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Tag: Shark Tank India

  • Why every episode of Shark Tank India is a must-watch…

    Why every episode of Shark Tank India is a must-watch…

    Sanjeev KotnalaShark Tank India is a programme I think every youngster with the thought of getting on the entrepreneur–startup landscape must watch. If not, it is their loss. It is different that the term reality show is not seen in a positive light by many, but a logic- and reason-driven ‘I am out’ works. Not a surprise when one hears a group member silently react to the next weekend’s programme by ‘I am out’.

     

    The Learning

    There is so much of learning in Shark Tank. It tells one what to watch out for, what the investors could be looking at, what is the right time and type of pitching, how the investors look at the founder’s history and passion to punt at the idea.

    It also explains various terminologies and demonstrates time and again why an entrepreneur must have a deep domain knowledge. It is superbly motivating and encourages the audience to try out and live their life. After Bigg Boss (Colors), Shark Tank India (Sony TV) is now one of my favourite reality shows and I am catching up on the episodes that I may have missed on YouTube.

    It is a good programme to learn from the approach of others, especially when it concerns success and failure. If one really immerses in the programme (which is recommended), it has the potential to help reflective self-meditation.

    It is an entertaining and educational experience. Many times, you get involved and like in a match pray for someone to get the investment. At some other time, you pat yourself in seeing the idea, its scalability or raising a question just like what the sharks do in the episode.

    It is a no cost training for the Indian entrepreneurs to learns about investing and pitching and be prepared in their real life to better negotiate the ground realities. If nothing else, it exposes them to the way how they should be evaluating their own business ideas and innovations. And that is a huge learning.

     

    The Sharks

    Shark Tank has brought the few famous dreamers and achievers from young India face to face with the other set of people wanting investments. People like Aman Gupta (Boat), Amit jain (Cardekho), Anupum Mittal (Shaadi.com), Ashneer Grover (ex-founder BharatPe), Azhar Iqubal, Deepinder Goyal (Zomato), Ghazal Alagh (Mamaearth), Namita Thapar (Emcure Pharmaceuticals), Peyush Bansal (Lenskart), Radhika Gupta (MD & CEO, Edelweiss Mutual Fund ), Ritesh Agarwal (OYO Rooms), Ronnie Screwvala (UpGrad), Varun Dua (Acko), Vineeta Singh (Sugar Cosmetics) have featured in the episodes since 2021 in the three seasons.

     

    Deals

    The first two seasons collectively had 87 episodes with some 244 deals worth approximately Rs 95 crore of investment across all the sharks. Season 3 (expected 35 episodes)  is streaming now and is expected to be of a bigger scale with higher value of deals.

     

    Concept

    The concept of the show is simple and straightforward. It entails the entrepreneurs and the founders making business pitches to a set of five sharks (investors- mostly self-made multi-millionaires) for investing in their business. They quote their ask and in terms of money against a pre-set percentage of equity.  The pitch presentation mostly is based around the people-their role-product or service- the turnover and financials. Basis that short interaction, the Sharks go on to probe further before deciding if they were willing to invest and at what valuation and how much. The discussion goes on to: possible duplication, other competition, status, EBITA, Profitability and future plans.  The negotiation is usually around the valuation and quantum of investment as well as how many sharks are individuality and or collectively participate in the investment- if any.

     

    Some Thoughts

    There have been cases when people have been on the show more for visibility and marketing then really needing an investment, but that is the smartness of the entrepreneur and the failure of the TV channel’s production team in scrutinising the candidates.

    There have been also cases when the promised investment has not been finally made because in the due diligence process, the sharks realised that the product or the service or the sales and the financial condition or parameters were not what they were shown- shared and presented on the show. It all happens, and any bad noise must be taken with a pinch of salt.

     

    My Learnings

    Through the shows I have seen, witnessed, and realised how wonderfully innovative people are.  It gives one more confidence on the path the country is taking, personally I have been introduced to few products that I have ended consuming like the Honey Twigs or while searching for a product presented on the show (Bacca Bucci), have been exposed to others like Mocobara and ended up purchasing them.

    Every episode has a learning embedded in it. It depends upon you how much you absorb from the show. Maybe reading the book Sponge and Catalyst could help.  I have my own understanding and thoughts from the show.

    • Investors are investing on to the founder and their dreams.
    • Investors at the end is looking for an exit bat a later date and a multiplier to their investment.
    • The founder – leader must deep dive on the category and know it as well as its supplementary and complimentary products and services.
    • Burnout is a term that is losing its importance and profitability and scalability is more important.
    • There is a stage before which one should not be looking at investors.
    • The investor should be synergic t the category and bring in more than just money.
    • The entrepreneur must negotiate the best deal.
    • The sharks are sharks because they are more concerned about their investment and hence the entrepreneur must be very clear about their ground realities.
    • The entrepreneur must have a valuation and investment below which they know they will walk out in-spite of which shark is making them the offer.
    • It may sound good- but must be clear that the multi shark investment may not always be a better deal.
    • At times one must stop being emotional and evaluate the future. Sometime, the best advice may not be further investment but closing the venture.

     

    Net-net

    You have an idea or not but want to be an entrepreneur at some stage of your life- or even if you don’t ever want to be starting your business- watch the show and enjoy free entertainment and learning.

  • Given the sameness to shows over the last five years, the new 'Daily unscripted content' format merits attention, writes Shailesh Kapoor

    Reality Check

     

     

    By Shailesh Kapoor

     

    Shailesh KapoorThe linear television business in India has been struggling to find its next big idea. The streaming originals marketplace in India is operating more cautiously too, with economic and industry considerations, both global and local, slowing it down. Amid this relatively low-action period, a new format is making its presence felt: Daily unscripted content.

