Ex-Army officer mum tames the dragons and leaves the den with a £50k investment
Rachel Day, 35, from Tavistock, Devon, emerged from the den victorious in last night’s episode of the hit show, along with her business partner Merry Whitaker, 35, after three of the Dragons vied for a 10 per cent stake in their company, LoveKeepCreate
An ex-Army officer turned ‘mumpreneur’ has scooped a £50,000 Dragons Den investment in her baby keepsake business, which she launched from her kitchen table six years ago.
Rachel Day, 35, from Tavistock, Devon, emerged from the den victorious in last night’s episode of the hit show, along with her business partner Merry Whitaker, 35, after three of the Dragons vied for a 10 per cent stake in their company, LoveKeepCreate.
Now the pair, who met during officer training at Sandhurst in 2003, are looking forward to working with their new investor, Deborah Meaden, after choosing her over Nick Jenkins and Sarah Willingham.
“We were ecstatic to have three Dragons interested in our business, but we knew Deborah has invested in similar companies in the past, and she has years of experience. It was a no brainer for us,” says Rachel, a mum of three.
After serving with the Royal Signals for five years, Rachel retrained as a teacher but it was while she was on maternity leave with her eldest son Freddie, six, that she was inspired to set up LoveKeepCreate.
“Just before Freddie’s first birthday, my husband Chris was deployed to Afghanistan for a six month tour.
"We’d had such an amazing first year as a family, and although we’d been apart before when we’d both been serving, I felt really sad he was going to miss this milestone birthday, and also half a year of seeing Freddie grow and change,” says Rachel.
“I decided to make him a blanket, made from old babygros and outfits which Freddie had grown out of, to take with him. It didn’t matter that he was a tough, burly soldier, I knew he was going to miss his little boy a lot.”
Using her second hand sewing machine, Rachel carefully stitched a blanket for Chris before proudly posting photos of her creation on Facebook.
“Almost immediately I had several friends messaging me, asking me to make something for them from their baby’s old clothes,” says Rachel.
“I was really surprised but agreed, and as more and more people contacted me I set up a Facebook business page to see if I could make a small business from my idea.
"Within days I had a waiting list of orders, I couldn’t believe it.”
Rachel didn’t return to her teaching career, devoting her free time to stitching blankets, cushions and stuffed toys as keepsakes for parents across the UK and overseas.