A Scottish mum has earned a six-figure sum from Dragon’s Den after appearing on the show last night.
Victoria Fullarton, 32, won the endorsement of Dragon Sara Davies who was impressed with her gadget which promised to let parents know when their babies are tired.
The Toto Sleep is a bracelet that is worn by children from six months and that sends alerts to parents, via an application on their mobile phone, when their child is sleepy.
(Picture: BBC)
Victoria, who lives in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, came up with the concept six years ago after having her own daughter and started tracking her sleep habits.
She told the Daily Record: “I had the idea while I was sleep training my own daughter and speculated that there is certain biometric data that tells you what time your child is likely to fall asleep.
“I watched my daughter and took all this biometric sleep data and decided to come up with something that would be useful to all parents.”
After developing three prototypes, Victoria, who has a background in psychology and child development, was invited to BBC’s Dragon’s Den to try to convince big business owners Peter Jones, Steven Bartlett, Deborah Meaden, Touker Sulyeman and Sara Davies to invest in his company, Toto. Sleep.
Victoria faced some opposition from Touker Sulyeman who didn’t think people would want to buy the high-tech bracelet.
He told Victoria, “I honestly believe that parents aren’t going to pay just to monitor their sleep. Parents now find there’s too much technology, too many accessories.”
But Victoria piqued the interest of the other judges with her quick response, saying, “I think it’s a generational thing these days too.” To which Steven Bartlett replied: “Burn!”
Despite Sulyeman’s hesitation, the Toto Sleep gimmick impressed Judge Sara Davies who agreed to invest £150,000 for a 35% stake in Victoria’s company, after the other four Dragons refused.
Sara said: “I’m not the technician. I’m the mother who understands the problem. When I was a new mother, it was like dark art, so I think it’s absolutely brilliant.”
Victoria filmed the show in June 2021 and has since known she had the Dragon’s backing, but hasn’t been able to tell anyone.
Speaking about her time on the show, she said: “I was sworn to secrecy, which was difficult, but it was exciting to know that Sara Davies was invested.”
Victoria, who was born and raised in Irvine, Ayrshire, before moving to Ayr as a child and then to Glasgow as a teenager, says the ToTo Sleep are currently taking pre-orders and the device will be available in stores from May this year.
She added: “Parents can pre-order now for a special Dragon’s Den discount of £99.”
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