When Sarah Willingham took a seat at the Dragons' Den table in 2015, she brought something refreshing to the panel. Combining her straight-talking, no-nonsense business approach with a dash of Northern warmth, the millionaire entrepreneur was the first working mum to land Dragon status, as she juggled being a parent to young children with her ever-growing business priorities.
Sitting alongside Dragons' Den veterans Deborah Meaden and Peter Jones, Sarah, who made her fortune in the hospitality industry, described her time on the panel as one of the 'most brilliant things' she's ever done. But after her husband and business partner Michael Toxvaerd was faced with a life-threatening health scare, Sarah quit the show in 2017 as she knew that her family had to come first.
The couple were enjoying the first few weeks of a world-round trip alongside their four children when Michael fell ill and was initially diagnosed with colon cancer. Thankfully, a second opinion revealed that he was instead suffering with diverticulitis, a relatively common condition that affects the lining of the intestine.
When Sarah's husband got the all-clear, the overwhelming sense of relief that washed over her was quickly replaced with a new-found clarity on life. Sitting on the terrace at her latest cocktail bar opening, overlooking the water in the bustling financial district of Canary Wharf, she tells The Mirror: "There's no doubt that Michael's health scare knocked us. It was a proper shock to our system.
"More than ever, it really made me live in the moment in whatever I’m doing. When I’m working, I’m throwing myself at it. When I’m with the kids, I’m with the kids, when I'm with Michael, I'm with Michael.
"I used to try and do ten things at once. But I've just realised that, looking back, I was just bad at all of them. Now, I’d rather do fewer things and go all in and be good at them. It definitely makes me value the things I'm doing.
"It also made me realise that I really only trade in one thing and that's time. That's all there really is, the rest is all noise. And I'm not talking about big picture time, I mean today, tomorrow, this week. It makes me challenge my daily agenda."
Time certainly played an important role in her decision making for her latest business venture. The move, which was described as 'bonkers' by her brokers, also proved that Sarah isn’t afraid to take risks at the right moment.
The entrepreneur launched a bar operating company called NightCap in the middle of the pandemic, when potential patrons were stuck inside and hospitality businesses across the country ground to a halt.
Trusting her gut, Sarah was struck by the changes in the property market during Covid and used it to her advantage when launching her bar group. According to her, the pandemic created a 'power shift' between tenants and landlords that saw a large array of commercial sites hit the market at more favourable rates.
This, combined with the high demand for premium cocktails and the appeal of working with hospitality entrepreneurs who were hungry to recover lost ground from lockdown setbacks, made her take the plunge.
She explained: "The property market changed completely. During the course of those five months since the beginning of lockdown, we'd seen the balance of power shift from landlord to tenant, and I'd never seen that in my whole career.
The concept didn't go down initially with advisors, but soon paid off. Sarah floated the business in January 2021 - without a single bar - for £12 million. Now, it's worth £40 million with nearly 40 bars on its roster.
"At the time, I heard the word 'bonkers' quite a lot. We came up with the idea in the summer after the first lockdown, there was no vaccine but we’d had the eat out to help out scheme. That showed us that across most demographics there was huge demand, particularly from late Gen Zers and Millennials.
"It was very clear: we’re pack animals, we need to socialise. And we found that people were clearly viewing hospitality as this comfort zone that they could go to."
"The actual float was not easy, we dragged it kicking and screaming over the line, but it was received really well. And within nine months, we’d bought three businesses - all with great entrepreneurs. Then we opened more sites to take advantage of the property market. So the risk paid off. We were really lucky."
The latest offering in NightCap’s arsenal is another branch from The Cocktail Club, a group of premium bars that specialises in late night events and happy hour deals. Sold as a 'high energy' space, the new site sits in the heart of Canary Wharf with a generous outside terrace.
Inside, punters can expect a theatrical feel with Art Deco accents and moody lighting. The chandeliers and disco balls are offset with graffiti and plenty of greenery, making it an eclectic mix that's full of grandeur and speakeasy charm.
Before Sarah cornered the cocktail market, food was her forte. Following high profile roles at Planet Hollywood and Pizza Express, the entrepreneur bought Bombay Bicycle Club and transformed it into the UK's largest Indian restaurant chain.
Selling her share made Sarah a millionaire at the age of 31, and she's hoping that her successes in hospitality will change the narrative around opportunities within the industry.
"We touch so many people in hospitality, but so many people see it as transient and not a career. I'm living breathing evidence of the opposite. You can have great fun while learning how to run a really good business. If you can run a bar, you can run a business."
Sarah tells The Mirror that one of her biggest achievements with NightCap so far is improving gender equality across the group: "I’m so proud of the fact that, since we started, we’ve hugely increased the number of women that work here.
"My executive team is 50% women, I am so proud of that statistic. When we acquired the businesses, there was just one female executive member.
"We have 48% women across the entire group, and we’re not going to be far off 1,000 staff soon. That’s so cool. I want women to come into our bars and feel safe and part of that is seeing female bar managers."
As a self-made mum-of-four, Sarah has always been a strong advocate for women in business, and reveals that she hasn’t always got the balance between work and family right. But now she knows how to set boundaries between the two.
"Juggling parenthood with business is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do," she admits. "I don't always get it right, and this won't work for everyone, but I don't mix them. I've learned the hard way that when I try to mix them, I do both badly.
"To me, it’s so important that when I work I'm Sarah Willingham, I'm not someone's wife, I'm not somebody's mum, I'm Sarah Willingham. I'm the same person I was in my Twenties, and I've always levelled with the kids about that.
"But at the same time, I've always put boundaries in place and said I can't take a meeting then because that's when I've got to pick my kids up from school, for example."
Looking back at her time on Dragons' Den, Sarah reveals the most important factor that she’d look out for when hopeful entrepreneurs pitched for her investment.
"The main thing I would always consider is: why are you better placed to start, run and make a success of this business than the person standing next to you or the person who came in before you? What makes you special? That's the part I really won't budge on.
"It's very unlikely that you'll end up with a really successful business that is the same plan that you sat in your shed and wrote.
"You need a flexible mind and an agile personality, as well as the drive to be able to pull yourself out of a hole when you fall into it. All of those things are super important for an entrepreneur.
"Even if I don’t think you’ve got the business right, as long as you’re right, I can definitely work with you."
