Many people would have seen the recent Dragons Den episode (shown 02/02/14) featuring our Snugglebundl baby lifting wrap/blanket. We thought we'd let you in on our experiences of being on the programme and what it was like to stand there and face those five formidable faces of television.
David Solomons (left), Heidi Edwards (center) and Mike Edwards (right)
The Dragons Den Participants For starters the programme was filmed about 8 months ago so a lot has actually happened in that time. We spent a couple of days at the BBC studios in Manchester waiting for our turn to enter the Den and deliver our pitch. By this point we had memorised every conceivable detail about our business in fear that they would catch us out with something. As big fans of DD we have watched with interest over the years and winced at those entrepreneurs that seem to know very little about their companies and figures, and those that overvalue their businesses with very little turnover to actually warrant asking for so much investment. We thought we had done everything right and got our figures spot on, but of course these Dragons are after all they can get from you and will be quick to pounce on you if they see anything contestable.
Despite being given 3 minutes maximum to deliver our pitch they sadly edited it down to about a minute so a lot of key information was not shown like our awards and the fantastic endorsements we have from Midwives, Health visitors, Baby Sleep experts, Chiropractors, Osteopaths and of course the parents themselves.
We were actually stood talking to them for an hour and a half and from that it is edited down to just a few minutes. There was so much we would have loved to have been included but in the end we don't select what's shown.
We thought that all in all it wasn't too bad. It was interesting that the two women really understood the Snugglebundl. Kelly really identified with how it would have helped her when her daughter was a baby and Deborah despite not having children herself had a natural instinct that it was good. As we listened to Peter Jones, Piers Linney and Duncan Bannatyne talking we realised that perhaps these men really hadn't been around much when their babies were small. Perhaps the pressures of their multi million pound empires meant that they didn't often get home in time to put the kids to bed! The reaction we generally get from any parent is..' I wish I'd had one of those when my kids were little!' We laughingly imagined all the wives of the male dragons giving Peter,Piers and Duncan a hard time when they saw the program for not investing in us.
As Andy Warhol said, everyone has their fifteen minutes of fame. Well that was a little bit of our fifteen and we really do hope that it helps us to tell more parents to be how useful a Snugglebundl can be when you have a baby.
Peter couldn't have been more wrong when he said it's just a blanket with handles. That would imply that's all there is to it, when in fact it is a carefully balanced and meticulously designed wrap and blanket with handles that completely supports a baby when lifted in it. It also protects a parents back from stooping to lift and subsequently promotes faster healing for Mums after the birth. Not to mention being a mat for a baby to lay on, a liner that fits all prams, pushchairs, car seats and trolley seats and it can lift and lay a baby without waking them, and also doubles up as a breastfeeding cover! Just a blanket with handles indeed!!
We are incredibly proud of our Snugglebundl and the help it can give to parents and we sincerely hope that as more people use it the word will spread. If only those fire breathing dragons were allowed to have a small look into our Facebook pages or our Twitter feed or see the countless emails we receive from genuine parents who just love the Snugglebundl then I think it would have been a different story.
Kelly reluctantly turned us down as she was concerned that we wouldn't get the Boots stores deal. Such a shame as just a few weeks later that deal was signed and we are now in over 150 of their biggest stores, and rapidly getting into more and more independent shops. It was a great experience though and one we can look back at as part of the journey to making the Snugglebundl a household name.