Hearing ‘no’ is never easy, but I imagine it’s far worse when you hear it five times during one of the most important meetings in your life.
Or at least that’s what I thought until I met Giulia Berretti, the founder of the pasta company Sunny and Luna.
In 2024, Giulia was invited to appear on Dragons’ Den by the BBC – and let’s just say things didn’t go well. ‘The business is not what it is today,’ Giulia told Metro over Zoom. ‘It was a very young business… I wasn’t ready.
‘I think the mission of Sunny and Luna was not clear enough, and I think my pitching wasn’t strong enough. That was the issue.’
Indeed, these ‘issues’ led to Giulia leaving the den without an investor.
Most people would stop there, but most people aren’t Giulia, who knew she was on the right track and dedicated to her mission of bringing Italian food into the 21st Century.
‘It was really disappointing,’ she admitted, but added that this is just part of being in business.
‘This is the nature of an entrepreneur. I was just like, “I need to get the yes from the consumer”, which is more important, right? I need to sell this product, so that’s what I did.’
In fact, Giulia went so far as to say she’d thank the Dragons for rejecting her business, acknowledging it pushed her to make it a success.
‘I think getting a no from them and getting their feedback at the time helped me refocus on what I needed to do and work harder,’ she explained.
And that hard work has more than paid off.
Sunny and Luna has grown from just over £100k revenue in its first full year to a business forecast to exceed £1million in 2026.
‘[Gross revenue] is definitely gonna be over £1million,’ Giulia told us. ‘We don’t know exactly, but definitely over £1million. When I went to the Dragons, we were probably doing like one pallet a month, and now we do like 30 pallets.
‘It’s almost a full truck to give you an idea of volumes. Since September last year we have sold 320,000 packs of gnocchi. It’s fantastic!
‘I think some people get a no and say “okay”. I can’t. I keep going… I was like, you know what? If the Dragons say no, you just go back to work harder and harder.’
Giulia’s pasta is now stocked in more than 400 locations, including Sainsbury’s, Ocado and Planet Organic.
So what advice would Giulia give to would-be investors looking to face the dragons?
‘Prepare, prepare, prepare,’ she laughed. Prepare for any possible scenario because what you see on screen is 15 to 10 minutes, but you can stay [in the Den] for three hours.
‘They can ask you so many questions, and so you really need to prepare your mission, your numbers, and know your pitch. I think I underestimated that, and maybe we went again in 2025 or this year, I think I would probably have a different outcome.’
Giulia’s not really interested in the past, though. She has an eye on the future, and she knows exactly where Sunny and Luna will be in five years.
‘We are trying to bridge old Italian food with new, healthy, functional food. So right now we have gnocchi sauces, but you know, potentially we could do, like, tiramisu. We could do, you know, like a lasagna.
‘I really want to recreate this Italian food for people who have no time to cook, but want something healthy and decent to eat. We want to give them the Italian experience, but with all the healthy benefits.’