A Hemel Hempstead based head lice technician recently starred on the very popular BBC show, Dragon’s Den and managed to secure an investment of £40,000.
Founder of eco-friendly NitNOT head lice treatment products Eileen Hutchinson left the Den after accepting Tej Lalvani’s offer in exchange for 30 per cent of her business.
Eileen used to run her own clinic in town but due to the pandemic effects she had to close it permanently – she was also told by the Dragons the clinic was not worth the investment after she made over £100,000 selling her product online.
During the pitch Peter Jones looked a little uncomfortable as he kept scratching his head. Although he wasn’t interested in NitNOT, he was very open as to why. He explained each of his daughters had head lice on numerous occasions.
Speaking to HemelNews Eileen said: “There’s such a stigma with head lice but even multimillionaires’ children can get it, breaking that taboo is great!
“Tej said that NitNOT fitted in very well with his experience, and that he had plenty of branding and marketing contacts who could help move it in the right direction. I felt incredibly relieved when he made an offer of £40,000 for 30 per cent.”
Tej was not the only Dragon that wanted to invest. Touker wanted to go halves with Tej and Deborah put in an offer for all of the money but a lower stake in the business.
Eileen spoke about her own experience dealing with head lice, she said: “We had lots of trouble trying to get rid of head lice, my daughter got them and then I got them from her. I knew we were doing everything they said to do but the products are not made to kill the eggs.
“They also use very clever wording like “up to” or “can do”, instead we are very straightforward.
“When my daughter got them, it was pretty bad and after using various products I was getting more and more frustrated as nothing was working. I started researching and looking at why things weren’t working.
“I found out that the efficiency rates are very low for most of the products, then I found a product that I knew would work and I put it to practice. I’m a mum not a scientist I looked at it in a logical point of view. I was working at home not in a laboratory, but those are the conditions that moms do when they deal with their kids.”
It’s all about coping with all the aftermath and moving forward now, mentioned Eileen.
She added: “What we are doing now is re-branding the packaging and developing some other products. Which we are hoping to have out in September.
“Then it is a matter of getting to all the distributors and retailers and getting the products into shops.”
For more info visit nitnot.com
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