A woman who secured £50,000 for a stake in her hard soap dispenser business on BBC’s Dragons’ Den has said her late father would have been “absolutely bursting with pride” at her success.
Lisa Hicks revealed she was offered the opportunity to record the episode at another time with the show’s five investors or “dragons” as it followed his recent death.
But she said postponing would have made him “cross” owing to “my dad’s work ethic”.
“It was a really tough, really challenging thing to do. But, having experienced the loss of… my dearly beloved dad, walking into five dragons felt somewhat easier to be honest,” she said.
Founder Ms Hicks’ business idea came about while at home with her three children during lockdown in March 2020 as she had wanted to reduce single-use plastics, especially soap bottles, in their every day life.
“I made lots of changes around the house for more eco-friendly alternatives, but one area we really struggled with was solid [soap] bars for hand, hair and body washing.
“Nobody wanted to share the bar, and it was really impractical.”
From that she created Monmouthshire-based SNOAP and her pitch with husband Antony started a bidding war with the show’s entrepreneurs all wanting to invest.
The couple eventually accepted £50,000 for a 7.5% stake with a joint bid from “dragons” Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast Ms Hicks said her father would have been “absolutely bursting with pride” at her success but would have had a strong opinion if she had postponed the pitch following his death.
“If he had thought he had stopped me doing something that could benefit myself my family, I have three children… he would have been cross,” she said.
“My dad’s work ethic and my mother’s actually is very, very strong, and their belief in me is very strong as well.”
She said business had been “just insane in the best possible way” since the show was broadcast on Thursday, with interest from as far afield as Australia.
“We had people even turn up at the office to collect their orders yesterday, having driven up from Newport and so on,” she said.
“So it’s been absolutely… overwhelmingly amazing.”
