Aman Gupta snaps at Kunal Bahl on Shark Tank India, says ‘don’t make decisions on my behalf’: ‘I’m fine alone’

Exclusive | Shark Tank India pitcher sold wife’s jewellery, took loan for kids’ brand; Aman Gupta told him to shut it down, he says he won’t

Aman was quick to compliment the idea behind the company and their store in New Delhi. Anupam Mittal jumped into the conversation and asked about the company’s origins. Arjun replied, “I worked at JP Morgan in Australia, and I had worked on two different startups of my own. I came back to India in 2022, and I realised that India has a lot of stories and design languages to create very elevated and aspirational brands. We didn’t start with a business pitch; all of this purely came from a feeling.”

Animesh added that they started the brand with just an Instagram page and two craftsmen and have now grown that number to 100 craftsmen. Kunal also pointed out that the idea Arjun and Animesh had pitched to him during the initial stages had been executed very well. After discussing the numbers, the sharks focused on the demand that the founders had made, Rs 1 crore for 0.5%, valuing the business at Rs 200 crore.

At first most of the sharks remained at Rs 1 crore for 1%, but Kunal suggested that the founders could benefit if all the sharks pooled together. Before he could even complete his proposal, Aman intervened and said, “No no, wait a second. Please don’t make take decisions on my behalf. Mai nahi aa raha aap logon ke saath. Mai individual theek hoon (I am not coming with you guys. I am fine alone.)”

After a lot of back and forth, Aman offered the founders Rs 1 crore for 0.57% equity, changing the valuation to Rs 175 crore. Aman celebrated while wearing the shoes given by the founders, as the rest of the sharks congratulated them for closing a deal.