Meet Darren Haley

Some inventions start with a gap in the market. Darren Haley's started with something he saw again and again at work, and could not forget.

Nineteen years in the prison service

Darren spent 19 years in the prison service as a prison officer and senior officer. In that time he saw first-hand the devastation that disposable razor blades can cause: blades taken out of razors and used for self-harm, or turned into weapons against others.

He decided to do something about it, and founded Brengor Innovation Ltd to develop a safer alternative.

A different kind of blade

A traditional razor has one long blade that can be removed and used as a cutting implement. Darren's design works differently. It is made from a single solid billet of stainless steel, which he described on the bench as being a bit like a thicker cheese grater, with many tiny individual blades formed using femtosecond laser technology. The corners are rounded and bevelled, so there is no long edge to extract or bend, and the cutting happens only at the surface that touches the skin. The aim is to reduce self-harm and suicide in prisons and mental health facilities.

The invention is patented. Darren told the investors the patent had been granted in the USA, with the go-ahead given for the EU, and that he had invested around half a million pounds in the project from the very beginning to that point.

Connections over cash

Darren also runs a business supplying products suitable for secure environments, which has given him contacts in prisons and with ward managers interested in trialling the razor. With the space and set-up to restart development on his own site, what he was really looking for on Pitch'd or Ditch'd was not money but the right connections, particularly in the photonics and motion control industries, to help take the project forward.

It made for one of the most unusual pitches the bench has heard: a product born not from a business plan, but from nearly two decades of looking after people in some of the most difficult settings there are.

Darren Haley joined us on The Legacy Bench for Pitch'd or Ditch'd, "6 Entrepreneurs Pitch for £5,000 — Would You Invest?" — read the episode story or watch the full conversation.