Shark Tank India, despite its immense popularity for championing entrepreneurs, is a reality show at the end of the day. We might love what we see on TV because it’s designed specifically for us. What happens behind the scenes, however, could be a whole different story.
Case in point, Akshay Shah, an entrepreneur who went on the show and pitched his product to the Sharks. But his experience was not what you would assume.
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
Shah also talks about how the channel actually recommends candidates for the judges to invest money on.
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.
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Shah also tears into the judges not understanding the pitch and coming up with asinine replies. This is what Shah claimed Ashneer Grover said about his pitch.
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
when I explained him in Hindi as English was not permitted on the show that my application is responsive and a web app so I need not have individual mobile app as my primary customer is the University stakeholder
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
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
Shah also points out the judges’ lack of technological prowess.
space. Why do we waste one Shark’s seat due to some tech incapability, right?
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Another one of the judges, Aman Gupta apparently wasn’t too happy with the name of Shah’s company and logo and pretty much stuck to that particular line of argument.
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 🙂
— 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?
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Shah also claims that Peyush Bansal simply could not believe that the product could scale up since his own student discovery platform had tanked badly.
although i retorted back to him that sir, we are not a college discovery platform, we have over 250 modules and we digitize processes of a university end to end and its workflow, we are an enterprise app on a B2B2C revenue model but sir had made up his mind
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
And then there was Anupam Mittal, who didn’t seem too pleased at Shah speaking in Gujarati, his native tongue.
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
— 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.
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWeb (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
The thread has since gone viral.
Worth reading your thread. I just started watching old episode this weekend. Who the f**k are these 4-5 guys to decide your business model will perform better or not. Most of the time i felt this #SharkTankIndia is a joke like one pre-recorded film script 😂 https://t.co/d5LoZTryCr
— Usmangani Patel (@usmanganipatel) February 6, 2022
I've said it before. The right name for the show is Shark Tank Hindi, not Shark Tank India. @sharktankindia https://t.co/DDIriTMx1J
— Prapthi (@prapthi_m) February 6, 2022
This Is very brave yet a humble request. After binge watching shark tank over the weekend I also feel the same. Way to go @AkshayiWeb . #SharkTankIndia https://t.co/cgzCR2bfiJ
— Yogesh (@yogik197) February 6, 2022
Please go through this thread to understand the realities of the particular show and how the supposed business minds interact with fellow entrepreneurs. An eye opener.@HeyNikhila https://t.co/gymkDb3lHJ
— Amit Kar (@AmitKar1990) February 6, 2022
Very important thread on a show that made me sick to my stomach with the amount of arrogance and attitude on display. It’s amazing how we don’t seem to demand humility and compassion from successful entrepreneurs. Culture is more important than most things in organisations https://t.co/5EyrvL61cz
— Vishwanath (@vishwanath1211) February 6, 2022
What I love about Sharktank India is the array of cool businesses that the people of our country have learnt of. But I’m actually not surprised about what happens in the backend, reading this thread. I felt some of the sharks were either way too arrogant, or lacked knowledge. https://t.co/sq0WpfrRRm
— Vid (@notsmartiyerboy) February 6, 2022
The show or the channel or the judges haven’t responded to these allegations yet.