Shark Tank India has recently become one of the most popular shows in the country. It is notable not only for its out-of-the-box approach, in which entrepreneurs present their businesses to a panel of investors with the goal of getting money in exchange for an equity stake in their businesses, but also for the judges on the show, who are dubbed the “sharks.”
However, an entrepreneur who appeared on the show posted a thread on Twitter detailing all of the problems with sharks. Akshay Shah, the founder of SEM platform and a Shark Tank finalist, explains what goes on behind the scenes on the show. He also bemoaned the rejection of his venture by’sharks’ such as Ashneer Grover, Aman Gupta, and others.
His thread began by stating that he appeared in the show but that his episode was not televised for unclear reasons. “The show consists of a 3-minute pitch followed by a shark Q&A,” he explained. Your pitch is created by the channel’s creative, and you must generally stick to it and speak Hindi; your USP may be limited at times, but such is life.”
He also added that the channel requested that they pitch things in Hindi so that viewers can comprehend everything.
The Channel will try to make your pitch as simple as possible and in chaste Hindi for the viewers to Understand. Multiple rehearsals will be done for 2 days till late nights till the Channel is sure you are good to go and some guys are given more practice and attention from the
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
However, he began by describing how all of the sharks were dismissive of him and his presentation. First, he discussed Ashneer Grover, a co-founder of BharatPe, who had an issue with Akshay’s business because it went completely against his zero MDR strategy.
Grover dissed Akshay’s data by saying “Data to Kilo ke Bhaav main Chandni Chowk pe bikta hai!!”
So when we said we have 700k students with us, his exact was "Data to Kilo ke Bhaav main Chandni Chowk pe bikta hai!!" My reply to Mr Grover is, sir, this is not a name place animal thing data like you might be capturing in BharatPe to show GMV and gain valuation & funding.
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Then Akshay talked about Aman Gupta, the creator of boAt, who had a problem with Akshay’s company’s name throughout the pitch.
I want to point #ashneergrover financials to him at this point in time, 256 crores sunk in vs 6 crores revenue alive on investors and cashbags, Need I say more??
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
He then mentioned Namita Thapar, who was their only supporter but refused to invest since she didn’t comprehend the technology.
why did I say 1 line in Gujarati as if that pierced him like a bullet – to which I had to retort that I am a gujju so it came naturally (although I wanted to say go and ask the channel creative sirjee if this hurts u so much as its they who told me to speak this line in Gujarati!
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
The finest came from Shaadi.com CEO Anupam Mittal, who objected to Akshay using only one Gujarati line in the entire pitch because he is Gujarati.
Ashneer Grover, Vinita Singh, Piyush Bansal, Namita Thapar, Anupam Mittal, and Aman Gupta are among the seven judges on the show.
