Keir Shave may have been fired from The Apprentice in week seven but his TV appearance has transformed his telemarketing company Parallel Partnerships.
The Leeds-based startup, which specialises in lead generation, has nearly doubled in size to 60 staff since he took part in the show to win Lord Sugar’s £250,000 investment and mentorship.
The 27-year-old will be sharing his story at next week’s Northern Leaders event – Meet the New Generation of Entrepreneur (NGE) – in the Leeds office of KPMG.
He’ll be joined by 26-year-old Dragons’ Den reject Lucie Macleod, who walked out the Den empty-handed but grew sales in her business Hair Syrup by 66% and is set to hit turnover of £6.5m.
‘I wanted eyeballs rather than Lord Sugar’s £250k’ – The Apprentice star
Speaking to BusinessCloud ahead of the June 17th event, Shave revealed how his life had changed since The Apprentice.
He said: “Parallel Partnerships has gone from employing just over 30 staff to around 60 since the show and we’re hoping to hit £2m revenue this year.
“I’ve won business because people have stumbled across my LinkedIn profile because of the content I’ve put out.”
Shave, whose LinkedIn profile describes him as ‘S19 BBC Apprentice 2025 candidate, added: “You’ve still got to put yourself out there but it definitely helps.
“You don’t get stopped in Sainsbury’s while doing your shopping but I took the view that I wanted to become a thought leader on LinkedIn.
“The aim now is for sustainable growth. I want to strengthen the team because we haven’t even hit our third birthday yet.”
Shave, who started Parallel Partnerships just three days after being redundant from his previous job, revealed how he went on the show to raise the profile of his fledgling business.
His tactics included getting one of the teams to adopt the name Parallel throughout the show and famously playing a game of ‘rock, paper, scissors’ in week one in order to clinch a sale.
“I deliberately did the rock, paper, scissors thing because it was a bit of a running joke with my colleagues,” he said.
“Appearing on The Apprentice taught me the importance of making decisions quicker and not waiting for the perfect moment.”
The series was eventually won by air conditioning company owner Dean Franklin, who beat pizza entrepreneur Anisa Khan into second place.
Shave revealed how he stays in touch with his fellow contestants via a WhatsApp group.
“We speak regularly,” he said. “It’s a shared experience. Once you’re fired from the show you don’t go back to the house and you can’t tell anyone else until it comes out on TV.
“Lord Sugar is a very successful business person and I’ve got nothing but respect for him.”
Shave said he was looking forward to sharing his story at next week’s Northern Leaders event, which will also hear from several of the names from Northern Leaders Futures list.
The 75-strong name list is made up of people aged 45 or less who continue to make the biggest positive difference to the North.
The event will look at a new breed of entrepreneurs who are changing the face of business through a mix of being digitally savvy, bold, fearless and driven by social impact.
Shave added: “I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to software and we use AI to make us more agile.”
The event runs from 5.30pm-7.30pm and will be hosted by BusinessCloud’s executive editor Chris Maguire.
Maguire said: “This is the third part of our trilogy of Northern Leaders events. It started with our awards evening in Manchester in January and was followed by May’s event in Newcastle with Dragons’ Den star Sara Davies; Greggs CEO Roisin Currie; and Moja founder Sophie Milliken.”
You can register for the event here