I dumped Lord Sugar after winning The Apprentice and ended up losing it all – I splurged my cash on supercars and caviar
AN Apprentice contestant parted ways with Lord Sugar after winning the show and saw his business fortunes decline.
When Joseph Valente was just 26, he was riding high with his boiler installation business being one of the biggest in the UK.
He also had the backing of Lord Sugar, the billionaire entrepreneur and star of BBC One’s The Apprentice.
Valente grew up in a working class family in Peterborough who struggled to make ends meet but his uncle Tim, a successful businessman, made an impression on him and he wanted to follow in his footsteps.
Even as a youngster he found ways to make money.
He told The Telegraph: “When I was seven I would buy football stickers from the local shop for 20p, take out the swaps and shinies and make my own smaller packets.
“I sold them for 5p cheaper than the ones at the shop. The other kids bought them with their lunch money. I made £5 in one day, which felt like a million pounds.
“Over the years I had various ventures – car washing, selling sweets, Pokémon cards, mobile phones, computer games, anything I could get my hands on really.”
Valente though admits he struggled with authority and was an “angry teenager” after his dad left and ended up getting kicked out of school when he was just 14.
He told The Sun last year: “I couldn’t see how the school system would help me achieve success – why sit in an art class when it was obvious to anyone that I wasn’t that sort of person?”
The most I spent on a pot of caviar was about £2,000, in Quaglinos in Mayfair when I was 26.
Joseph Valente
He decided to train as a plumber and worked his way up to become a qualified heating engineer.
Valente was then earning £50,000 a year when he was 19.
His big epiphany came a few years later when his mum bought him Lord Sugar’s autobiography as a Christmas present.
He says: “I read that book cover to cover for three weeks. I was inspired. A man who had come from poverty had built a billionaire empire.
“It stopped me telling myself excuses for why I didn’t have wealth. That book gave me permission to say ‘hang on Joseph, this is your life, you’re in control. If he can do it, so can you’.”
Inspired by the book, he took out a £15,000 loan and set up on his own as a “man in a van”.
Just a year later he set up ImpraGas, which he would eventually turn into one of the UK’s largest independent boiler installation businesses.
According to Valente, his firm was doing “very well” when he was selected to feature on The Apprentice in 2015.
He managed to see off the other contestants and win the prize of backing from the business mogul.
Following his win, Lord Sugar described Valente as “a glowing example of the reason that I do this Apprentice process”.
Thanks to his win, Valente had a £250,000 investment pumped into his business to help him launch into the big league – and it also helped him secure his first million.
With Lord Sugar’s backing, Valente’s company had annual sales of more than £10m and employed more than 150 people.
WILD SPENDING
Valente, however, also developed a taste for the high life and indulged in excess.
He says: “I went to Dubai and stayed in five-star resorts and hotels. I’d go out for meals that cost a couple of grand. The most I spent on a pot of caviar was about £2,000, in Quaglinos in Mayfair when I was 26.
“My spending habits have been a bit wild over the years and I think that comes from not having a lot of money growing up. In my twenties I spent money fast because I didn’t believe it would last that long.”
PARTS WITH LORD SUGAR
Lord Sugar then sold his ImpraGas shares back to Valente in 2017, with his spokesman saying that he had not been receptive to advice.
Despite the parting of the ways, the two left on good terms, with Lord Sugar wishing him and his firm “all the very best for the future.”
Things then went downhill from there and Valente was forced to sell the indebted firm in 2020 to Rel Capital, although he hasn’t said how much for.
Asked if he regretted the split with Lord Sugar, he said: “I regret it because I’d love to still have him as a good friend and connection now. But at the time the relationship had run its course.”
BOUNCING BACK
Valente though has managed to bounce back having founded Trade Mastermind, which is a training provider for trades and construction businesses.
Millionaire Mastermind, his latest venture, brings together wealthy entrepreneurs for mentoring, talks and networking opportunities.
Nowadays, he has also reined-in his spending habits.
Valente says: “I’m much more strategic with my money these days. But I still like to hire yachts, have nice cars, go on nice holidays, eat very well, dress smart.
“I know I have the skills to keep making cash, to make millions, so I don’t have to be in such a desperate rush to spend the money, because I know there’s more of it coming. It’s not going to be like a lottery win.”
The Sun Online has contacted Joseph Valente for comment.