Meghna Amin and
Milo Pope
Published April 11, 2026 6:00pm
Updated April 11, 2026 6:00pm
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Steven Bartlett said that he ‘regrets’ not investing in the now hugely successful company (Picture: BBC)
A company that appeared on Dragons’ Den four years ago now has a valuation of £40,000,000 after the ‘monumental’ impact of the BBC One competition.
Fussy founders Matt Kennedy and Eddie Fisher walked out of the Den after securing investments from Peter Jones and Deborah Meaden.
They’d managed to impress Sara Davies, Touker Suleyman and Steven Bartlett too, with their natural, sustainable deodorant.
And while they’d always believed in their company, they had no idea of the success that was to come, including Steven admitting he regretted not investing.
The podcast host told Metro and other press that the one company he regretted throwing his money behind was Fussy.
‘I was sat in the chair, and I could see the regret,’ he told us.
‘Sometimes you have that moment where you go, “I think I might regret this one”, but for whatever reason you choose not to [invest] and that was Fussy.
Founder Matt Kennedy brought Fussy to the Den (Picture: BBC)
The product is a natural, sustainable deodorant (Picture: BBC)
‘I was sat in the Den thinking there’s so many reasons for me to invest in this, and I was on the fence and I fell over the other side of the fence and the minute when I got back to the green room, I was sat there thinking, “Jesus I should have should have done this,” and the business has absolutely done brilliantly.’
He quipped that it’s now ‘annoying’ that he is such a fan of the product that he uses it ‘begrudgingly’, having missed out on the opportunity to be involved in the business’ success.
And Steven wasn’t wrong to say that Fussy has done ‘absolutely brilliant’, with the company selling out for three months and having more than 20,000 orders within one hour after the episode aired.
In fact, the programme catapulted the business ahead years than they would have been able to achieve otherwise.
Speaking to Metro after their pitch, Fussy founder and CEO Matt Kennedy said: ‘It was monumental in the impact Dragons’ Den had on the business.
Deborah Meaden grilled the entrepreneurs before choosing to invest (Picture: BBC)
‘It basically catapulted us along a couple of years, versus where we would have gone without it.
‘And it’s one of those shows that’s really real… you’re in there for two hours with a full-on pitch, questioning, we went to the wall about five times and we were asking them questions, and all that gets cut down to 10 minutes.
‘It really changed the business, it got the brand right out there, having Deborah on board as well, whose title is “the Queen of Sustainability”, which obviously ties really well in with our values, has just given us that bit more trust and bit more authority when you’re a new product and nobody’s heard of you.’
The episode airing left Matt and his business partner ringing their suppliers at 6am the next day to beg for more stock.
He went on: ‘To give you an idea of the journey we’ve gone on, in the last three years we’ve gone from 0 to £20,000,000 in revenue this year, and a valuation of around £40,000,000.’
The pitch involved Matt jumping out of a bin (Picture: BBC)
Fussy founders Matt and Eddie Fisher asked for £50,000 investment (Picture: BBC)
When they took Fussy into the Den, they’d asked for 1% for £50,000 investment, and valuing the business at £5,000,000, which even left producers concerned that their valuation was ‘ridiculous’ when they hadn’t ‘done anything’.
But they were confident, and the numbers paid off and hit their targets.
‘It was definitely the plan, what I would say though is that I think I’m not sure we really believed it,’ Matt continued.
‘I couldn’t even imagine a sum that large,’ he said. ‘I think a lot of entrepreneurs, if they were really honest, know they have to pitch the dream, and if it pays off, then great, but it might not.
‘We were hopeful but definitely not like 100% that we were going to do it. But now, the business is in a place thankfully, where the numbers and plans we have on paper we could definitely do, so I guess confidence has been learned.’
Dragons’ Den came very early on in Fussy’s journey, with Matt explaining they’d launched through a kick-starter not long before filming the programme.
The pair showed a different side to entrepreneurship (Picture: BBC)
‘I was sat in the chair, and I could see the regret,’ Steven admitted (Picture: BBC)
Matt and Eddie also showed a different side to entrepreneurs during their appearance on the programme.
‘There’s a narrative about entrepreneurship that you’ve got to go all-in, that you’ve got to quit your job,’ Matt said, highlighting how risky it may seem.
‘Entrepreneurs get branded with this image of being risk takers, but no, actually, we’re good at taking calculated risks,’ he went on, adding that their start meant they didn’t have to think quitting their jobs or selling their homes.
After launching their campaign, before the product had been officially released, they’d secured £110,000 worth of deodorants in a month without any paid advertising.
They’d come from backgrounds working as creatives in companies that they’re now up against, and brands that had failed to address the sustainability problem we currently face in the industry.
From selling £110,000 worth before the product had even been made, they’ve come a long, long way, and have now set their sights on going global.
‘Our plan is to double in size again this year,’ Matt said.
‘But really, we see Fussy being a multi-100million pound revenue business globally in the next three years, all with the aim of banishing as much plastic as we can from bathrooms worldwide.
‘For us, everything so far has been one product – deodorant, pretty much one market, we’re 99% in the UK, we started online and are now in Tesco, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Whole Foods, and we’ve got a couple more big retailers landing soon so the UK will be pretty wrapped up.
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‘So the opportunity for us really becomes new product verticals, like shower gels and body creams, that kind of thing, how we can really elevate them and be “the apple of the bathroom,” as Steven Bartlett named us, and then new territories, going into Europe and America eventually, so lots to come.’
Amid all the success they’ve generated, Fussy has also had a huge environmental impact.
‘We’ve stopped over 250,000kg of single use plastic, which is something like 7million refills,’ Matt told us.
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This article was originally published on April 15, 2025.
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