, profit, valuation, intellectual property and the entrepreneur’s plans before deciding whether to make an offer.
Five is the standard panel size associated with the British programme, although individual episodes can feature guest Dragons, substitutions or changes in the lineup. A contestant may receive offers from one Dragon, several Dragons or none at all.
The number is sometimes confused with the number of offers made on a particular pitch. Those figures are unrelated: five investors may hear a pitch, but a deal can involve only one investor or a group. The panel structure is one of the format’s defining features.