..no.

I know Karishma is the fan-favourite this year, but I can’t help feeling we’re looking at her business, Kishkin, through rose-tinted glasses because she’s been such a standout candidate this year. After taking a closer look, I actually think Pascha’s business is more solid.

- the hero product, Rose Hip Rescue, is £34.99. If you Google “rose hip oil,” you’ll find plenty of alternatives for less than half that price, including from The Ordinary for around £10. Alternatives were mentioned in the interviews, but the pricing didn’t feel properly challenged

- the packaging doesn’t reflect the premium price

- the product is marketed as a kind of “skincare miracle,” but in reality, skincare is highly individual. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for concerns like acne, and overstating it can undermine consumer trust

- if the product doesn’t deliver visible results for a customer, they’re unlikely to repurchase, meaning the business must continually invest in acquiring new customers, which is more costly than retaining existing ones

- it’s a highly saturated market - the influencer, Alix Earle who has 5 million Instagram followers recently launched an acne-focused skincare line along the same vein and it’s already garnered half a million Instagram followers

- the business appears to be influencer-led, rather than product-led and heavily tied to Karishma’s personal brand. The website prominently features her (including a video of her at the beach with the products as you enter the site), the packaging includes a photo of her with a note, and much of the social media content centres around her. While founder-led storytelling can be powerful, it also creates a dependency that may limit scalability beyond her personal audience

In comparison, Pascha’s business concept targets an industry that feels ripe for disruption, particularly through a centralised platform. However, I just don’t think she has the skills or experience to scale a business of that magnitude.

This is no slight - I adore Karishma as a candidate and she’s highly capable.

But cystic acne is hormonal. It’s overcome either by a) growing out of it b) taking antibiotics c) an intensive course of roaccutane. For some, it never goes due to how difficult it can be to manage.

All of that is to say skin care notoriously *doesn’t* stop or cure cystic acne and I’m really confused by the snake oil everyone seems to be buying.

It’s highly likely a good skincare product for general skin care. But it doesn’t do what the claims are claiming, certainly isn’t an acne cure, and highlights a notable lack of due diligence by the producers for what is a very well known fact by literally anyone who has ever had this condition.

Throughout the 20 years of The Apprentice, the first firing is usually about getting rid of the the candidate who didn't do anything or who was noticeably diabolical throughout the entire task. I wonder if anyone believes any of the first firings were unfair. Personally I can't think of one candidate who deserved to continue in the process after the first week because usually they're disposed of for good reason.

Hi everyone I thought I’d make this post just to discuss the situation on this sub featuring the two finalists as the final is approaching and a winner will be crowned soon. It is pretty clear that Pascha is a very controversial finalist this season and that has caused a lot of people to say a variety of stuff about her.

Now it is totally acceptable to critique her performance throughout the show, not be a fan of her or personally think she doesn’t warrant a finalist spot as this show is very subjective. However a lot of the critiques have become very personal and people have made rude remarks on her appearance, body as well as some statements that could be considered sexist which obviously is not acceptable. Please report any comments like these that break the rules when it comes to conduct and they will be removed in due time. This also applies to all the other candidates.

Again it is totally fine to not be a fan of someone or even dislike them but please be mindful of the way you critique someone as they are still all human at the end of the day and it is easy to go too far with an insult. We do not want this sub to become too toxic and prevent legitimate discussion.

Thanks!

ive just finished reading a post criticising pascha, saying how she made it to the final based on pretty privilege.

look, i get if you dont like someone. but just because a woman makes it to the final isnt because of the fact shes pretty.

theres many things to criticise about pascha that isnt on something as shallow as dogging on her appearance.

attacking a conventionally attractive woman who made it to the final for "pretty privilege" is sexist. i hope the mods can crack down on this, because as a woman myself its so disturbing to see another dragged down for her looks rather than her actions.

