NCB Capital Quest Season One Review

         Season one of NCB Capital Quest ended last night and from the very first episode to the finale the show had me and many other Jamaicans hooked. The program premiered on Television Jamaica on January 20th 2015 at 8:30pm. We were introduced to seven Jamaican SME executives competing for a capital equity investment of fifty million dollars.  The seven episode program gave us a cross between ABC's Shark Tank and The Apprentice with a creative Jamaican twist. Contestants went through several challenges all leading up to two winners being announced during the finale.
             The final round of the competition was down to who could present the perfect pitch and get the judges excited and interested in investing in that business. I thought Javette Nixon of Vein Centers of Jamaica, Lisanne Chai from The Stationary Centre and Nayana Williams from Life-Span Company Limited had the best presentations. I felt that Javette's company had lower barriers to entry and other unique selling points hence had a chance at winning  the competition however based  on the judges comments during their deliberations I definitely saw Nayana from Life Span winning the competetion they kept referring to Lifespan as a "Gold mine" however in the end I felt she was eliminated because her business partner could not meet the judges request for twenty five percent  of the company for their fifty million dollar investment which is understandable- it is business after all. I was also shocked that Denese from Southside Distributors did not end up in the top three.l get that we cant easily differnttiate her products from all the other products similar to hers but she mentioned that fifty six percent of her company's  profits is exports that means foreign exchange coming into Jamaica that can never be a bad thing. I was not surprised though that Heneka from Patwa Apparrel was first to be eliminated during the finale. Though the concept of Jamaican creole and proverbs on clothing is great it's not completely original or hard for any one to start a t'shirt business that only has Jamaican sayings printed on them, there would be issues with trade marking the words and
proverbs printed on the shirts.
             The biggest twist of the night was that there were two winners instead of the one as most viewers expected. Javette Nixon and Lissanne Chai walked away with twenty five million dollars each invested into their respective businesses. It was not a "tadaaaah" moment no real build up was created before the announcement was made that was dissapointing. All in all the NCB Capital Quest was a well produced show from the host, mentors, judges and contestant. It was also educational many business terms and definitions were given I'm sure many college students and business owners learnt a thing or two from the season. The twitter interaction was also great,  as a social media expert I was appreciative of the fact that NCB was tweeting and retweeting with viewers. Personally I can not wait for season two.
             Congratulations again to Javatte (Vein Centers of Jamaica) and Lissanne (Stationary Centre) on being the first NCB Capital Quest winners.