Apprentice contestant secures e-commerce investment

Monday, July 2, 2012 - 09:49 by Graham Miller

Fans of TV reality show, The Apprentice, may be interested to hear that former contestant, Nick Holzherr, is moving into the world of safe shopping online after he won investment worth £170,000 for his start-up company, Whisk.

Mr Holzherr actually came second in Alan Sugar's popular programme, almost securing himself a job at the Lord's own company.

However, he is now hoping that Whisk will be the making of him and with an injection of capital, he might be on the right track.

The proposition of the site is that people will be able to sign up and then create a shopping list for items that they need, based around a range of recipes.

There are a number of benefits to taking this approach to safe shopping online, rather than the potentially arbitrary method which most of us use to pick up groceries.

Mr Holzherr's site argues that a lot of waste is generated and a lot of money is spent unnecessarily, when people just buy their groceries without actually thinking about the meals they are going to make in the end.

Choosing to pick up items, which can then be used in a specific set of recipes, certainly makes sense and Mr Holzherr and his investors believe that they have hit upon an as yet untapped area of the retail market, which can be leveraged through this new e-commerce venture.

It is worth pointing out that Mr Holzherr actually proposed this idea during his time on the show, with Lord Sugar seeing some potential, but arguing that it would be too complicated and potentially offer little in terms of actual returns.

vIn an interview with BBC News, Mr Holzherr said that he had simplified and streamlined the idea since it first appeared, allowing him to win over investors and get work on the site underway.