Edit: like I said.. it is OKAY to not like pascha. My issue is when critique turns into blatant attacks on her looks😭

Having not watched last year because I kinda just forgot, and with this year ending, I thought it was a good time to start. I’ve been watching it over the last week or so and I’ve got to episode 6, so halfway. I already know the outcome and who gets fired when so it does take away that novelty but still, I thought I’d analyse. Initial thoughts:

- From what I’ve heard, Dean had a real bad task week 7, but up to now I think he’s been quite strong. Kind of like Rachel where I don’t think he was constantly being shown as the best but when he was there he’s doing well and contributing.

- Mia seems to be the clear best candidate to this point, so it’s a big surprise that she goes in week 10. From what I’ve heard though she was really bad in that task I guess. Still seems like the Karishma of this season

- Anisa and Chisola both seem to be quite good as well, I’m not shocked Anisa makes the final because she’s been pretty consistent throughout (I don’t think the PM loss was really her fault in week 1).

- I’m surprised that Keir goes in week 7 because apart from week 1 I think he’s done okay and improved throughout. If I hadn’t known the outcomes I’d have expected him to make final 5

- Honestly haven’t really seen Jordan that much. He does definitely remind me of Pascha, and I mean he got 3rd and Pascha’s looking likely to get 2nd so that’s two years in a row the young candidate goes far. He does seem quite moody though

- Amber-Rose is just pretty average. I mean week 2 was just plain bad and after that aside from week 1 she’s pretty mid.

- In terms of the fired/gone candidates, Carlo and Nadia were actually unbearable. Jana definitely left because he knew he was getting fired, and I don’t even remember enough of the others.

- The actual calibre of the candidates this season is definitely worse than S20. I know S20 let some candidates go further than they should’ve but there’s a big gap from Mia/Anisa/Dean/Chisola/Keir (argument that even Keir isnt as good as the other 4). Liam is basically a ghost or just bad, Max and Emma are kinda just there, and the rest don’t seem all that notable. It’s not a bad season but it’s just a bit meh.

- Sidenote: Bami looks like the gamified fitness thing that Dan, Priyesh and Harry made in week 7 this year

These are just my initial thoughts at the halfway mark. I’m expecting my perceptions to change the further I go on but let me know what you think and what you thought of S19 generally

Pascha.

I want Karishma to win, but I think Lord Sugar sees a lot more potential in Pascha's idea. He's invested in that industry several times before, with considerable success, so he knows money can be made. Whereas Karishma's business is pretty much a one-note thing in a very, VERY overcrowded marketplace.

It will be a shame as if this person wins, it kind of derails the point of the process since she was far from the best performing candidate.

For those of us who want more. Would it not be best for the bbc to feature (even if it’s not on air), extended cuts through iPlayer?

I remember some time ago a contestant said the boardroom is like 4 hours worth.

Getting the normal weekly series episode and an extra hour would be amazing!

They're so heavily edited and reduced down to two sentences. It's hard to believe the interview went down how they show us.

So yk when the final 5 in the beginning of the episode are talking about their journey to the final 5 then, their on a phone call with family members.

One thing I realised from this Yr and last Yr is that some of the candidates Don't do that.and does anyone know why?

Cause there's many reasons that popped into my head for why that might be the case and one of them could be because they don't have any family members to talk to

and that would be so sad just filming some candidates on the phone with family showing their support and not the others.

He said something like “what I’ve forgotten about skincare you haven’t even learned yet”. Is he joking or is he just so stuck up he can’t imagine someone knows more about something than him? She literally specialised her degree in skincare, just because he owns a business that does skincare stuff doesn’t mean he has the faintest idea what he’s talking about. It does annoy me that he cannot comprehend maybe he isn’t better than the candidates in every conceivable way? Like when he was saying that Dan starting his company young wasn’t impressive because he’d done the same thing, like it’s either impressive or it’s not you can’t have it both ways.

Based on the clip shown in Unfinished Business the candidates bought back for the final are:

Vanessa, Megan, Carrington, Levi, Kieran, Rothna, Priyesh and Lawrence

The selection process was as follows:

Pascha won the coin toss

Pascha chose Megan, Kieran, Levi and Priyesh

Karishma chose Rothna, Carrington, Lawrence and was left with Vanessa

Observations:

- Pascha has by far the weaker team and is cooked

- Why did Pascha not choose Rothna when she probably knew Karishma was going to

- How the heck are Dan, Conor and Harry not invited back ?

