Shark Tank India pitcher was rejected 4 times; delivered viral pitch while flirting with Namita Thapar, walked away with Rs 2 cr

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He started describing the process one has to go through before being able to pitch their business. He said, “The first phase involves filling the basic form, where you fill in your name, your parent’s name and occupation. You also get 150 words to write to describe your business. There is nothing there about the product, and they just want to check that you aren’t a robot. Then comes the most important form, where you have to describe your business and your product. You even have to make a video which gives the 360-degree view of your brand.”

Describing the deliverables that producers of the show look for, Yash said, “After all, it is a content platform, so your story has to be interesting enough to go out there. For us, the Gen Z story worked, and they picked it up. When you get through all this, there is an in-person interview. They want to check how you look, talk, and handle yourself. Then comes the main round, the main presentation in Mumbai. You get 3 days to prepare, and they will even groom you for the 90-second pitch and how to present yourself in front of the sharks.”

Talking about the pitch itself, Yash said, “You have 90 seconds to set the tone of your entire pitch. We presented all the problem statements through a fun game, and to make sure that it stuck, I said to them (sharks), ‘Agar deal nahi mili toh mai yahi baith jaoonga (If I don’t get a deal, I’ll sit right here).’ It worked wonders for us because we went viral on social media.”

He added, “You have to add small elements that elevate your pitch. One was flirting with Namita Thapar; the other was wearing the jacket with ‘Hot People Eat Breakfast’ written on it. ‘ This whole idea went very viral for us, and it generated 40 million-plus impressions as a brand, organically. You have to make sure that your content can be cut into clips, because those clips are going to get you traffic on Instagram.”

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Yash pointed out that the pitch itself can get overwhelming at times, and it’s important that the pitcher doesn’t lose sight of their target. “The narrative has to be controlled by the pitcher. All 5 of those sharks are fighting to ask you questions, and you can’t give away the control during that time. You have to focus on your brand and put all the information out there. No matter what they ask, you make sure that you are in control. The reason why I am wearing the same clothes today is because someone might take a picture and put it on social media. You need to push all those clips through marketing, and you need to use that Shark Tank episode to ensure your visibility,” said Yash.

He revealed that everyone needs to have a few tricks up their sleeve in order to ensure that the brand seems relevant. Yash admitted that he propped up his company’s valuation and went with the number his mother came up with. He said that he “knew that this number was going to get trickled down. My mom decided to go with the Rs 36 crore valuation, so I decided to go with it. They all laughed when they heard this and nobody questioned it.”

He talked about the final moments of the pitch and how he made a slight mistake while all those offers were being thrown at him. He said, “We got a total of 10 offers from 5 sharks, and I got a bit overwhelmed. I tried to get all of them in one deal, but they didn’t go for it. While I was thinking about this, Riteish sir opted out. After this, Aman and Anupam seemed like the right choice because they are good with branding. The mistake I made was that I asked all the judges to shut up so that Amit Sir could talk.”

At the end, Yash walked away with Rs 2 crore, which gave Anupam Mittal and Aman Gupta 4% equity each. This trickled his company’s valuation from Rs 36 crore to Rs 25 crore.