Anna Brightman and her brother William Brightman are the founders of UpCircle - formerly known as Optiat - and appeared on Dragons’ Den back in 2019 – hoping for a chance to steal a Dragon to help with their business.
Addressing the investors, they explained they were looking for an investment of £50,000 in return for just two per cent of the business but expressed their desire to be mentored.
Their impressive pitch left Peter Jones, Touker Souleyman and Tej Lalvani all fighting for a piece of their business.
After a lot of back and forth and renegotiating terms, the brother and sister duo ended up shaking hands with both Souleyman and Lalvani.
They left the Den with the Dragons investing the £50,000 but for 15 per cent each, and willing to sell back 2.5 per cent once they had made their money back.
However, after leaving the show and months of more renegotiating with their new brand and name, the Brightman’s decided to decline the investments from the Dragons and relaunch their product themselves.
Anna noted that Deborah was "mean0spirited" in her comments
BBC
This isn’t the first time a business and the owner have initially taken the investment from the dragons and gone on to decline.
Anna Brightman recently spoke to GB News about their experience on the show and was asked whether they thought they had been critiqued too harshly or been given an unfair comment.
She explained: “I did think there was one comment that I thought had missed the mark, or I thought was unfair or showed a lack of appreciation for what it is to be a start-up.
“We were essentially accused of too closely mimicking certifications through our branding – again we were really a young brand and certifications are incredibly expensive and they are annual fees.
The pair turned down an investment from Touker and Tej
BBC
“Whilst our range is entirely vegan and cruelty-free, we had our branding agency create little logo things that just said vegan, cruelty-free without getting the official certifications.
“I think it was Deborah that said ‘Oh, you are ripping off certifications and it is misleading’ or ‘you are conning your audience’.
“And I thought ‘Oh god I don’t think that is fair’, it is not like we are saying cruelty-free international underneath it, so that was one comment that stuck with me.
“I remember at the time she and I had a right old too and throw and I was like ’Come on I don’t think that is fair’ and I did fight her on it at the time.
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Anna Brightman noted how "unfair" Deborah Meaden's comments were
BBC
“I just thought it was so mean and so mean-spirited and particularly in our pre-interviews we had gone in saying that we wanted Deborah as our Dragon.
“And she was the first person to go in and call us unethical because of ripping off certifications and I thought it was ridiculous.”