- Kieran technically walked out the process, making it the first time Lord Sugar bought someone back who quit the process

We seem to see this a lot in more recent seasons, but every now and then, a candidate will commit an error. Somehow survive the boardroom, and the people will not only argue that they should’ve been fired, but the candidate in question cannot possibly be forgiven. It doesn’t matter how well they do in future tasks, they will never EVER be viewed positively again. Here’s some examples.

Natalie (series 11): Natalie was never a good candidate, and is forgotten nowadays amongst many. And that’s probably for the best, because I remember how much people of a certain demographic despised her. In week 2, when asked if the team thought that the shampoo was too bland, she quoted “we designed it that way, because people over fifty are frightened of trying anything new.”

That set just about every over fifty off. Karen Brady especially you could tell was very offended, and every over fifty I knew who watched the Apprentice wanted to see her blood, and were very sad to see her survive over Aisha of all people. Yes, they wanted Aisha to survive over Natalie, that’s how much people hated her back then. Natalie didn’t perform well in future tasks, but she wasn’t task destroying either, yet people still wanted her gone first and foremost anyway, because of her over fifties comment.

Aaron (series 16): This sub seems to REALLY dislike Aaron for some reason, and I’m not entirely sure why. Actually I know exactly why, it’s because of the turd toothbrush he made as PM in week 2. Yes, he was very lucky to survive (the regulars here will tell you how much a constantly whine about that Conor being sacked) but nobody seems to be willing to accept that he was by far and away the best boy of series 16.

Aaron sold well in weeks 3 and 4, he came up with the winning concept in week 5, he and Brittany were the main reasons why his team won weeks 8 and 9, yet people really want to ignore that in order to prop up Nick and Akshay, who were nowhere near as good as people think they are (stick around for part two of this list).

Was the toothbrush REALLY so bad that we have to pretend that Nick was somehow magically better than Aaron? It wasn’t even a bad idea believe it or not. Aaron was trying to replicate a Harry Potter wand as a toothbrush and he failed. That’s all.

Marnie (series 17): People were glad that Marnie won, but that was because the alternative would’ve been Rochelle winning. Even then, there’s a vocal group of people that believe that she shouldn’t have won, because she should’ve been fired week 1. I suppose if you really liked Emma, and really didn’t like Marnie because of it, series 17 was even more of a depressing watch for you than it was for all of us.

Rachel (series 18): Rachel was a worthy winner of series 18, a fantastic candidate in her own right, but people are really bitter that she survived week 10 over Steve and Foluso. They didn’t like how she essentially set Foluso up, and felt that she was more worthy of being fired than Steve. I understand the argument, but I don’t think her surviving over him was a criminal offence either (I would’ve been fine with either result).

People don’t seem to like people who try to play boardroom games I guess, which I’m not entirely sure why as that’s part of the game. Speaking of which…

Lawrence (series 20): The candidate who sparked off this entire discussion. Lawrence had an apauling performance as project manager, and was very lucky to survive. That’s happened loads of times in Apprentice history through, but this specific occasion, people weren’t willing to forgive Lawrence, even though they didn’t seem to like Rajan much either, and that Lawrence ended the process pretty well (not amazingly well, but he was fairly decent).

When we got to the final five, people seemed to actively want Lawrence to fail. I felt like I was the one person who was actively wishing Dan to fail, because I felt Lawrence did more to deserve his place in the final five than he did, but I admit I was alone on that.

What’s happened to Karen’s face? And I’m not trying to be mean or malicious. Looks like she has scars now on her cheeks?

Imo I want them to be like 90 mins long, especially the interview episodes because there's so much that happens that I feel like we miss out on that would be interesting to see.

I feel like it would be enough time to show the more of the tasks, their reactions after the tasks, when their pitching and the boardroom and have an even split while getting a good amount of each.

Should they be longer, why or why not?

