Simon Woodroffe created Yo! Sushi before appearing on the British television series Dragon's Den.
Yo! Sushi is a British restaurant chain built around conveyor-belt service, a format that lets diners select dishes as they pass. Woodroffe founded the company in London in 1997, helping popularise a highly visible and informal style of sushi dining in the United Kingdom.
Woodroffe's experience with Yo! Sushi made him a recognisable original dragon. His entrepreneurial reputation came from creating a distinctive hospitality concept rather than from a traditional investment-fund background. That made his perspective on branding, customer experience, and restaurant operations different from that of several other panellists.
The company is sometimes confused with later dragon-owned businesses because the programme has featured many food and retail entrepreneurs. Yo! Sushi is specifically associated with Woodroffe. He later became known for other ventures, including the YOTEL hotel concept, but Yo! Sushi was the business that established his reputation before Dragon's Den.