Product Update
What Happened to Magic Link Handwriting After Dragons’ Den?
Magic Link Handwriting left the Den without a deal. Here is what happened next: how the pitch went, why the dragons passed, and where Magic Link Handwriting is today.
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Lee Dein, a teacher with decades in the classroom, pitched a patented handwriting programme in series 15. No Dragon backed her. The short answer on where things stand now is that Magic Link Handwriting is still going, and Lee has kept talking publicly about the business years after the episode aired.
The pitch
Magic Link Handwriting appeared in series 15, episode 13. Lee Dein asked for 60,000 pounds for 10 per cent of the business, a 600,000 pound valuation. The product was a structured, step-by-step handwriting programme, built from her own teaching experience, designed to take children through the mechanics of joined-up, legible handwriting, an area of the primary curriculum that gets comparatively little dedicated teaching time despite how much it affects a child's confidence in written exams.
The pitch leaned on her credentials as an educator, and coverage of the episode noted her comparing her approach to the kind of platform thinking used by major consumer tech brands, an ambitious framing for a paper-based teaching resource. It made for a memorable television moment even if it raised eyebrows among a panel more used to hearing that comparison from software founders.
Why it didn't land with the Dragons
Education products are a specific kind of hard sell in the Den. Handwriting programmes sell into schools, parents and tutoring markets that move slowly, rely heavily on word of mouth and curriculum fit, and rarely offer the fast, scalable growth curve that makes a consumer product Dragon appealing. None of the panel put money in.
As with most no-deal outcomes, that reflects the fit between the pitch and the room on the day rather than a verdict on whether the product works for the children using it. Investors in the Den are ultimately backing a growth curve, and education programmes that rely on individual teacher relationships and school-by-school adoption tend to grow steadily rather than explosively, which is a harder story to sell in a ten minute pitch.
What happened after the show
Lee Dein kept the brand alive and kept talking about it. Public posts from her, including reflections on LinkedIn years after the episode aired, describe the Dragons' Den appearance as a formative moment in the business's history rather than the end of it. One post marks roughly five years on from the pitch, another marks around seven, both still actively promoting the programme.
The business operates under the name Magic Link Handwriting Programme, with a live website offering courses aimed at children roughly aged 5 to 18, positioning it as a long-running educational resource rather than a one-off product launch. That age range spans well beyond the early years handwriting stage most people would assume from the name, suggesting the programme has broadened its offer over time rather than staying fixed to its original scope.
Is Magic Link Handwriting still in business?
Yes. The website is live, the courses are current, and Lee Dein continues to post about the business under her own name well after the original broadcast, which is a strong signal for a founder-led education brand where the founder's ongoing credibility is part of the product.
It is a smaller, specialist operation rather than a mass consumer brand, which fits the education category it sits in. Schools and parents tend to find these programmes through recommendation and search rather than retail shelves, and that appears to be how Magic Link Handwriting has kept going, one classroom and one household at a time rather than through a single dramatic growth spike.
Where things stand now
Magic Link Handwriting asked for 60,000 pounds for 10 per cent in series 15, left with no deal, and has continued operating as an independent educational programme in the years since. Lee Dein's own public updates, several years apart, both describe an active business rather than a closed one.
If you are looking for the patented handwriting course from that episode, it is still there, still run by its original founder, and still aimed at helping children build legible handwriting from the ground up, more than a decade after Lee Dein first developed the method in her own classroom.
Where to buy Magic Link Handwriting
Still selling as of 4 July 2026. Check today's price and availability.
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See the full Magic Link Handwriting deal breakdown and term sheet →
