Hi, this is Bhavana and you are watching India Today. Well, today I have someone, actually three of the people who are very, very special because if they like your idea, well you are lucky because they might actually invest in your ideas. If I'm not wrong, it's Shark Tank. Here, I have the Sharks from this season five. Firstly, a huge welcome to India Today, Ritesh, Kanika and Viraj.
But I'll start with Baby Shark first, as she calls herself, because this is your first time. But tell me, when I heard of the kind of things that you have done, for me it came as a surprise because if you know one woman entrepreneur trying something in itself is huge. Secondly, you tried something which is anyway considered a very niche market, which is the luxury market. I am sure many people would have come to you and said, Kanika, you have a right mind, what are you doing? What are you even trying to do? And to now from there to actually being a shark where you are the one guiding and approving and sort of being in a position of saying, hey, I like this idea, what was that journey like?
I think life comes a full circle, right? Earlier people used to laugh, but this has taught me that you should love everyone else. I think that was the whole idea of doing something sharp, that you know, make sure nobody goes through what we went through while starting out.
I think Ritesh, we all of us, we started out at a time when entrepreneurship was not cool. At least I started in my company. Papa used to say, yaar business chala lo, Marwari ghar se ho, what are you doing? Are you making an app? Are you making a game? People like me really shy away. I don't know what they are doing. Now being an entrepreneur is really cool. Doing a startup is very cool. That time it was not cool. That time they used to say, yaar time is wasting, time is passing. So I think for me, when I got this opportunity, when the opportunity reached out to me, I think this is my chance to give back. I don't want anyone to go through what I have been through. I don't want anyone to say, yaar I am not from IIT IIM. No offense, my friend. I was also not the one who was going to speak. I am an IT wala, the whole IIT wali, but I am just being crowded by the smart Feroz. But then I said, I remember talking to the producer of this show. I said, yaar the only reason I want to do it is when I try to raise money, na, log ne bola yaar you should have done IIT IIM and McKinsey, Ben kahin pe kaam kar leti. I don't have allow to say these names, but they are all great places to work obviously. But you know, I didn't have any of those check marks. Which you need. And I was a girl and I was young. And I was working in an industry which was a very, very male dominated industry. I was used to being the only skirt CEO of suits. Of course things have changed now a lot. So I think for me this was about, friend, what happened to me should not happen to anyone. Let's give people a chance. No one should know we laughed. And I think that's the country you're looking at right now, right? We're being an entrepreneur school, so if we can enable and empower them by...
Absolutely. And you forgot to add also coming from our Marwari family because I am a Marwari. I know it is very difficult. Get married, get married, get married. Yes, I mean it never ends. But I mean, kids, do it. So I'm 37 and having a baby now. The baby is having a baby. So a good role. You're really setting the past life. Congratulations.
And also the new father himself, Ritesh. I want to know from you, this is my third time on this panel and just guiding people and sharing your story and also a lot of rejections you must have seen on people's faces, right? What is the biggest learning that you have taken from the last two seasons which you kind of incorporated this season? Because I feel like with every season you are getting to learn something as a mentor.
No, look, I always say that Shark Tank is a great teacher for everybody nationally because I consider Shark Tank the national classroom of business. That's a good one. Every person in our country, I met someone at the airport these days. He said that this is how much I have experienced. It's incredible. Nowadays people are talking like this in the airport. And our CFO says I only understand net profit. Now he speaks my language. Now we must bring the world from beta to net profit. So I think there is a rapid change that happened. And in the same way we learn a lot from sharks. One of the biggest learnings for me over the last two seasons has been that the quality of entrepreneurs that are coming in every year continues to rise, and the breadth of entrepreneurs. So for that reason it was my job also, if you have limited time, you can only spend your time with those many founders. So I added a couple of things. So I said this year I have a new Ritesh's investment. What is it? There are two things in it, beyond everything else, which is hard working entrepreneur, long term viewers. First is whether the entrepreneur sees 10 years of compounding as a goal and do they see one, two or three years of trading as an ambition. And second is are their hands dirty, have they faced the pain of rejections in life? Because what I have seen in the last two seasons with our founders, the founders who have done these two things, their companies have done extremely well. An example is that last year we had a company called Joy Sp, which no other Shark invested in, or Madmix, both of which were companies that no other Shark offered to, and I offered to them. Both companies have cracked it completely. Meaning they are doing extremely well. They have to build a business for 10 years. And they are very, very resourceful. So I'm finding more like them.
Oh wow! That's actually a great way to look at it and we can see the flip result of it as well. What are your learnings after the last season?
The biggest learning for me is that you know what Ritesh told me to see the quality of entrepreneurs. To tell you the truth, I am 44 years old. Many times children of 24-25 years are coming. And I see that friend where was I on 24 and where is he on 24. Shark Tank I think is a platform that has made beta, you know, revenue run rate, these things normal now. But what it means best to me is that the founders are coming from Darbhanga. I think founders are coming from small towns. And when we fulfill our dream of developed India in 2047, I think somewhere it will be written in Shark Tank, it made entrepreneurship mainstream and entrepreneurship is needed to make India a developed nation. I think in India, what we call Jugaad is entrepreneurship. And that marriage of jugaad and entrepreneurship that is happening, that is the beauty of this country. That talent will be such an unleashed and it blows my mind when I come to the tank. What talent is it and what age is it. It is amazing to see and very gratifying to see.
Speaking of edge, the youngest on the panel is you Ritesh, but tell me again something that you mentioned is how I am growing such a beard so that... I am doing everything I can to get all that, but you are giving so many complaints. You're used to being the youngest in every banner, get more right? Like slowly you see more and more younger people taking those risks because it is a risk at the end of the day.
