Apprentice UK 2015

yerwanthere123

I feel bad for Vana, but based on what was presented in the show it was absolutely the right call to go with Joseph. May not be a global business but it could well be a nice little earner.

Howjoe1

Plumbing problem? I ring the mobile number of the guy I regularly use.

sonofenoch

Both presented very very well in the end but the right choice made for my money (or his)

Armchair Andy

Very poor candidates this final imo.

colossus-x

That Asian comedian is about as funny as a xmas cracker joke.

AlmightyCushion

Howjoe1 wrote: »

Plumbing problem? I ring the mobile number of the guy I regularly use.

There are a lot of people who wouldn't have a regular guy though so there is a market there. However, there are a few companies in the UK already doing this including British Gas which is a hefty brand name to go up against.

AlmightyCushion

colossus-x wrote: »

That Asian comedian is about as funny as a xmas cracker joke.

I think he's actually quite funny, those pre-recorded scripted bits he's in are rubbish though. I think Jack Dee has been terrible though. Bring back Dara.

Exclamation Marc

Definitely the right winner chosen.

Vanas idea was interesting but was a complete sinkhole for money. If Lord Sugar was investing 1m, maybe. But at 250k and Vana freely admitting by the end that the investment would need more finance, she was sunk.

Lord Sugar could never hold on to 50% equity if he needed to refinance and not provide it himself.

On a side note, I've loved Jack Dee over the years but he absolutely sucks on You're Fired/Hired.

yerwanthere123

colossus-x wrote: »

That Asian comedian is about as funny as a xmas cracker joke.

He's awful I've no idea why they thought it was a good idea to have him on the show every single week as well. I've watched You're Fired since I started watching The Apprentice back in 2007 but I had to give up on it this year.

AlmightyCushion

Manufactured Miracle wrote: »

Definitely the right winner chosen.

Vanas idea was interesting but was a complete sinkhole for money. If Lord Sugar was investing 1m, maybe. But at 250k and Vana freely admitting by the end that the investment would need more finance, she was sunk.

Lord Sugar could never hold on to 50% equity if he needed to refinance and not provide it himself.

On a side note, I've loved Jack Dee over the years but he absolutely sucks on You're Fired/Hired.

Agree on both points. Vana's idea is good and has potential to be huge but it's gonna need boatloads of cash. It's a twitter/facebook type of thing that would require multiple VC funding rounds in the millions before it would start bringing in revenue.

I've seen some of Jack Dee's stand up stuff and thought he was great but I don't think his humour suits the show. The terrible puns don't help either. He's not cheesy enough to pull them off.

4068ac1elhodqr

Where's Selina, she was lucky to get past the half-way mark and choose not to appear for the final showdown. Fairly manipulative player throughout the show.

Vana's idea can still work as it has already received about 50k of free advertising as everyone knows now about DatePlay, just needs built and translated for the global audience now.

Exclamation Marc

Vihaan Muscular Carpenter wrote: »

Where's Selina, she was lucky to get past the half-way mark and choose not to appear for the final showdown. Fairly manipulative player throughout the show.

Vana's idea can still work as it has already received about 50k of free advertising as everyone knows now about DatePlay, just needs built and translated for the global audience now.

I'd imagine Selina wasn't asked back for the last show. Not a chance after she slated the show and clearly tried to use the show to build a media profile.

Vanas idea is still millions away from being financially viable. 250k is small change for huge investment portfolios but her idea needs a backer who's prepared to keep financing it for years and years before making a return. And that's only if it takes off. Tinder only keeps going because it's backed by the massive corporation that owns OkCupid and Match and it could absorb losses for years before making revenue never mind profit.

Tarzana2

I called it! \o/

I have to say, unlike others here I didn't rate Vana's idea. Online dating is huge, gaming is huge, that doesn't mean they will mix.

As I've said before, aesthetics is hugely important in online dating. Think I remember hearing a stat before for how dating profiles without a photo only get a tiny fraction of the responses that profiles with photos get. I think someone touched on this on the show tonight. I'm surprised it wasn't questioned more. Nobody is going to spend a lot of time playing different games to get matched with people they might not be interested in physically. It's a fatal flaw in her idea IMO. People will only get invested if they like what they initially see. Online dating also needs to be quick and easy to use, so people can dip in and out of it between all the other stuff going on in their life.

I honestly can't see Vana's app being a success especially if she is looking for people to pay for it. And the fact that she just saw LS's money as seed money for an idea that might not attract any interest from venture capitalists was a huge negative.

Monife wrote: »

The fruit salad woman would wreck your head!!! Don't know how anyone can work with her.

Who is the fruit salad woman?

wyrn wrote: »

Vana killed it with her presentation

I preferred Joseph's actually!

colossus-x wrote: »

That Asian comedian is about as funny as a xmas cracker joke.

I like Romesh, always makes me laugh on You're Fired.

Muahahaha

Manufactured Miracle wrote: »

On a side note, I've loved Jack Dee over the years but he absolutely sucks on You're Fired/Hired.

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

He's awful I've no idea why they thought it was a good idea to have him on the show every single week as well. I've watched You're Fired since I started watching The Apprentice back in 2007 but I had to give up on it this year.

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I've seen some of Jack Dee's stand up stuff and thought he was great but I don't think his humour suits the show. The terrible puns don't help either. He's not cheesy enough to pull them off.

Agree with all this. Jack Dee is a good stand up comedian but he has been woeful for You're Fired. He has a dead pan style comedy in stand up which can be very funny in a theater but doesnt translate well to a show like You're Fired. Its either that or Jack Dee has turned into a grumpy old man over the last while.

