Appearance on Dragon’s Den sees Northampton business ‘overwhelmed’ with support and orders

A Northampton-based business has been “overwhelmed” with support, messages and orders since its appearance on BBC’s Dragon’s Den last Thursday (March 30).

dandi London, which was first established in Quinton Green, provides sweat management solutions for all genders.

The business is the brainchild of Theresa Pope and Hayley Leete, who first came up with the idea of armpit patches to minimise sweat in 2011.

There are no other sweat products on the market that are as advanced as theirs, which are ergonomically designed to the shape of the armpit gland to see the optimum result of no sweat patches.

The patches are “ultra thin and as discreet as possible”, with a clear surround made with a skin-friendly adhesive.

The aim is to provide users with confidence, while combating concerns about the potentially harmful substances in deodorants, antiperspirants and hair removal products.

Co-founder Theresa appeared on the popular BBC show to deliver the pitch to the five dragons, and the business was seeking a £150,000 investment in return for a 30 percent stake.

Though Theresa failed to secure investment from Touker Suleyman, Sara Davies, Deborah Meaden, Peter Jones or Steven Bartlett, the response has “gone crazy” since last Thursday (March 30) and Theresa was “proud” to appear on the show.

She said: “We knew we may not secure funding, but the audience of this very popular BBC show has enabled us to generate awareness of our products – including those who suffer from sweat and lack confidence due to it.

“We’re hoping the coverage will enable those who have suffered for such a long time to have found a solution to their problem.

“It was an experience I’ll never forget and I was able to walk away with lots of feedback from the dragons.”

The sweat patches were not the only product presented to the dragons – a painless unisex hair remover and unisex nipple covers were also shared, and Steven Barlett was quick to try the nipple covers himself.

Despite Theresa and Hayley coming up with the idea in 2011, the sweat patches were first released in 2017 and it has been a five-to-seven year journey to get to where the business is today.

Steven Bartlett and Deborah Meaden were quick to criticise the business’ accumulated net loss and advised Theresa not to invest any more money in the venture, but the pitch ended on a high with more positive comments from Peter Jones.

Peter advised Theresa to invest her money in employing an experienced salesperson and although he branded being able to invest himself as “too risky”, he told Theresa “don’t give up” and the dragons wished her luck.

dandi’s products are sold on their own website, Amazon UK and US, Walmart in America and a Canadian company, which Theresa hopes to expand on moving forward.

As she left the den, Theresa said it is “onwards and upwards” and assured viewers they are never going to give up on providing a solution to this problem – which affects many people’s confidence levels.

You can visit dandi London’s website here.