Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Premium
Anupam Mittal disses ‘misguided’ Shark Tank India pitcher selling a ‘dumb device’, asks, ‘Did you really study at IIT?’
Shark Tank India saw a pitcher who presented his solution to smartphone addiction but the sharks started questioning his educational background.
Anupam Mittal on Shark Tank India. (Photo: SonyLIV)
The latest episode of Shark Tank India Season 5 saw a pitcher who studied his engineering from IIT Kharagpur and came in to present his digital wellbeing brand, Trring. The pitcher presented a traditional looking rotary phone that can be connected to one’s phone via bluetooth and can be used for making calls. Dhiraj Chaudhari said that this was his solution for digital addiction and he had made a “purposely dumb device” for the same.
Anupam Mittal, Kunal Bahl, Aman Gupta, Mohit Yadav and Namita Thapar heard his pitch as he came in to seek Rs 50 lakh in exchange for 7.5 percent of his company, valuing it at Rs 6.67 crore. As Aman heard the pitch, he said that if one does not have any self control, they can’t get rid of their smartphone addiction. He also mentioned that since there is no feature on his phone where one can know who is calling them, it puts them at a significant disadvantage as the customer will end up looking at their phone for that purpose.
Dhiraj said that he plans on introducing this feature in the future. When asked about his sales, he revealed that he has sold 160 devices in 3 months, and is selling each device at Rs 3,666. Upon hearing this, Aman declared that this was “not a solution to the existing problem” and called this “gimmicky product” as he got out of the negotiations.
Namita also criticised the idea of the business and said that there was “no real demand” for this product. “If you had done a simple primary research before launching this… Just asked 100 consumers if they see any utility in this, you wouldn’t have launched it because you would have realised that this is just your passion but there is no real demand for this,” she said and got out of the negotiations.
Kunal was quite shocked by the product and asked, “You have such a stellar background, you are young and this is what you are building?” He asked Dhiraj to look in the direction of AI which is already making a lot of devices screen-less and said, “Make a screenless, audio-led AI device from India.” He also got out after he said, “I wish you get your act together.”
View this post on Instagram
Anupam Mittal felt he was “misguided” and confirmed if he had actually studied at IIT Kharagpur. When Dhiraj said yes, and revealed that he got into IIM Calcutta but chose not to attend, Anupam started questioning his choices. “I seriously doubt your thinking and the choices you have made. You are making very bad calls so I think you need to find a mentor to help you navigate your journey. You need to reset. This is uninvestable,” he said.
As Dhiraj got out of the tank, he remained certain that he had a good business idea as he felt that the sharks were “harsh” and said he will continue to focus on his business.
Advertisement
Loading Recommendations...
- 01
- 02
- 03
- 04
- 05
Live Blog
