TWELVE years ago Tom Pellereau shocked almost everyone when he beat the odds to become Lord Sugar's first Apprentice business partner.
The amiable inventor, 44, secured a £250,000 investment from the fiery businessman despite losing a record eight tasks on his way to reaching the final boardroom.
But a mix of hard work and ingenuity has made Tom one of the most successful candidates in the show's history.
His beauty brand Stylideas has flourished with market-leading products flying off the shelves, and one in particular has become a phenomenon.
The makeup brush cleaner and dryer, which retails for £29.99, has shifted close to two million units – bringing in substantial earnings and helping Tom to grow his brand exponentially.
In an exclusive interview, Tom says of his rise to the top: "For me, it was not quite all or nothing, but this meant a huge amount to me. The opportunity to work with him [Lord Sugar] and get my products to market is what I always wanted to do, and it was exciting and terrifying. I cannot say how much it has changed my life for the better."
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It was five years ago that Tom launched his makeup brush cleaner; the result of nine months of toil and experimenting.
He says: "I was speaking to some professionals all about various things and one mentioned to me about cleaning and drying makeup brushes, something I never thought would be an issue at all. It turns out if you have dirty brushes and people don't clean them they're pretty horrible things."
The end product enables people to clean and dry makeup brushes of any size in a matter of seconds as opposed to the 24 hours it would usually take.
"We've now sold a million of those," says Tom. "It's just insane for me. As a result I can now have a brilliant sales director, I can have an operations director, I can have some marketing people so I can focus on what I do which is the inventing and they can do the other bits."
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The success has created new type of problem for the brand though as others try and piggyback and profit from Tom's idea.
"Unfortunately, especially in America, the makeup cleaner has been copied horrendously," he explains. "There are hundreds of copycats direct from China, most of them, on Amazon in America.
"That's really hurt us and that's such a shame. They've undercut us at like $15 dollars, and that's been really painful. Our job is to continue to bring out new product after new product every Christmas, every summer, and that's kind of part of the fun of it."
Far from a one-trick pony, Tom has also had massive success with his first products – curved nail files – and more recently a £54.99 beauty fridge that is selling at a rate of 250 units a week.
While products in the works include anti-wrinkle and anti-ageing devices, innovative mirrors and sustainable makeup products like reusable cotton pads that can go in the washing machine.
The scaled up team Tom has behind him now is worlds away from his humble post-show beginnings with Lord Sugar that saw him working as a team of one with some help from The Apprentice boss's finance team.
"It started with literally just me," explains Tom. "The money went into the bank account and I started designing the products and selling it.
"Six months later we launched exclusively with Sainsbury's with a range of three nail files which was huge.
"I remember the second Christmas we got very close to running out of cash because we were having to buy so much stock for the Christmas.
"In the first two years it got quite tight for about a month and I was very concerned we were going to run out. I still do have a few sleepless nights over things, but we're lucky enough to be able to continue to grow."
Lord Sugar is famed for his ferocity in the boardroom on The Apprentice and it isn't an act for the cameras.
"He's pretty direct as an individual," says Tom. "I'm very fortunate because I'm told he does quite like me although he doesn't always make that clear.
"He's a bit like one of those headmasters at school who's very tough on you but apparently people are like 'he's on your side', and I'm like 'well I wish he'd show that occasionally' [laughs]. But, you know, he understands my work, he's one of the few people in the world who have made it very successful and I'm incredibly lucky to have that by my side."
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