Shark Tank India 4 pitcher Rubeina Karachiwalla says she was certain Vineeta Singh won’t invest in her brand, Kunal Bahl ‘was the one’: ‘There was conflict of interest’

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While Rubeina has seen exponential growth in her brand ever since her stint on Shark Tank India, she revealed that Kunal’s team has also been very swift with the due diligence. “I have already met Kunal’s team, Due diligence is almost over; we had our first meeting with Kunal and his team, where so much was discussed. The conversation revolved around brand positioning and how to scale.  There was an exchange of ideas and notes; his contribution has been massive, and now we have been thinking so differently. Kunal is brilliant. We still haven’t gotten into the details of the products, and he doesn’t seem the kind of a person who would.”

Having Vineeta Singh, the founder of Sugar cosmetics on the same panel, Rubeina was certain that she wouldn’t bag a deal from her. When asked who her other choice was if things hadn’t worked out with Kunal, she shared, “More than Vineeta, I was very keen to bag a deal with Namita. She would have been such a great advocate for clean beauty in India, considering her background. So, I was disappointed. As for Vineeta, I thought she wouldn’t be able to invest due to a conflict of interest, I assumed that it was something she couldn’t do as another makeup founder.”

Rubeina also revisited her journey and selection process on the show. She recalled how the audtion process was quite ‘nerve wracking’ and said, “My journey started post application, which was sometime in July, and then the auditions happened in August and the shoot was in November. The process went on for 4-5 months, I started deeply researching all the things right from day one. I was very nervous during the auditions. I am not very comfortable with Hindi because at home we speak Gujarati, so I was constantly checking if I was saying the right things during the auditions. I was more tense for this than the final pitch. We are expected to give a dummy pitch, and they throw questions at you exactly like they anticipate the Sharks would. Everybody sitting there is a professional with a business background.”

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When asked to what extent a male investor would understand the make-up ecosystem, Rubeina shared her struggles with the same and said, “Men might not understand the emotional aspect of makeup; it’s a struggle I have had for many years. Half the time when we are pitching, it’s a group of men sitting on the other side, so it’s very hard for them to understand the emotional connection a woman has with any beauty product. But someone like Kunal is not just looking at the product but the founder and the potential to grow. We are not another Sugar cosmetics or other brands I wouldn’t want to name. We are highly differentiated with various USPs, and Kunal could see that.”

While Kunal Bahl has also invested in another brand, Fae Beauty, in the same season, Rubeina is prepared for comparisons to happen at some point, but she is also confident that they are very different from each other and would be able to survive under the same mentorship.