Shark Tank India Pitchers Reveal What Happens Behind The Scene And How Much Of The Show Is Real
shark tank india controversies: Entrepreneurs who appeared on Shark Tank India revealed the reality of the show, what happens behind the scenes and why judges are so arrogant, especially Ashneer Grover. Akshay Shah and Angad Talwar spill the beans.
Nobody expected that Shark Tank India will become one of the most popular shows and would trend on social media every day. While the first season of the show has come to an end, the controversies that it gave rise to have apparently refused to die down.
Also Read: Shark Tank India's Ashneer Grover Reportedly Demands Rs 4,000 Crore To Quit BharatPe Amid Probe
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Now a pitcher who appeared on Shark Tank India - Akshay Shah, the fouder/CEO of a company called iWeb - has shared why he feels he was treated unfairly behind the scenes. He also said that the episode he appeared in has also not been aired. While he was rejected by all this time, he promises that he will return to the show not as an entrepreneur but as a Shark himself.
Another entrepreneur who raised Rs 50 lakhs from the show, Angad Talwar has also revealed if Ashneer Grover was repulsive and shared some behind-the-scenes secrets of Shark Tank India.
How much of Shark Tank India is real?
So we had featured in #sharktankindia too but our episode has not been telecast due to reasons best known to the Channel & Sharks however I am putting down a thread for the benefit of all my entrepreneurial brethren and the public in general on Shark Tank India.
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
He said that the three-minute pitch is designed by the Channel creatives and entrepreneurs have to stick to it even if the USP of their product is getting lost in it.
The show comprises of a 3 minute pitch followed by a Q&A with the sharks. Your pitch is designed by the Channel creatives and mostly you need to stick to it and speak Hindi, at times your USP can get diluted but that's how the scheme of things is.
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
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
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Multiple rehearsals are done for the same. Akshay Shah said that some people get more time, attention and practice. He was given just 10 minutes.
taken up last on both the days and for not more than 10 mins with no focus given to us so we thought we are really good so the channel is not worried on us and our pitch which was totally wrong in hindsight.
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
He said that his wife and 11-year-old daughter were called for TRPs.
My wife who is also our director sales and my 11 year old daughter were also called for the side kick and TRPs :)
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
All said and done am still obliged & thankful to the channel's creative leads and team (frontend backend and accounts too) to show a large heart and let us pitch as
entrepreneurs benefitted but where we feel the problem was, is the Sharks!
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Technically, we have as much business exposure as the Sharks sitting on the other side and since our Business Model is second to none and a bit against one of the Shark's Business Model is where the games
He even said that he was not given enough time to answer the sharks and hence he took to Twitter to share what he has to say to them.
We Digitize Universities & Colleges on a unique FREEMIUM Model and monetize on a B2B2C SaaS Enabled Marketplace play. We have 700k students and we monetize when the Students transact / pay fees via the MDR which is directly against #ashneergrover business of Zero MDR.
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
He also lashed out at Ashneer Grover for saying that "Data to Kilo ke Bhaav main Chandni Chowk pe bikta hai!!".
Our data is qualified student data on which we run intelligent AI for our marketplace partners. If you applied a little bit of mind and shown a little more patience you could have got that. Anyways, his whimsical reason to pass on us was that we do not have a Mobile app,
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
and not the student he did not buy that argument maybe due to his poor tech sense. Be it whatever, we found his reason really amusing!!!
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
He also called Aman Gupta "arrogant" and raised several questions at him.
our Less code tech name 'Agilewiz' all was a big big problem. So my reply to Aman is, Sirjee! yeh koi USB headset nai, that aasani se samaj aa jayega, thoda vakt lagega this is hightech :)
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
If someday tables turn, I will ask him the same question in the same arrogant tone and with the same expression he did that to us. I mean, we are in SharkTank, selected from over thousands of applicants so the channel and their team would have done some due diligence, right?
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
While he praised Namita Thapar for supporting him, he also questioned why she was a part of tech pitches if she didn't understand tech business at all.
#namitathapar was kind to us and debated with Ashneer to respect the grit which we have put in our business through thick and think but for Ashneer a pivot means a loss making product cover up, for him to pivot is to sin.
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
My only request to Namita was since she liked us but opted out from the fund raise due to her non understanding our tech business, she could have either opted out of all tech pitches totally since she said that to many other tech pitches OR she should have tried to understand our
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
He also said that Peeyush Bansal rejected their start-up since his own education discovery platform that he had started before LensKart had failed to scale up. He explained his start-up was very different from his.
Next came in was LensKart #PeeyushBansal who had startedup an Education discovery platform before he started LensKart and since he could not monetize nor run it nor earn via its marketplace his fixation was that this can't scale up!
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
that we are same like his student discovery platform which tanked so that was another pass!
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
He said Anupam Mittal had a problem with his one line in Gujarati that apparently the channel had asked him to speak.
we had rehearsed this time and again with the channel creative and they had even advised me to use a few more gujju words just to keep the pitch light but alas it seems the Sharks were not as well trained as we were and hence twice I was asked by Mr Mittal
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
followed by which he said tech and scale is not my worry but my issue is that you doing a B2B2C which is second to none and since you are neither a B2B nor a B2C you maybe innovated this model seeing and reading a lot of newspapers but I do not find it focussed.
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
so I am out as I feel you can only succeed if you focus either on B2B or B2C. Fair sir, this is your take, we still feel we are damn focussed so only India's 6 large premier Banks have signed up with us in-spite of us being offered as a solution by their competitor banks too
¡ª Akshay Shah - Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Also Read: People Mock Rannvijay Singha For Selling MBA Course To A PhD Holder On Shark Tank India
Another entrepreneur Angad Talwar who raised 50 lakhs on the show, was asked on Reddit AMA if Ashneer Grover was repulsive, he said, "No! I love him! He¡¯s direct, has a positive intention and does not sugar coat his words or wiggle out of situations that demand strong words. Unhone humare naam ko bhi sasta Chinese brand bola tha so I can say he¡¯s bad and bakwaas (He criticed our brand as well) and all that but no, he¡¯s not. He is a gem and speaks his mind. Jo hai woh bolte hain (He says what he feels)."
He also shared that the cheques presented to successful pitchers are fake.
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"No, they do not compel to sign anything, just a basic NDA. Documentation and stuff happens after the pitch so we can negotiate (and so can the sharks). Basically during the shoot, it¡¯s a handshake agreement, anyone can back out at any time. People usually don¡¯t since its symbiotic, the sharks believe in the companies and the founders need the sharks and(or) their money."
Shark Tank India panel comprising Anupam Mittal, Ashneer Grover, Peeyush Bansal, Namita Thapar, Vineeta Singh, Ghazal Alagh and Aman Gupta will reunite for a special episode this weekend.
(For more news and updates from the world of celebrities from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment, and let us know your thoughts on this story in the comments below.)
Garima Satija leads the Entertainment vertical of Indiatimes. A storyteller at heart who enjoys the thrill of writing, she is sometimes found daydreaming about living the lives of movie characters. Also, she hates talking about herself in the third person.
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