For many millennials today, the university graduate to the CEO of a start-up path is a terrifying thought yet, a dream. And kick-starting your own brand can be daunting when the market is full of BYOB (Build Your Own Business) entrepreneurs.
Fortunately, Shark Tank India is back with Season 2 to fuel your entrepreneurial ventures just as we enter 2023. This breakthrough reality show, allows aspiring entrepreneurs to present their growing businesses before a panel of judges or ‘sharks’ who evaluate the pitches and decide investments. Taking a leap from the success of the previous season, the show has now become doubly competitive, the pitches are twice as avant-garde. The Sharks have grown incredibly vigilant.
But the contestants, their vision, and entrepreneurial journeys are at the heart of the show. This season, they have become more conscious of their propositions and are armed with a storyboard of their business journey. They have gauged the kind of questions that they must answer as well as the pulse of the sharks. Eventually they are able to go beyond the business standpoint to convince the sharks that their idea is worth investing in.
47-year-old Geeta Patil’s story is one that homemakers across India wish to emulate. The Mumbaikar started Patil Kaki, her snack business, in 2017 with just Rs 5,000 - money borrowed from her family. She left the judges awestruck when she revealed that she records nearly Rs 3 crore in sales today. Shark Aman Gupta was so taken with her business idea that he pitched an investment offer of Rs 40 lakh for equity ownership of 5 percent in her business. This offer values her business at Rs 8 crore. While Anupam Mittal Rs 40 lakh for 4 percent of Patil Kaki's business.
On the other hand, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Founder of Flatheads, a footwear brand from Bangalore is an inspiration for everyone fearing defeat and losses. Balakrishnan revealed it all - from incurring losses to shutting down his dream business. Flatheads make everyday casual footwear made of banana fiber, linen, and bamboo fiber for the urban lifestyle. His pitch excited both Vineeta and Aman Gupta who is a sneaker lover and studying the industry for a very long time.
Hosted by stand-up comedian Rahul Dua, the series stays away from the boredom of calculations, formulas, and scoresheets. The math becomes fun and easy to follow. The mundane numbers, metrics, and statistics dissolve into visually appealing and quirky infographics as the cameras zoom into the product or service. And it gets most interesting when the sharks jump into heated discussions over the feasibility of a successful enterprise. The banter is easy to follow. The grilling sessions focus on the merit of the entrepreneur’s passion project.
Contestants with entrepreneurial dreams like Patil and Balakrishnan come from all over the country and are ordinary people like us. Their journeys, motivations, and aspirations give us hope. Their victories make us feel that if they can do it, so can we! So, what happens to Geeta Patil’s pitch? Who are the sharks snacking on her business and what kind of investment has she bagged? And will Ganesh save his business or give it all away?
To follow other such interesting start-up journeys, watch Shark Tank India 2.0, streaming exclusively on Sony LIV.
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