Vana's View: The Apprentice finalist on Week 5 – "I wish I could have been PM for this task!"
The crowdfunding task was right up Vana's street after her success raising money for her DatePlay app
Stratford. This is giving me deja vu. Last year, we went to the Olympic Stadium for the healthy food task. This year, however, it’s a crowdfunding task! OMG – this is amazing. This would literally be the PERFECT task for me. As many of you may know, I just finished the crowdfunding campaign for my DatePlay app on Seedrs and raised nearly £220,000. Totally wish I could be project manager for this task. :)
Mixing up the teams? Love that. Shows that one team is too strong and it needs to be balanced out. I think it’ll be great for Samuel and JD to be project managers. We haven’t seen enough of their leadership until now, so will be interesting to see.
Love the open head phones. Safe and comfortable. On the other hand, I like that Samuel talks about telling the high-vis cycling gilet founder’s STORY. That’s the most important part of crowdfunding. Telling the story. I think I would have made the mistake of going with headphones. I think that Samuel’s team actually made the right choice.
Frances is doing a good job directing the singers. Fran and Rebecca – strong characters. I like them and think they have potential to go far! At one point, Karren says "I don’t think JD really understands what project management is.” I think he really needs to step it up and be stronger and more structured if he’s going to get through this task.
I really liked Alana’s idea about how to do the video for crowdfunding. The video is actually the most important part of a crowdfunding campaign and it has to be engaging and explain the story very clearly. Karthik shoots down Alana’s idea, which I think was a mistake. Karthik keeps pushing Alana down – she needs to step up and defend herself!
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What I love about this process is that each episode is such a toss up! Usually, there isn’t a clear winner. Last week, I think that the task was more clear. More cut and dried and easy to deduce who was doing better.
The headphones team, for example, seems to be going better than the high-vis team. JD’s team is doing a very good job with their PR stunt and video. But then, Sofi and Paul start bickering and it seems like their website is going down the drain… So, it’s unclear – are they doing well, or not?! Sofianne calls Paul controlling but I know EXACTLY how Paul feels. It’s a very stressful process and there are a lot of time constraints so it’s easy to get caught up in the anxiety! Then, comes the rewards bombshell – Paul, Sofiane and Jessica might be in some trouble!!!!
On Samuel’s team, things seem really tense. Samuel wouldn’t explain crowdfunding to the performers who are conducting the publicity stunt. Grainne is right here in wanting to explain what crowdfunding is so that everyone is on the same page. I must say, I find Samuel’s miming really weird. It doesn’t make sense and is not appealing as a viewer!
Now, for the big chance to pitch to cycle retailers.
Karthik forgets Alana’s name at this point in the process? Come on. That’s absurd. How rude. Alana, I got your back girl. On the high-vis team, I think Trishna should have been able to pitch! That being said, the team was pretty good. Karthik did a good job with the pitch. Courtney on the other hand, seemed nervous! And Samuel’s addition at the end – didn’t seem to make any sense!
The headphone pitch didn’t go as smoothly. Unfortunately Frances got torn apart for the prices.
Now – boardroom time!
- Gilet was spelled wrong. Oops.
- I like that Trishna took full responsibility for this.
- Alana gets kudos from Claude this episode for her idea for the crowdfunding video. Good job Alana.
- Samuel’s vision for the PR stunt was confusing.
- Karthik did a good job with the speech. Nice job, Big K.
- Frances wrote good lyrics.
- But the filming of the PR stunt on this headphones team was terrible.
And for the reveal: high-vis are the winners! I’m not surprised that they were able to make this product work though. The story was a much easier sell. The founder had a very clear reason for starting the company and the product was chic and visually attractive.
In the losing team, JD brings Paul and Rebecca into the boardroom, which I think was the right call. I definitely didn’t want Paul to go because I think he has more to demonstrate. It’s a tough call for who should go but ultimately JD is the one who has to pack his bags. I really liked JD all along. He was a calming force. A relaxed manager. And a great addition to this season. JD, you will be missed!
