Dragons' Den

Julie White's pitch for £75,000 to help build her party-plan baby products business 'Truly Madly Baby' didn't get off to a good start. Immediately, Rachel Elnaugh questioned the entire premise of the party-plan route, thinking that a mail order business would be a far better way to get big returns. Duncan Bannatyne and Doug Richard also couldn't see it and when Julie, joined by her husband Richard revealed her financial projections in which she saw her company's turnover increasing from a modest £2,600 so far to £6 million in year two, all three declared themselves out.

But Peter Jones had other ideas. He could see potential in Julie's Truly, Madly, Baby company and believed that with a re-structure and re-focus on the internet as the prime driver of sales she could be sitting on a potentially lucrative business.

He offered Julie the £75,000 she came in for, but in return for 50% of her company. Julie initially offered 25% for £75,000. Then Theo Paphitis came in with a counter offer. He too could see potential and undercut Peter Jones's offer by 2.5%, offering the £75k for 47.5%. With two firm offers, Julie turned the tables and asked the two dragons how they saw her business growing. In the end, she managed to improve the deal - securing the £75,000 from Peter Jones for 45% of her business.

Julie comments: "The whole Dragons' Den experience has been really fantastic and very exciting, really a dream come true.
Peter has given me an amazing opportunity while the show has given us focus so that we now have a fantastic infrastructure emerging for Truly Madly Baby.
Becoming successful in business is not just about getting the thumbs up from extremely successful and respected business people like the Dragons, it is about hard work, dedication and real passion about what you are doing, why you are doing it and what you want to gain from it".

Peter adds: "Baby clothes and products is a really interesting market with, I believe, lots of potential for the right type of approach. Julie's ambition of creating a truly excellent online shopping experience, combined with a nationwide ‘home party’ sales force, really struck a chord.
In part this was due to having just become a father again myself, so there was a very real personal interest, but Julie had also identified an opportunity to enter the market with a high quality proposition and this was key to winning me over.
I could also tell in her pitch she is really determined to make it a success, and this was and remains another important factor.
The business is now focused on the busy pre-Christmas gift-buying period, and the investment is being used to improve backend systems to manage and handle stock, fulfillment and logistics, and the execution of a wide range of marketing activity".

Source: www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden