Which company did Dragons' Den investor Deborah Meaden own before joining the programme?

Deborah Meaden owned Weststar Holidays before joining the British programme Dragons' Den.

Weststar Holidays was a family holiday business in which Meaden became involved before developing her wider investment career. Her experience in tourism, retail and business management helped establish the commercial perspective she brought to Dragons' Den.

Meaden joined the programme after its original 2005 launch and became one of its best-known long-term investors. The company name is easy to confuse with other businesses associated with dragons: Rachel Elnaugh founded Red Letter Days, Theo Paphitis founded La Senza, and John Caudwell founded Phones 4u. Weststar Holidays is the company linked to Meaden's earlier business career.

Her television role made her widely recognised for direct questioning about profit, ownership and valuation. Those exchanges reflected the same practical concerns faced by investors outside television: whether a company has a defensible product, reliable finances and enough potential to justify the equity requested by its founder.