Episode
The Most Impressive Apprentice Candidate in 20 Years | Why She Won The Show
- Podcast
- Don't Work Harder
- Published
- May 11, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2949
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://dont-work-harder.captivate.fm
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Summary
When the media called Karishma Vijay the most impressive Apprentice candidate in 20 years, they weren't exaggerating. She won Lord Sugar's £250K investment, grew to over 1 million followers on social media, with many viewers saying she was the winner from episode one! But what you saw on TV was only half the story. Behind the scenes, Karishma is a biomedical scientist - and at one stage, she lost her dream job, her relationship, and her home all at once. Karishma runs Kishkin, an organic luxury skincare brand she launched 5 months before filming started. She packed every order by hand with her family for months. She went live on Instagram at 3 am to make one sale. Then, she hit £50K in sales in those first 5 months. In this conversation, Karishma reveals: - The text Lord Sugar sent to her the morning after filming wrapped 👀 - The techniques she used to stay calm under pressure on The Apprentice when everyone else was losing it 🤯 - How she turned disaster into enormous success - and how losing her job, her relationship, and her home in one go became the turning point - How she hit £50K in sales in the first 5 months with ZERO paid influencer marketing 👀 - Why she strategically stopped taking brand deals even though it cost her hundreds of thousands of pounds - What it's REALLY like working with Lord Sugar now - and some of the most interesting and valuable things he's said to her And so much more. Karishma spent 10 years trying to make it work and built a business on the back of her own skincare struggles, using carefully sourced ingredients to create a solution she didn't see in the market. Now she speaks to Lord Sugar almost every day, and runs a brand she dreams of seeing in Harrods, Sephora, and duty-free. This is her full story - and everything you can learn from h…