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A woman who secured \u00a350,000 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But she said postponing would have made him “cross” owing to “my dad’s work ethic”.<\/p>\n
“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. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Founder Ms Hicks’ business idea came about while at home with her three children during lockdown in March 2020<\/a> as she had wanted to reduce single-use plastics, especially soap bottles, in their every day life.<\/p>\n “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. <\/p>\n “Nobody wanted to share the bar, and it was really impractical.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The couple eventually accepted \u00a350,000 for a 7.5% stake with a joint bid from “dragons” Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden.<\/p>\n