At 76, Shashi Aggarwal is proving that entrepreneurship does not come with an expiry date. When she stepped into the Dragons’ Den alongside her son, Sanjay, the mother-and-son duo brought more than a business pitch to the famous BBC show.
For Shashi, becoming an entrepreneur was never part of the plan. The journey began on Christmas Day in 2012, shortly after she retired as a conversation around the kitchen table with Sanjay grew into Spice Kitchen.
“I never really set out to become an entrepreneur!” she tells Asian Voice. “We started around the kitchen table, and from there it just grew and grew.”
More than a decade later, Shashi is believed to be among the oldest entrepreneurs to appear on Dragons’ Den. But rather than seeing her age as a limitation, she sees it as an asset.
“I think staying active, learning new things and feeling useful are so important as you get older,” she says. “Age can bring experience, patience and resilience, all things that are very useful in business.”
Her advice to others is straightforward, “You are never too old to begin something that gives you joy and purpose.”
A business built on family
Spice Kitchen is, at its heart, a family story. Shashi and Sanjay may have very different approaches to business, but they believe those differences have helped make their partnership successful.
“He has the big ideas and always wants to move quickly, while I am more practical and will tell him honestly when I think something will or won’t work,” Shashi says. “Like most mothers, I am not afraid to tell my son what I think!”
Their business is also deeply connected to Shashi’s heritage. Having grown up in Kenya and India, she brought memories of recipes, spices and sari fabrics into Spice Kitchen, while Sanjay helped introduce those traditions to a much wider audience.
“Of course, working with family can have its challenges because the business is never completely left at work,” she admits. “But it has also brought us much closer.” For Shashi, that relationship remains one of the greatest rewards of their journey.
“I feel incredibly proud of what we have built together, and very lucky that a small retirement hobby gave us this experience as mother and son.”
Facing the Dragons
Walking into the Den presented a very different challenge.
Shashi admits she was nervous, despite her years of experience. The Dragons are famously formidable, and the pressure of pitching a business while being watched by cameras added another layer of intensity.
“I was nervous of course, but in many ways calmer than I expected!” she recalls. She was conscious of her age, but did not want it to overshadow her achievements.
“I did think about my age, but I didn’t want that to be the main reason people remembered me,” she says. “I wanted them to see that I was there because I had helped build a successful business and still had something valuable to contribute.”
As the pitch progressed, the nerves began to settle. When the Dragons started asking detailed questions about Spice Kitchen and discussing its future, Shashi and Sanjay sensed that the conversation was becoming serious.
“There were definitely moments when Sanjay and I looked at one another and thought, ‘This might actually happen,’” she says. Ultimately, however, they did not secure investment. Yet Shashi sees the outcome positively.
The Dragons recognised that the close family relationship behind Spice Kitchen was one of its greatest strengths, and that outside investment could risk over-commercialising what made the business distinctive.
For Shashi, preserving that authenticity is more important than simply pursuing growth.
Looking ahead
The experience has nevertheless encouraged the pair to think bigger.
Spice Kitchen has grown from a retirement project into a business whose products are now stocked by hundreds of retailers. The next ambitions include reaching more customers, expanding internationally and sharing the family’s food, culture and story with an even wider audience.
But Shashi is determined that growth should never come at the expense of the business’s identity. “I never want Spice Kitchen to lose its heart,” she says.
Perhaps that is the most powerful lesson of Shashi’s story. At 76, she is not simply showing that age is no barrier to entrepreneurship; she is demonstrating the value of experience, curiosity and the courage to begin again.
And she is still looking forward to what comes next.
