The Real Reason I Left Dragons’ Den | Sara Davies

But I've got no place in my life for BMWs, bitching, whingeing, moaning. I get a real buzz out of making money, but I actually don't need any more money in my life. I've always had a really unhealthy relationship with risk. Passion, vision, and drive are the three things I hang my hat on. I know I'm a brilliant mum, and I'm a badass businesswoman, and it's all right to be both.

Sara, welcome to the pod.

Why, thank you very much. I, I feel like I'm in the, uh, the hot seat here being stared down by... I was like, "Oh, he's got that twinkle in his eyes."

Oh, I feel like we've had a pod within a pod already. We've- I've been luckily enough, we were both early, so we've been able to get to know you is really important.

I'm just gonna point out, I think it might be the first time in my life I've turned up early for anything, but then I feel like I've had this bonus half an hour with you. I'm like, "I'm gonna start showing up for things early in life more often."

It's funny. Serendipity, isn't it?

[laughs]

Welcome to the pod. Thank you so much for doing it. Like, you are a business icon, I think, really. I put it up on my story today, "Off to London to see Sara," and so many people messaged going, "She's my favorite. I love..."

Oh.

Just nothing like, "Oh, ask her about this, ask her about that." It was like, "She's my favorite. I love her. She's so good." Just nice messages.

Oh, you've given us goosebumps. You've made my day there. Thank you.

But that j- it, that, that speaks to somebody. There's an Irish entrepreneur that sold his business this week, Gary Lavin. He sold it for 70 million, started 20, 20 years ago, and all the messages, I put up a story going, "Gary's been on the pod. Congrats to him." And all the messages coming in were like, "So happy for him."

Yeah.

"So glad he did it." You know, people respect that hustle, and I think people respect when they see people like you out there grafting. People know you for many things.

Mm-hmm.

Dragon's Den, your own businesses, so I think we can kind of... People, we can assume people know who you are.

Well, I mean, I n- never, I never like to be big-headed enough to always assume that.

[laughs]

But maybe so if your audience are businesspeople, I guess hopefully they'll be Dragon's Den fans as well.

Yes, exactly. What are you excited about right now?

What I'm excited about right now. I... Interesting question. I feel like, I feel like I've been on a bit of a journey the last couple of years. So it, it's 20 years last year since I started the business, and you know, m- you'll know this from running your own business, there's no line where you finish and the business starts. It just all merges into one, and I feel like that's been my life for so many years, and I've been on quite a rollercoaster with the business, Crafters Companion, that I s- that I started 20-odd years ago. And, you know, I, you know, I, I built that business. I sold that, you know, sold that business. It's what made me my millions. Then I started investing in the Den, getting involved in other stories, and then last year I bought that business back to turn the business around, because it had really fallen into disarray. Bought it out of