A former finalist on The Apprentice has stepped down as CEO of Samsung Food due to ‘really feeling the urge to set up a new startup again with the dizzying acceleration of AI’.
Nick Holzherr has left his post 13 years after first pitching the idea that became Whisk and later Samsung Food to Lord Sugar on the BBC show.
He co-founded the San-Francisco-based firm in 2013 after reaching the final of The Apprentice in 2012.
The Birmingham-born entrepreneur grew the food tech business into a profitable platform, working with the likes of Asda, Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado before selling to Samsung in 2019.
Rather than the typical 12–24 month tenure many founders remain after an acquisition, Holzherr stayed for six and a half years.
“Apparently, the average founder lasts 12-24 months after being acquired by a ‘large corporate’,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“I’ve stayed for 6.5 years since the acquisition in 2019 – because I loved my work and the team there.”
At Samsung, Whisk was transformed into Samsung Food – an AI-powered meal planning app now live in 10 languages and integrated across Samsung’s ecosystem of connected appliances.
The platform has been featured in Apple’s App Store more than 200 times, won a Google Play Award and consistently maintained a 4.9-star rating from over 10,000 reviews.
Fiinu returns to AIM market after completing reverse takeover
Holzherr scaled the team from 30 to 120 in just nine months post-acquisition, spearheaded distributed working practices ‘years before COVID-19 made it normal’ and helped position Samsung Food as a flagship feature in the company’s keynote events at IFA, CES and SDC.
After more than a decade leading the company he founded, however, he has admitting to wanting to start again.
He continued: “Why leave then? Because I really feel the urge to set up a new startup again.
“With the dizzying acceleration of AI, now feels like the right time for me to do that.
“I’ll share more about what I’m building next in future posts – I’m excited to dig deep into building AI agents.
“The timing also feels right for Samsung Food. Their future is bright and exciting.”
The exit comes nearly a year after Holzherr already dived back into startup life.
In December 2024 he launched GitLaw – a LegalTech platform that lets small businesses and law firms download, share and amend key documents such as NDAs and contracts quickly.
It is unclear whether GitLaw is the AI startup which Holzherr references in his LinkedIn post and BusinessCloud will contact him for further comment.