So on Wednesday night Leon Doyle become the 9th candidate to be given the finger by Lord Alan Sugar (so to speak). On this occasion it was the right firing, despite being incredibly close between him and Tom as to who had done the least work. Leon was in trouble the minute he was paired with Melody, the outspoken, highly opinionated, relatively talented candidate who “runs a global company”, and the fact he kept resigning to little things like language barriers. I found this amusing – there is a foreign episode every series but it’s still always in 99% English – the candidates and viewing audience aren’t required to have a second language to follow the task.
I was surprised Leon got this far. An early regular of the boardroom and a lack of appearances in the opening trail led me to suggest he wouldn’t last long but lo and behold, he made it relatively far.
I’m writing this post as an avid fan of the Apprentice, I was amused before the series started as I did my annual “who’s the obligatory fitty” scan of the candidates to see Leon’s white teeth shining back at me. I was first shocked because this is his second foray into BBC entrepreneurial gameshows (and he didn’t perform that well in the first, but more on that later) and also because I used to know and work with him.
You might find it difficult to believe that as a geek who writes website code for a living that I had a part time job during university promoting nightclubs. It was a very entertaining job; one that saw me dress as Elvis and perform drunken Vegas-style fake weddings in poorly erected wooden sets within the nightclub or collecting phone numbers from every female I could clasp my eyes on (data collection for the company, of course).
Leon Doyle was the team leader of us nightclub promoters and it was instantly obvious he was entrepreneurial and talented. He knew how to lead a team, generate ideas, get involved when he had to and yes – never stop bloody smiling. The cheeky chappy you see on the show isn’t a fake. He really was like that – charming with a generous dose of confidence that can be so easily confused for arrogance.
The nightclub promotion company left my university town for one reason or another. Rumour was they spent too much money. I distinctly remember a tank being driven round the town centre to promote the army fancy dress night. Whilst Huddersfield (the town in question) is very much a student town, it isn’t exactly Leeds. Regardless, I never saw Leon after that (I don’t think I had a Facebook back then – internet years make me feel very old).
Until Dragon’s Den that is. Not long back, Dragons’ Den had an online spin-off which was briefly broadcast on BBC2. In it, budding entrepreneurs did the usual pitch but to two different entrepreneurs, Shaf Rasul and Julie Meyer for a lower sum of money (under £50k). Leon entered with his “Master Menu” which essentially is all the takeaway menus you usually get through your door but binded together into a handy booklet.
It didn’t succeed and I couldn’t agree more. Although looking at a PDF version of the Master Menu today it does seem like a handy idea for the end user, I still can’t see it as a multi-million pound venture. The idea lives on today, coupled with an online ordering system which is a clone of Just Eat or Hungry House, two famous and dominant names.
Leon will do well, I have no doubt. He’s just not having much luck in the business “gameshows”. I wish him all the very best in his future business endeavours but please, do something about that “white pumps” ecommerce site. It might be a popular one (although living in the affiliate world, it’s just another nice domain, made-in-a-week website in my eyes) but it really needs a facelift.
Leon’s official website is at http://www.leondoyle.co.uk and you can follow him on Twitter @leontrepreneur.