I will say something. I have had the pleasure of seeing him from his one hotel. First hotel was around New Friends Colony, right. That was second. Second hotel. So I've been a quiet spectator seeing his journey. What a journey we shared with an investor, which was Deepak Siddharth back in the day. So I think Deepak is a hospitality investor. So people were called to all the fancy places. So one of those fancy dinners, this was at Khan Market. In Khan Market in Delhi. Now I went to Khan Market probably for the second time in my life. And the first time we both ate sushi together. You know what is sushi in life? Better to eat. No, I just started liking sushi. It is definitely coming now.
Look, I have seen in life that until you don't have money, you don't know anything about yourself. But when money gets, all the hobbies come. I also like surfing right now. No, of course, after affording everything, I feel that basic things are very good. Legit means I like surfing these days. Learn to surf and I say next I will learn the scheme. But anyway, coming back.
See, I told you, youngest on the panel. But you are not going back to that dinner. I will tell you Ritesh's story. I remember we were 10-12 people in that board room, PDR of the restaurant, and Ritesh started talking and I was like my god, fashion is amazing. So hats off to you, it is fantastic and I share the same. I was listening to the numbers from them all sitting because we were incurring losses. So I asked, do you make profit? They said yes, we make it from day one. And I say this to all startups, you know, making suddenly everybody is starting about profitability in the last two years, but we are about 13 years old. We are talking one year where we made a massive loss. Every young entrepreneur who is listening to this, it is variant yaar. Touch kar lo, make it zero, make it -1, +1. But these are the -10, 20, 30, 40% times when they want to then 0, -1, +1. You know you are always touching. Don't depend on the money of all three of us and any investors to do the day. Today, the investor money should only be used for explosive expansion, new plant, big marketing spend, new brand launch, but not to be spent on operational expenses. If investor money stops, then the company closes down. I would like to tell every entrepreneur to stay away from it. And that is how you do it right, which is you surround yourself with other founders who have seen the journey and it tells you how you can be a better version of yourself. So, I am just personally, whatever your question was for young entrepreneurs, we Viraj Bhai also talked about this. This year you will find on the tank 19 years old. Wow, I don't think if I am allowed to say this, even younger than 17 years old, 20 years old, 21 years old. You will find stories of kids and you should know that as sharks, to give respect to the picture. We did not give them any cut, we ask them questions. If there's any other picture and the way they have responded, the way they talk about the business heads, people will listen to the stories and say wow, meaning what is our country becoming.
So like you said, you perhaps on the show you did not invest in the idea but later on you did speak to them. This happens quite often because sometimes it happens that the idea may be somewhere it clicks with us sharks, you know it has potential, but it may be the person who is pitching has not fully exploded that potential as yet. But you know that you can perhaps guide them in a way that can help them achieve that. Do you ever then reach out to them and how does that happen?
It's actually pretty, if you think about it, it's best if you invest in a tank. But sometimes such situations arise that you do not click at that time. But Shark Tank became your connection. You related to each other. Or after that, well now I feel that it is at this stage or the founder has made some changes so that I should support them. So it definitely happens. Don't think of the relationship in Shark Tank that pitch relationship is the only relationship. It is the starting of a long-term relationship.
If I can add to that, you know, Anupam and Aman used to sit next to me, so when they were sitting, you can't talk, but these two must have given their numbers to half a dozen people in a schedule. You know, they said, if you want help, you are not investing. When you need help, when you need guidance, friend, what bigger thing can you get than this? You are not asking for any advisory, you are not asking for equity. You are giving your direct number. You said, boss, call me and you are helping. It became the community. Like you know, when I joined Shark Tank last season, after that, the pictures of season one reached out to me. I did not invest in KC. Obviously, someone else did, saying that we were invested. So if 10 people are reaching out to me, suddenly one of them comes out. Yes, in season one, XYZ had invested in me. Suddenly my interest will increase obviously right. So even if someone else has invested in the previous season, suddenly it makes sense for me to see care. He must have seen something in the list. So it becomes a complete ecosystem.
And when you have to reject a pitch because like she said and everybody knows it as a shark, you have a responsibility and you have that limited time. So you have to be a horse. At times, most times.
But time has you, the three of us are dolphins. We talk to aunty very lovingly. There is no problem. And also why be horse na? They are individuals. They are individuals. I mean but also whatever feedback you give, more people giving feedback and being harsh are to devices. Two different things of course. It is as you know, it was just said, it's our responsibility to be honest with them. And that is done and you know, sometimes the harshness is more among the sharks. It's not directed towards the picture. So we are all in the same place and we can pull each other's life. We don't genuinely never go ahead and time you should understand that it is really a unique situation. Like the picture comes, just imagine their condition, five people are sitting here. You have 30-40 minutes for the whole thing. That's five sharks. Typically, outside of Shark Tank, if we're investing, we'll meet at least three or four times. These exchanges will take place. Your team will meet. Here also you have to take that decision in 30-40 minutes. And you get to know about the company for the first time, literally for the first time, about any company and industry when the founder comes in. So it is such an environment that it is understandable that there will be some fireworks.
True. You will see sharply business and learning oriented rather than drama. According to me, it is so much and I think all the sharks know this game so well. Some of our human computers literally. I've seen them do numbers like this. By the time I wrote the number, he would have written the number. I used to feel dumb. I said, where have I come, friend? I came just Assam IITs, all smart people around. You know, I think what you're learning is what you get out of this show. Both as a picture and as a spectator is outstanding. Like I wish I had something like this to watch when I was starting out and younger.
Absolutely and it also anchors people to take those risks. You know, you can fail. A lot of people do. But at the same time the idea is that it fails as many times as you want. But go ahead. The name of the show is Shark Tank. It's not about the shark. It's about the picture. It's about ya. So, you know, it's actually not like picture time. And that's the way it should be.
