by Many people do not turn the tables on the terrible moguls Of the Dragons. That’s why viewers were moved when Peony Li said “I’m out”, and a £100,000 investment in her business was dropped when she appeared on the BBC show on Thursday night. Even more surprising: it looks like she paid off for her high-risk call.
Li has since revealed that her company Jude – which raises awareness of the taboo subject of bladder health and supplies products such as leak-proof pants and a bladder control supplement – manages an annual turnover of £5 million. These products are selling out in retail spaces including Boots and QVC.
Eight months on from its recording Of the Dragons episode, the company’s growth has quadrupled and its marketing costs have halved. That must have been a huge relief for Li – and evidence of the money being denied.
Although £100,000 seems like a lot, Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden and special guest Dragon Emma Grede (who co-founded shapewear company Skims with the Kardashians) all wanted 3 per cent of the business in return – field Li triple of straight. 1 percent.
However, Li had already arranged an investment from others on better terms than what the Dragons had proposed, so after they all rejected her counteroffer of 1.5 percent, she took a brave gamble to go on face without them.
“If they took the offer or something remotely similar, I would take it in a heartbeat,” she admits. “I definitely had an elementary class. The company is just my company. I also have investors who have been there from day zero – I raised my first round of funding with no product, it was just an idea. So it was a difficult moment: I really wanted the Dragons to be part of the company, and I could see the potential of this exciting offer, but I had to respect and honor the people who believed in me when that there was no one else.”
Li also says that saying it is a blow to gender inequality. “There’s a bigger message here: it’s easy for women in boardrooms, especially in tough negotiations with high-profile businessmen, to accept a lower offer. But I thought: what are my principles, what do I want to stand for as an entrepreneur? Is this a sustainable long-term partnership, will it set me up for success?”
But how did Li build such confidence – and build this successful company?
The future entrepreneur was born in Hong Kong and attended boarding school. Her passion for healthcare was inspired by her parents, and her company sells incontinence pads and liners.
However, Li did not intend to follow in their footsteps. Instead she moved to the UK alone aged 15, barely speaking any English. That experience allowed her to understand what it felt like “to be unseen and unheard”, she has since said. Now she is proud to support underserved communities.
Li also clearly has a great work ethic. She went on to study economics at Cambridge University, got her Masters there, and then took a job at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
It wasn’t ideal, but she was inspired by the start-ups to present their plans. “I knew I wanted to be on the other side of these deals,” she explained.
In 2019, Li became the head of operations at Daye, a company dedicated to gynecological health and period care. Among her achievements was helping to commercialize a pain-soothing tampon. During the pandemic, she distributed six million pieces of protective equipment to frontline workers.
Endearingly, she tore up on Of the Dragons and reflecting on how working in the healthcare sector reconnects her with her parents and her roots. “I was very surprised when I called. I’m a very logical person,” she says. “But when they asked me about what drives me, and when they talked about my parents, I got very emotional. I had this picture in my mind of my mum and dad, both in their 60s, still running around, working, serving people with incontinence and promoting women’s health. I now know how hard it is to run a business – when I was younger I had no idea why they were so busy. They are Asian parents, they would never say they are proud of me! But I know deep down that they are. I am following the work they are doing. I hope they won’t be too embarrassed when they see me cry!”
But her biggest success to date is definitely Jude, which she founded in 2022. The company’s most notable product is the clinical supplements it has created, made from all-natural ingredients like pumpkin seeds and soy phytoestrogen, and which could, claims Jude, strengthen. your pelvic floor in just 12 weeks.
Li came up with the idea for the company when she realized how little was being done to tackle a widespread but under-discussed health issue: bladder control issues in the UK affect 14 million people, claims Jude, with her one in three women is included. It particularly restricts the lives of the elderly.
Li has spent thousands of hours talking to people who have suffered and constantly hearing the word “shame”. “When I see a problem that needs to be solved, I need to start a conversation,” she said. “These are the people I want to support. I want to play a part in improving their quality of life.”
“When I see a problem to be solved, I need to start a conversation,” she once said; in fact, Li herself had this question when she was 14 years old. “I got a UTI that lasted ten years. All the doctors thought I was too young to have incontinence, but I was ashamed and out of control. When I put Jude out there next to Tena and Always, it makes sense. Women feel it’s about time we found a solution to our health, not just deal with it by putting a pad on it.”
For all those noble minds, the Den was a great leveller. “The Dragons were concerned about how much we spend on marketing,” says Li. “My response in the Den was that it’s not free to break a taboo and it’s been stigmatized for a long time – it needs a lot of messaging and branding. But deep down I know we need to make the business efficient and profitable, so I accepted it [on board] those valid and legitimate questions. I love the Dragons – I got a lot of inspiration and invaluable feedback from them. Deborah Meaden is so honest, she says it like it is, and I love Emma’s philosophy. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to let them know my baby.”
Jude clearly has more mission than business to her. However, many potential investors rejected her – some called her a “little woman” or a “key woman”, others said her bladder care wasn’t “sexy” enough.
But in the end her passionate pitch paid off. By April 2023, she had an investment of £5.2 million lined up.