     

    While Bigg Boss and Kaun Banega Crorepati have been around for years as dailies, non-fiction has largely been seen as a weekend content type. GECs rightly expect daily soaps to build loyal weekday audiences. In any case, most non-fiction shows in India are in the broad genre of talent competitions, and they tend to be upto five to 10 times more expensive that fiction shows, making them unviable as a staple proposition.

     

    But the advent of streaming may have changed things a bit. Sony LIV recently launched MasterChef India only for OTT. The show has been around on GECs for years, across two networks, but has never quite found the success it would have hoped to. No surprise, then, that Sony has given up on its ambitions for the show related to mass television.

     

    Shark Tank India is a more recent, and a more obvious, example of a streaming-friendly show failing to deliver on linear TV, despite the network backing it with up aggressive marketing. The third season will follow the MasterChef India template, with daily episode drops on Sony LIV.

     

    JioCinema (earlier Voot) has done two seasons of Bigg Boss OTT. MX Player did its own homegrown variant, produced by Balaji Telefilms, titled Lock Upp, in 2022. Tonight, the first-ever season of Temptation Island India, starts on JioCinema. All these shows are in the daily format.

     

    The weekday-weekend distinction related to fiction and non-fiction seems to have blurred in recent times. It could be a result of many factors: Less compelling fiction content on TV, change in audience habits in the OTT era (such as low appointment viewership), episodic content being more preferred to continuity-driven stories, etc.

     

    While the reasons are a subject of further analysis, daily non-fiction is finding its takers, both at the platform side and the audience side. The new season of Bigg Boss has opened very well from TV standards. The show has original content in the form of interstitials and spin-offs on OTT, which are carefully designed for better monetisation. In what’s increasingly an AVOD-SVOD hybrid environment for original content (compared to 2020-22), monetisation via advertisers has made non-fiction a more relevant option on streaming.

     

    The Indian non-fiction market needed this boost in its thinking. There has been a sense of sameness to the shows over the last five years, with the same formats being rehashed. But formats that were safe bets till before the pandemic have struggled to deliver numbers in recent times, and viewer fatigue is evidently one of the primary reasons.

     

    Daily non-fiction may help GECs and OTT platforms, especially those with a strong AVOD service, find a new business model. It may be just the right time too, given that the web-series (fiction) content on SVOD is beginning to look just a tad jaded. The audience will surely not be complaining if they get a legitimately-different option on the menu.

     

  • To expand and diverse after successful run on first season of Shark Tank India

    Hammer electronic devices rolls out new campaign

    By Our Staff

     

    Hammer smart home electronic devices rolls out a new campaign. Since its participation in the inaugural season of Shark Tank India, the company aims to expand across all major categories to cater to growing needs of customers.

     

    Commenting on the successful escalation of the company, Rohit Nandwani said: “We are deeply gratified by the overwhelmingly positive response and unwavering support demonstrated by our valued customers. We take pride in stating that despite our humble origins, we have accomplished substantial surges in popularity. We are thrilled to announce we are making big moves to direct our efforts toward our segment’s creme de la creme. With a series of exciting product launches lined up throughout the year, we are committed to meeting this objective. Our customers have been highly appreciative of our products, and their support has been a source of inspiration for us. We aim to build upon this trust and appreciation by consistently delivering innovative and quality products in the coming years.”

     

  • The teenpreneur duo that took home INR 1 crore in Shark Tank India Season 2 partnered with Django Digital for their media and content creation mandate

    Django Digital bags Zillionaire mandate

    By Our Staff

     

    Django Digital has added Zillionaire, a high-end fashion jewellery brand, to its clientele. The agency will now manage the brand’s performance marketing and content creation mandate.

     

    The jewellery brand, supported by entrepreneur Anupam Mittal, targets millennials and Gen-Z customers along with having a strong client base consisting of renowned rappers like Divine, MC Stan and celebrities like Ranveer Singh and Karan Johar.

     

    On collaborating with the agency, Aditya Fatehpuria, Co-founder at Zillionaire, said: “We’re elated to associate with Django Digital for leading our media mandate, especially because of the synergy that we build together as one team trying to provide high-end fashion jewellery to its target consumers. An amalgamation of product expertise from us combined with the marketing expertise from the agency is surely going to bring something fruitful to the table.”

     

    Vivek Shah
    Vivek Shah

    Added Vivek Shah, Partner and Performance Marketing Lead said, “It has been a delight partnering with the inspiring young duo who’ve created a high-end profitable fashion jewellery business applauded by the viewers pan-India on national television. We’ve thoughtfully devised a media plan helping the brand escalate from here onwards and are super stoked to join hands with them in this exciting journey.”

     

  • Reality show gears up for first season

    Sony brings Shark Tank to India

    By Our Staff

     

    Sony Pictures Networks India has acquired the rights for the Indian adaptation of the globally successful business reality format – Shark Tank, which will be aired on Sony Entertainment Television.

     

    Said Danish Khan, Business Head – Sony Entertainment Television, Digital Business & StudioNEXT: “We are delighted to bring the globally renowned business reality show Shark Tank to India, and this is the perfect time to launch Shark Tank India. Last few years have seen the emergence of an exciting entrepreneurial ecosystem in India. Innovative business ideas, risk taking appetite and a funding infrastructure is getting built – Shark Tank India will further accentuate, encourage and strengthen this outlook by providing a platform for entrepreneurs or aspirants to showcase their ideas directly to the potential investors (Sharks) and make it big.