¡®New-age¡¯ Padman Ajinkya Of Padcare Thanks Shark Tank India For Filling ¡®Confidence In A Cause¡¯
¡®Ye 2023 Ka Padman Hai¡¯, quoted an impressed Peyush Bansal who later opened up the show¡¯s 1st open offer for a pitcher. The fortunate young mind to witness this for himself in a recent episode was Ajinkya Dhariya. Founder of health-tech brand Padcare, this Pune-based startup left all sharks impressed with its social idea.
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Indiatimes got in a conversation with Ajinkya where he shared how the show and the sharks helped him boost his confidence.
Ajinkya appeared on the show with his brand Padcare which, is a sanitary pad disposal machine. He also listed the several ways in which the disposed of napkins can be reused and recycled. Where his ask was for Rs 50 lakh in exchange for 2 per cent equity, Dhariya ended up raising Rs 1 crore for 4 per cent equity.
Sharing about how his social cause landed up on TV¡¯s ever-popular show, the Padcare founder shared, ¡°We applied on the show in May 2022 when someone told me about this show. I think our business¡¯s intent made it a smooth ride for us as the makers may have also thought that if a pitch like that of our brand reaches the audiences, it¡¯ll be inspirational.¡±
Popularity is a by-product of being on national television but what we were more intrigued about was revenue growth. Regarding what Dhariya revealed to us, ¡°Since the time episode was shot in September we have gone to 3x in last few months. Not to miss, it was duly with the immense support from all the sharks.¡±
Where Aman Gupta tipped him about the hardware industry, Vineeta and Namita supported the cause.
¡°As an aftermath of my pitch, Aman helped me with hardware and operational assistance. Anupam and Peyush who are the best in their business kept sending their tips my way. Vineeta and Namita were more interested in the work we did as the problem we were tackling was of personal relevance to them.¡±
When asked if the show offered validation to Ajinkya¡¯s efforts, he shared, ¡°More than that, Shark Tank gave us confidence around our work. We believe our brand has the potential to create a global phenomenon and in a nutshell, it involves education and the environment.¡±
¡°We have got a chance to serve a cause and hence we want all families to start having a conversation about menstrual management in the years to come.¡±
Emphasizing the immediate effect after the show aired, Kanchi Baldwa, Padcare¡¯s Marketing & Communication Lead shared a word with us.
She told us exclusively, ¡°The response has been immensely positive and exciting. Ever since the first promo was released a few days back, our website has gained almost 5x-6x the number of visitors. We received a lot of positive reactions from people not just in India but across the world. And it's mostly because people have been able to relate to a universal problem that we are aiming to serve.¡±
The Secretary General of the Supreme Court Of India Advocated For Our Brand¡¯s Cause - Padcare
Kanchi shared with us, ¡°We have a lot of call-to-action links on our website where people can advocate for our cause. One of the people who advocated for us on our website was the Secretary General Of the Supreme Court Of India. It¡¯s the biggest feat for us. We never anticipated that.¡±
Even after investment, brands continue to grill on the platter of challenges. Ajinkya addressed the same as well.
He said, ¡°We have been through a lot of challenges. Starting from technological challenges to operational limitations. All the responses that we received from Tier 2 and tier 3 cities sought a solution. Then we headed up to building micro-entrepreneurship for other people. Especially women who we can onboard and with their input can solve other problems minutely. We are on our journey to look for the right support so that we can scale our brand globally.¡±
When asked about the future plans of the business, Ajinkya told us, ¡°We want to accelerate the sheer economy of an inclusive space for women where they can be dignified and combine it with the circular economy. Padcare is a company and company-operated model which is very niche and is happening for the first time on a global level platform.¡±
"On the technical side, we are already working with an advanced technology which is recognised by the industry as well. On the operational level, we are trying to improve our customer experience, integrity, data transparency, packing and combining certain kinds of impact metrics. We are sort of exploring the digital and tech possibilities of the brand.¡±
Smashing the myth of ¡®Social Entrepreneurs can¡¯t scale monetarily¡¯, Ajinkya concluded his conversation by saying, ¡° The assumption of social entrepreneurship can¡¯t create a business model is not true. What one can do to balance it out is an entrepreneur can first create a business and put the profit back into the ecosystem to stay intact developing a direct and indirect social impact in terms of community building.¡±
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