Rachel Elnaugh founded the Red Letter Days brand before joining the British Dragon's Den panel.
Red Letter Days was an experience-gift business built around vouchers for activities and special occasions. Its model offered customers a way to purchase an event or experience as a present, rather than choosing a traditional product from a shop.
Elnaugh's success with the company helped establish her entrepreneurial credentials before the BBC programme began. She became one of the five original Dragons in the British edition, bringing experience from a consumer-facing company to the panel.
This fact is sometimes mixed up with the separate question of which Dragon later invested in a particular Den business. It asks about the investor's own company before her television role. Elnaugh's period on the regular panel was part of the early seasons, while the Red Letter Days story continued to receive attention because the company later experienced financial problems and changed ownership.