We are now officially AS SEEN ON TV all thanks to our appearance on BBC2 Dragons’ Den!
So, what actually happened to us in the Den?
Well, it was quite an experience!
We walked out of the lift, with bated breath, and into the room towards our bold Poppy's Picnic statement set (fake grass, picnic baskets, toy dogs, blankets, bowls and of course, our raw dog food). Poppy led the way and you could see immediately that taking a dog to meet the Dragons was a very good idea. They were smitten! Poppy even got to sit on a Dragon’s lap (and not many can say that).
We launched into our three minute pitch (only fluffing it a bit) and then took a breath – now came the hard bit. Question after question after question. Having to think on our feet, respond quickly and confidently, know our stuff, keep the energy. And that went on for nearly TWO HOURS. Yep, two hours. It was utterly exhausting. How they edit that down to a few minutes for the TV show is amazing.
We generally fared pretty well. They were, in the most part, very complimentary and there was only one sticky part where Peter Jones needled Dylan on some numbers (no surprise there). But what you didn’t see on TV was that Peter also managed to call Lou ‘Poppy’ at least twice, “it’s ok Peter, you can call me whatever you like, in fact, call Dylan Poppy too!”
Suddenly, with really no warning, Tej Lalvani stopped the conversation to make us an offer. Wow. What a moment! It really stopped us in our tracks. And what a relief. An offer was on the table. The pressure was off – to some degree – and the game was on.
Accepting Deborah Meaden’s offer on the day was thrilling and scary all at once.
Deborah pretty much had us at hello. Her enthusiasm for raw feeding and confidence in the growth of this sector was obvious from the start – and she was clearly a huge advocate for raw cat food (which made Louise very happy – being the resident Mad Cat Lady).
We loved our experience in The Den. In many ways it’s contributed to the success we have today. Since appearing on the show it seems we have made quite a splash – so many new customers coming to switch their dogs to a raw dog food diet. That’s the best result we could ever have asked for.
Woof!
You can watch the episode here.
