What Happened After The Den... 🐉

If you didn't know, we just went on Dragons' Den and we accepted a £50,000 investment for 20% of My Skin Feels split between Gary Neville and Deborah Meaden.

What you may not know is we didn't actually end up taking the Dragon's investment. And here's why...

I had all intentions of going on the Den and accepting 10% for £50,000, which, in the reality of business is a huge amount to give away. I know it sounds like a lot, but for a beauty brand or any startup, £50,000, honestly, will get you diddly squat.

But when I went on the show, they upped the ante to 20%, basically doubling what I wanted to give away.

I left the Den feeling really bummed out. You can see on camera, I'm like 'yay' but as soon as I get in the lift and I'm  like 'ughhh' and for the few days after filming, I was really disappointed. 

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I intuitively knew it wasn't the right decision to make for the business. It just wasn't - 20% for £50k, no matter who it is, celebrity or not celebrity, is not the value of the hard work I've put in and it just felt wrong. 

5 weeks went by after the Den and I hadn't heard much from my Dragons' and for a startup, waiting for investment 5 weeks is quite a long time to be sitting in limbo. But what also happened in that time is two angel investors came forward. They understood the business, understood me, really believed in what we're doing and our values and offered a much better percentage.

Then three other angels came in after that. So in total we have five angels that offered a much bigger amount of money for a much smaller percentage that's more fitting for the business - so it just felt like the right decision. If you've read the Daily Mail and you might read that I 'gave back £25k to Gary Neville' just to clarify that's not true. First of all, we never accepted his money officially to begin with. 

I actually would have loved Deborah and Gary to come in on the round of angels that we had, but it just wasn't right for them. And I completely understand the value of the business had changed

The reality is Dragon's Den is a TV show with celebrity business people on it. Yes, they have a wealth of knowledge and business and yes, it's got great exposure, but in the reality of business, when you're actually talking about your life, because My Skin Feels is my life - I have to make the best decision for me and for me, the people that came forward are so much more aligned.

It definitely wasn't a snub to Gary Neville and Deborah. It was an I need to make the right decision for myself and my life and my angels came forward and saved the day.

You can check out our episode of Dragons' Den on BBC iPlayer here...