When all five Dragons made an offer — and we still had to choose
All five Dragons made offers. We chose two. This is the story behind the Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones SNOAP investment — and why we took a while to tell it properly.
There is a version of this post I could have written the night it aired. I didn't. Some moments need to settle before you know how to talk about them.
This is about what happened in the Den — specifically about a comparison that was made, and what it might mean for something we have been building quietly for a long time.
We had barely finished the demonstration when Peter Jones looked around the Den and said it. Not to us — to the room.
"I literally, when I saw it when you demonstrated it, I just got it."— Peter Jones, Dragons' Den
You do not prepare for that. You prepare for scrutiny, for the numbers, for the hard questions — and all of those came. But you do not quite prepare for the moment a Dragon sets down his pen and simply says he gets it.
What followed was something we have been careful about repeating too freely. Peter drew a connection — not to an adjacent brand, but to a structural shift in how an entire category was packaged.
"I think this could be what Tetra Pak was when they launched for milk and fruit juice — SNOAP could be that for soap dispensers."— Peter Jones, Dragons' Den
We have sat with that comparison for a while now. It is not a claim we would make about ourselves. It is the kind of thing that only lands properly when someone else says it — someone who has seen enough categories shift to know what the early shape of one looks like.
We are not saying we are Tetra Pak. We are saying that Peter Jones thought the analogy was worth making, out loud, in the Den. We thought you should know.
Then there was this. Deborah Meaden had been watching. She had her own view.
"I'm fighting you for this one Peter. I'm desperate to get in there."— Deborah Meaden, Dragons' Den
All five Dragons made us offers. It was the kind of afternoon you do not fully believe is happening while it is happening. We chose Peter and Deborah — not only because of what they offered financially, but because of what Peter said next.
"The link with what Deborah and I've got with Fussy — it's obvious here. I think you've got the dream ticket."— Peter Jones, Dragons' Den
Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden are co-investors in Fussy, the UK's leading refillable deodorant brand. When Peter made that connection, Deborah's response was immediate.
"Well, it makes perfect sense."— Deborah Meaden, Dragons' Den
It does make perfect sense. Two investors who had already backed the refillable revolution in personal care, now backing it in a second category. The overlap is not coincidental. It is the point — and it is why the Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones SNOAP investment feels different to us from any other deal we could have taken.
Since we first launched, the case for what we are building has only grown clearer. Here is where things stand now.
The Den confirmed the direction. These numbers are what we are doing with it.
Peter called us impressive — "Antony and Lisa — it's really impressive" — and we are grateful for that. But what we carry out of that room is the conviction behind the Tetra Pak comparison, and the quiet confidence of two investors who looked at what we were doing and said: we already believe in this direction. We want to come with you.
That is not nothing. That is everything.
You can read more about the Dragons' Den deal and what we are building from here.
— Lisa, SNOAP
