A North East tech company which emerged victorious from the Dragons’ Den say the success on the show was revealed to them in a dream.
Zara Paul and Aaron Morris, who met at university in 2019, are the founders of Choppity, a Durham-based AI-powered video editing platform which is already used by leading companies including ITN, Autotrader, Turtle Bay, and Sonatype.
The pair became the latest North East business to put their pitch to the TV Dragons in this week’s show, facing the panel in the hopes of coming away with a sizeable sum in exchange for a share in the Durham business.
Zara represented the LGBTQ+ community as an openly non-binary contestant on the show. Zara said: “Knowing the inclusive values the BBC holds as an organisation, it was no surprise to me when the team was extremely accommodating around the use of my pronouns. I hope this encourages more members of the LGBTQ+ community to pursue their ambitions in business.”
During the pitch, the business founders, who are also a married couple, offered 6% of their business in return for an investment and received three offers. Eventually, Peter Jones beat fellow entrepreneurs Sara Davies and Touker Suleyman, offering to invest £100,000 for 15% of the business with the option to reduce his share to 12.5% if the company gives the money back in 2025.
Zara said: “It was an unforgettable moment to be in that room, presenting something we’ve worked so hard on. Then to receive three investment offers from some of the UK’s top entrepreneurs was just incredible. The night before our pitch, I had a dream that Peter offered us a deal, so when that happened in reality, I couldn’t believe it. We’re very grateful to the show and the opportunity it gave us.”
During filming, Steven commented on how excited the pair were to be there, while Sara liked that they worked together as a married couple. Since the show was filmed, Choppity and Peter Jones have since made the mutual decision to not move forward with the investment, something that can commonly happen post-filming.
Despite the parting of ways, the co-founders are excited for what the future holds after appearing on the show, with the platform soon to introduce new editing services for customers to improve functionality and offer new uses.
The platform is a web-based automated video editor for social media, sales and training. It simplifies the video editing process for businesses and creators, Choppity is currently used in production by leading companies The founders said they have been building products together since. Zara has a background in computer science, maths and automation, while Aaron has a background in computer science, video editing, and graphic design.
Zara added: “Choppity is our baby, and it’s taught us how to communicate better with each other which we are thankful for. We grew up watching the show, so it was a huge milestone for both of us.”