Dragons' Den

In January 2020 I had a missed call and voicemail from an unknown number: Dragons’ Den were inviting me to audition for series 18. Having applied the year before, in March 2019, I had no idea what information they had, I could not even tell you how much investment I was asking for; I could barely answer the producer’s questions. Whoever is on standby to read off their revenue, value of business, net profit (or loss, in my case), units sold per year - including the most popular flavour ranked from best to worst - fair play to you.

The audition was scheduled for 2pm on February 3rd. The producers got 11 months to tell me I got through to the first round, and I got less than two weeks - 13 days to be precise - to prepare a 2-3 minute pitch, as if I were in the Den itself, a pre-interview questionnaire and an up-to-date business plan, which, rather appropriately - given my business journey so far - was non-existent. But this was the least of my worries. If all went well and good, I had to prepare myself for the possibility of being on TV. Thinking about who this experience impacts the most and who could have done with more time - I will let you decide. Before any of this happened though, I had to sign an NDA form and swear to not tell anyone about my interview in case it jeopardised my position. I felt like I was applying to MI5 (or was I?).

For 13 days I did nothing but focus on NB’s financial history to make sure I could and would not be caught out. Profit in percentage of Maca & Pecan’s sales between January and December 2018? Sure. Industry statistics and proof of demand in our category? Done. Why should a Dragon invest in NB? Easy (well, stupid question). My confidence in NB aside, I was convinced I was going to get through; at this stage I was leaning more towards, screw the Dragons - just get me on TV so I can sell NB to the public! (Probably jinxed it).

The day of the audition was surreal. Hosted at the BBC Broadcast Centre, we filmed my pitch eight times before selecting and sending the best one for the senior producers to review. Still to date I wish I could rewatch it (I did ask, more than once; more than once, they said no) - it definitely ended with me grinning enthusiastically, "who wouldn't want to buy a baby jar of nut butter, almost too cute to eat?". Fortunately someone somewhere appreciated my passion, on February 7th I received the good news that NB was through to the next round. A short-lived celebration; if I thought preparing for the audition was intense, due diligence was in a league of its own. What they referred to as a 'grid' of information, so casually at that, was in fact over 50 separate documents I had to provide to prove that everything I had mentioned about NB, made a notion to, said off-camera, even, (to try and be witty), was true. Boosting morale by ending their email with, "this does not guarantee you a place in The Den." I cancelled all plans for the next two weeks and this is how they chose to motivate me.

Two weeks was not nearly enough. I work well under pressure but this task - my head was lost to a giant to-do list. Literally I had no idea where to start. Although I was working with a social media freelancer at the time, the majority of what needed to be done was hard to delegate. A testing two weeks, probably the most overwhelming; I worked myself hard. Not just my brain, I intensified my food and exercise regime to help take the weight off. One morning, for example, after coming home from the gym, I felt so much tightness in my chest I wanted to eat nothing; I took myself out for a coffee instead and only ate dinner that evening once I had made a dent and steady headway in my calculations and projections - once I felt like I had been productive enough to earn it. Purely a coping mechanism, I know how I treated my body was as a result of feeling stressed, it is what I needed to do to stay level-headed and not crumble under the anxiety. I wanted to give NB and myself the best chance at being successful in this process - if that meant prioritising everything but looking after myself - quite the contradiction - so be it. I needed a release and restriction gave it to me. Although reminiscing is hard for this reason, as the photos show so much. Smiling on screen - and I was excited! - I was running on empty, really.

One email and 68 attachments later, on February 25th, due diligence was complete, "for now". The next and final step was for the producers to go away and look at all the candidates remaining, ensure there were no duplicate business ideas, and decide who of us was going to emerge from The Lift and face The Dragons. Of all tasks involved in the last five weeks, this seemed to me like the easiest and most straight-forward, surely. Should I book my hair appointment already, or…? (And that is jinx number two).