Shark Tank India 2: Stage co-founder Vinay Singhal says he least expected Namita Thapar to invest in his company

The entrepreneur further said that they received some constructive feedback from the ‘sharks’. He also said that they gave them the respect they deserved. “They could understand what it takes to build a company, and then lose it, and build something all over again. Peyush Bansal also told us that it would be great if we could crack the virality of our previous venture. I think all the sharks were very friendly and impressive.”

Not naming one shark as their most preferred, Vinay Kumar Singhal said that all of them were amazing. However, he did add that they were least expecting Namita Thapar to invest in them. “Everyone has their own specialty and we would have been happy with whoever we got. Namita usually doesn’t invest in companies she has no expertise in. However, she was the first one to back us, which was unexpected.” He added that the other two investors Peyush Bansal and Aman Gupta are successful B2C founders of a ‘Bharat brand’, and are both techies.

The co-founders of Stage is said have raised the biggest funding of this season so far. Vinay shared that he felt that he’ll never get a deal and would also be made fun of. He added that Shark Tank India has evolved a lot and now big companies too can be on the show. “It definitely changed my perception. I think if your story has dum, you can cross the hurdle as the sharks are looking for relevance in their investments.”

Stage co-founders on Shark Tank India 2.

More about their company Stage:

Speaking about losing their company WittyFeed overnight, Vinay Kumar Singhal said they had raised the company like a baby, with a lot of blood and sweat. “It was huge and received a lot of success, and it may have even gotten into our heads. It was a huge heartbreak when we lost it all overnight. We also dealt with an identity crisis. WittyFeed was our pehchaan, people knew us as its founder. We lost it all, leaving us to wonder hum hai kaun? It was a tough period but what kept us going was our dreams to do something big. That brought us this far,” Vinay shared.

The businessman added that they realised that there was no content based on dialects, even when India as a country celebrates multiple dialects. “Language is an urban factor, bharat is all about dialects,” he said, adding that their presence on Shark Tank India 2 has given them the marketing, no money could afford. “We are a consumer brand and we couldn’t get a better medium than Sony to promote our brand. Also, Shark Tank India clips go viral instantly, and the way our episode was also edited, has shown us in an inspirational light. The virality is top of the funnel and I don’t think anyone could achieve this in such a short time.”

If you google Stage, some results call it the ‘Netflix for Indian dialects’. When asked to react to the same, Vinay Kumar Singhal smiled to share that they live the tag in the true sense. Just like the international streaming giant, they too want to give their users premium experience and maintain a standard.

However, he stressed upon the fact that the company, which recently raised Rs 40 crore funding, is not competing with any streaming platform in the market. “We don’t do what they do. Most make content in languages, we go deeper with dialects. So instead of going the mass way, we picked the niche. It’s a blue ocean market as we wanted to build a new market. Hence there is no competition.”

Elaborating further on how they function, Vinay said that given they work with dialects, they had to get the nuances right. They have an advisory board for each dialect that goes through the content and evaluates them further. “As and when we like a concept, we discuss it with the team to develop it further. We also sanction a certain budget for them to produce the content,” the entrepreneur concluded.

Shark Tank India 2 airs on Sony TV and SonyLIV.