Lord Sugar has a new adviser… and he’s a familiar face.
Millions watched The Apprentice final on Sunday, December 20, and saw borough councillor Paul Swaddle offer his expert opinion to the show’s host.
Cllr Swaddle was there due to his day job as CEO of Pocket App – the UK’s largest independent app developer. He was part of the team who fed back on the business plan that finalist Vana Koutsomitis concocted for a new mobile dating app.
The panel of experts questioned the finalists at London’s City Hall back in August but the winner wasn’t announced until the final was aired on the Sunday before Christmas.
Rounding off its eleventh series, The Apprentice follows 18 budding business people across the course of 10 weeks. The group undergo a series of gruelling challenges that test their commercial and business skills under the watchful eye of Lord Alan Sugar.
Candidates are eliminated each week facing the possibility of being ‘fired’ based on their performance. The overall winner receives a significant investment of £250,000 in their own business plan and has the opportunity to become Lord Sugar’s new business partner.
In the final stages of The Apprentice various industry experts provide insight into the candidates’ business ideas. An expert with a long career in mobile, Cllr Swaddle has helped brands such as Kellogg’s, Barclays and Loaded magazine develop their mobile strategies.
Cllr Swaddle co-founded Pocket App in 2011 and because of his respected reputation was headhunted to be part of this year’s ‘industry expert’ team. As an app specialist he grilled finalist Vana Koutsomitis on her ‘gamified’ dating app.
Following the team’s scrutiny of her business plan, Vana was named runner-up of this year’s Apprentice. Her app, Date Play, matches users with mystery partners and encourages them to play online games together. As two users play together, they are gradually allowed details of the person they have been matched with.
Cllr Swaddle recognised the potential behind this idea, as it combines two of the biggest current trends in the mobile development space today, online dating and the gamification of daily activities.
Facing tough competition, Vana was narrowly beaten by her fellow finalist, 25 year-old Joseph Valente, owner of a plumbing and heating business, who claimed the winner’s title.
Cllr Swaddle commented, “Making it to the final of The Apprentice is no mean feat, and Vana should be extremely proud of what she has achieved. She has a great business idea and performed very well under considerable pressure in last night’s final, and throughout the series as a whole in fact.
“It was a real privilege to be involved in the show and I thought Vana’s idea was a great concept but the £250K investment from Lord Sugar was not enough to develop the app fully and turn it into a commercialised product to take too market. In my experience another round of funding is normally required.
“In fact, we help a lot of app entrepreneurs, not only develop their concept but also raise the money they need to take the app to market, and I am certainly keen to work with Vana to do this if she wants to progress her idea and am already in talks with her about how we might support her.”
To learn more about Pocket App visit www.pocketapp.co.uk or Twitter @PocketApp