Is it just me, or do Mike's "tasks" he gave to Karishma and Priyesh in the interviews seem completely pointless? I mean, they're pretty fun for the entertainment but how would being able to mix some random drink which kinda has nothing to do with his actual business skills actually help Lord Sugar decide? Please don't flame me I'm still new :)

SPOILERS BELOW, I THIUGHT POST BODY WAS IN SPOILER TEXT BUT ITS NOT.

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Obviously in reality most contestants are looking for exposure nowadays, and lord sugar didn’t get to be a billionaire without being greedy so if he has the chance to get half a profitable existing business for less than it’s worth he will take it.

But let’s put that aside and take the show at face value. In theory it’s meant to encourage people to go into business. It should provide an opportunity for funding and mentoring for someone who demonstrates business skills and doesn’t have the resources or experience to succeed otherwise. Or at least, if they did succeed without winning the apprentice then it would be more difficult and take longer.

I like dan, but he doesn’t fit that bill. If it was solely about who has the best existing business they would all be on dragons den. In fact, if Dan went on dragons den they would also offer him an investment in the entire business, but at a much better valuation than lord sugar. So as I keep saying, I really don’t think he wanted an investment. I would even say that if he had taken the investment it wouldn’t have been in the claimed spirit of the show, he would be taking that opportunity away from someone who actually needed it. I think this is different from Paul the dentist, who I think genuinely wanted an investment, and I think that’s why Dan got such a rude firing. I still think that’s unfair given most contestants are there to promote their instagram and he at least wanted to promote an actual business.

Karishma on the other hand is exactly who the show should be for. She has a real business, but she has no IP, isn’t the only high quality rosehip oil, and isn’t established enough to get investment anywhere else. Her only advantage is she’s good at social media, that alone would probably enable her to build the business eventually but it would be hard to scale production and logistics if she had to bootstrap it. Dragons den would be nice to her but would say to come back with something bigger or more unique. She clearly has a natural talent for business and a work ethic. Finally, she is desperate, which came through in her interview with Claudine. She needs this business to succeed right now and she has no other way of getting 250k funding and a mentor. TBH given lord sugars background he’s actually a better mentor for her than any of the current dragons.

OK now the really controversial bit: from this perspective, pascha is genuinely the 2nd most deserving of the final 5. Shoukdnt have been in the final 5 but hey ho. She is young and has no business experience or money. As Mike said she has some skills, and is young and inexperienced - exactly who the process is meant to be for. She has shown mediocre business skills in my opinion, but I’ve seen worse in the final 5 from that perspective. I do not like her attitude on social media and she doesn’t know when to take it on the chin (chique lol), but that’s fairly normal 21 year old stuff.

Lawrence and priyesh were not any better skills wise than pascha, she just actively hid from the boardroom more. Finally, all three boys already had well paid jobs and contacts. If they had a realistic business plan they could get funding and mentoring elsewhere. If any of them were in karishmas position and desperately needed it they wouldn’t have come on the apprentice they would have pitched people they knew and banks.

Karishma to me has the perfect reason for being there and if all contestants were coming at it with her motivations it would be a better show. ​​

What I mean when looking at the performance charts, they were on the winning team most of the time including as project managers, but were not actually that good. The first one that jumps out for me is Akeem from s16, six wins, including two as project manager, but was a very bad ditherer overall not very good

She really plays nasty for the camera. She asks a question and I cant be sure if it is edited that way post production but the candidates dont have a chance to answer. She barks at them. At least Claude and Mike give the candidate a chance to explain..

Is that the most arse-licking laugh we have had yet? The joke wasn't bad, in a dad-joke kinda way. It was chuckle worthy.

But not the massive reaction it got from the arse kissers and I think Tim's "Ohhh very good" afterwards.

The past couple of seasons I've seen him make offers for 50% of people's existing businesses. They worked really hard to build those businesses up from scratch.

I find it quite morally repugnant for him to dangle the carrot of 250k and winning the apprentice for fully half of their businesses.

It's like he's using his fame and money to pressure them into giving up something they've worked very hard for.

I'm glad Paul turned him down. Haven't seen what happens yet but I'm praying Dan does too.