Due to gaining enormous popularity for showcasing entrepreneurs, Shark Tank India has been credited several times for fueling India’s startup ecosystem. Amidst all this, it’s easy to forget that Shark Tank India is, at its core, a reality show. The public seems to enjoy what they see on television so much because it is tailored to suit their needs. The reality of what transpires behind the scenes, on the other hand, may be very different from what we’d like to assume.
A fitting example for this can be Akshay Shah, a businessman who appeared on the show and pitched his idea to the Sharks. His experience, however, was not what you might expect. Following his poor experience on the show, he turned to Twitter to share a few previously unknown insights to the public.
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.
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWebTechno (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Shah said in a tweet that “Since we were not allowed enough time to answer the Sharks in the tank, as an entrepreneur and a master of my own destiny, I am taking it to Twitter to answer each of the Sharks, 2nd to help other contestants learn from my experience.”
Shah also discusses how the channel recommends candidates for the judges to put their money in. Shah also slams the judges for not grasping the pitch and responding with vapid responses. This is what Ashneer Grover allegedly stated regarding Shah’s proposal.
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.
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWebTechno (@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, iWebTechno (@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
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWebTechno (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
Shah further highlights the judges’ lack of technological expertise, noting that Namita Thappar refused to invest in their company because she claimed she didn’t understand their technology.
Peyush Bansal, according to Shah, could not trust the product could be successful since his own student discovery platform had failed and he had been unable to monetize, manage, or profit from it.
Shah also called out Anupam Mittal, who didn’t seem pleased with Shah speaking in Gujarati, his native tongue, despite the fact that the Shark Tank creative team had advised him to do so several times during rehearsals, even suggesting that they use a few more Gujarati words just to “keep the pitch light.”
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!
— Akshay Shah – Founder CEO, iWebTechno (@AkshayiWeb) February 5, 2022
While Shark Tank India and the judges haven’t responded to the claims, the twitter thread has since gone viral, garnering a lot of backlash against the show.