As for his sidekick Romesh I wondered at times how he is actually a comedian. He actually had me wishing for the return of Ed Byrne and thats saying something

colossus-x

I think Vanas idea might catch on if on each successive level of the game the players have to remove a piece of clothing until eventually...

4068ac1elhodqr

Vanas idea can certainly work, when deployed outside of the box iPhone. e.g. An event based Wifi NFC ingredient.

Perhaps £500k for yr1 might do (after being built). x10 social marketing, product, tech support and small event team.
No brick's n' motor, no vehicles, no manufacturing, no plant equipment, no liability insurance.

Sure if you want global top10 international web dominance it would take a few more million and few more years.

Dan Chipowski

This show has really run its course. (Though I'm sure viewing figures probably suggest otherwise).

Judging by this year's candidates either the programme makers don't want decent people on the show, or decent people (rightly) view 250k as a pretty paltry sum in modern business terms and wouldn't be bothered with the time investment required.

We've had 12 weeks (or whatever it was) for him to basically invest in a plumbing firm.

Exclamation Marc

Dan Chipowski wrote: »

This show has really run its course. (Though I'm sure viewing figures probably suggest otherwise).

Judging by this year's candidates either the programme makers don't want decent people on the show, or decent people (rightly) view 250k as a pretty paltry sum in modern business terms and wouldn't be bothered with the time investment required.

We've had 12 weeks (or whatever it was) for him to basically invest in a plumbing firm.

250k for a 50% investment is nowhere near paltry, no idea how you could view that as such. The winners also get a lot of the infrastructure for start ups provided to them and at a good cost.

And so what if it was a plumbing firm? It's a business/entertainment program, but primarily it has to make sense for the investor fuelling the 250k. The last four years have had an inventor, a recruitment company, a search engine promotion company and a cosmetic surgery (as well as the one non-runner he bought into - beauty products). They have to be sound from a business point of view. It was the best business plan of the final five.

I do agree that this year was one of the weaker years where there weren't as many 'top-end' candidates but by no means has it run its course.

Axwell

Josephs idea really only came in to its own when he went and met the business people and gave his idea to them and they said renewable energy was going to take 10-15 years to be the norm, this made him look more towards IoT (internet of things for those unaware of it) and that's what made the difference. That's the key part of his business going forward, its not just a plumbing business as many seem to see it as. IoT is right on point at the minute with devices like Nest being installed in peoples homes to monitor their heating and smoke alarm sensors. Companies like Electric Ireland have already introduced them. With is plan to go through property management companies the ability to complement the usual plumbing services with offering technology like this as standard in the property and the service contracts around that they will make a killing. Lord Sugar can see the technology side of it and that's got him interested.

Vana's idea is a complete money sink and the investment will only act as a proof of concept. The marketing alone would swallow up most of the money in the early stages. She needs to develop it to a point where it has a user base and she can prove the idea works and then hope one of the big players in dating comes and takes it off her or she gets a large investment to really push it on further. There was too much work involved from the outset for Lord Sugar to get any way involved in it apart from the outlay of cash and at that it was only going to go so far.

With Joseph at worse case hes already got a strategy that worked for him in Plymouth and to then branch out from that into other areas and repeat would still grow the business with cash investment. To then add in smart-home technology into the mix and he should do quite well for himself with Lord Sugars backing. I'm sure Monday morning Joseph will be down to Mark in Climb Online getting a new SEO strategy to help him be top of the search engines!

Go Harvey Go

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Who is the fruit salad woman?

Ruth.

Tarzana2

Go Harvey Go wrote: »

Ruth.

Oh right. I liked her actually, seems like a nice person if a bit noisy.

Monife

Tarzana2 wrote: »

Who is the fruit salad woman?

Ruth, she consistently wore that suit that made her look like a fruit salad sweet.

yerwanthere123

So I guess we can all agree that it was a very poor series this year? Certainly the worst in my memory anyway.

syklops

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

So I guess we can all agree that it was a very poor series this year? Certainly the worst in my memory anyway.

I found the finale to be very under-whelming. Also, many of the canidates were instantly forgettable. I can still remember the names of many of the candidates from 2 years ago, but I've forgoten or never remembered some of the names from this year.

Arbiter of Good Taste

Up and running as of this morning

https://dateplay.co/

At the end of the day, she got loads of free publicity.

Axwell

It was up and running last night, looks the same too so no changes since the final was aired.

Arbiter of Good Taste

Axwell wrote: »

It was up and running last night, looks the same too so no changes since the final was aired.

When did you find it? I Googled Play Date immediately after they announced the winner (sad, I know), and it didn't come up for me

johnpatrick81

I think the clear sign it was filled with the worst candidates and ideas ever was when yer man the "marketing man" clear the clouds whatever it was, had his business plan torn to bits, he walked out of one interview agreeing that he was full of sh!t and that his plan was all rubbish.

He even agreed it was all rubbish in the boardroom.

Yet he missed out on the final by the skin of his teeth.

Shambles of a season.

Exclamation Marc

yerwanthere123 wrote: »

So I guess we can all agree that it was a very poor series this year? Certainly the worst in my memory anyway.

I think the most damning sign for me was the amount of candidates in the crowd at the finale that I had no recollection of whatsoever apart from vaguely identifying the odd face.

Sunny Dayz

So glad Joseph won in the end. I wanted him to win but kinda thought Sugar being more of a risk taker would go for Vana. But I think there was too much work and costs involved in Vana's business, I'm guessing she hadn't even a prototype of the product developed yet? Whereas Joseph's business is already there, it's just expanding on it really. Joseph showed himself to be a hard worker, he did well in the tasks. I think what he's done outside the program in his life has stood to him, getting expelled from school at a young age but working hard and applying himself since then. He also has come across as a really nice guy, not ruthless or cut-throat.