Business Lessons:
The Shark Tank franchise has been successful in about 27 countries, but when it arrived in India, the timing was right. The COVID pandemic had turned so many lives upside down—people lost jobs, and at the same time, there was a rise in start-ups that aimed at the stay-at-home segment (food delivery topping the list), as well as a growth in the gig economy. If OTT audiences were hooked to entertainment reality shows, they are also starting to get wise about money.
The concept of Shark Tank is seemingly simple—small entrepreneurs needing funding to scale up their businesses, pitch their ideas to a panel of investors or ‘sharks,’ who then evaluate their proposal and decide if they want to put in money, and acquire equity in the business in return. There are of course many more legal and financial processes, which are left off screen, and only the simplified and entertaining part of the pitching is seen—the idea, the questions and answers, the hope in the eyes of the pitchers and the joy or disappointment after their proposal is accepted or rejected.
This Dragon’s Den format for the business reality show originated in Japan in 2001, where Money Tigers proved to be a hit. Its American version, Shark Tank, created by Mark Burnett, started in 2009, and ran for 14 seasons, winning a few Emmys on the way.
Shark Tank India Season 1, with seven investors evaluating proposals over 35 episodes turned out to be a surprise success, and the sharks—Ashneer Grover, in particular—became stars in their own right. He does not appear in Season 2, where in the first two episodes, there are just five sharks, repeated from the first season—Vineeta Singh, Namrata Thapar, Anupam Mittal, Peyush Bansal and Aman Gupta—all wealthy entrepreneurs themselves, though not exactly top of the heap.
Season 2, could have, perhaps, had a different set of sharks, or at least a mix-and-match, but maybe the channel (Sony) wanted to utilize the popularity of the Season 1 investors. Shark Tank India, thankfully does away with the studio audience, but the set is garish, more suited for a music or dance reality show than a business programme. Hosted this time by Rahul Dua (who has very little to do), the show, with Payal Seth as creative director, actually attracts viewers with its emotional quotient –for instance, shock and tears when a participant mentions loss of family in a fire– though enough business jargon is thrown around to engage the viewers who are watching for that purpose.
The sharks rarely bare their teeth (their ‘overacting’ reactions often look like they were shot separately and clumsily inserted when required), and are mostly encouraging and sympathetic, even though the pitchers are made to stand in front of them, like naughty students in the principal’s office. In Season 2, they are unreasonably nasty to a duo pitching their home-grown make-up brand, because they do not look sophisticated (class bias on display), and then reject their proposal because they would be competitors of Vineeta Singh, who runs a cosmetics empire.
What is pleasantly surprising is that over 35 episodes of Season 1 and a promised 50 of Season 2, there are serious entrepreneurs with some innovative ideas—like the young women from Bangalore, who run a business selling packaged flowers for poojas, or the enthusiastic duo who want to popularize Darjeeling tea, the couple who hope to revive traditional sari weaves, or the earnest young man who has created a smart watch for children, that allows parents to track their kids and communicate with them. They are just a fraction of the thousands who apply to participate in the show. There is, of course, as much risk of an idea beating stolen, as of a promising business failing. The show is too new to actually track the progress or failure of the pitchers, who walk away with cheques. Season 2 starts with Vineeta and Namrata tracking two pickle-making female entrepreneurs in Darbhanga, Bihar, with offers of investment, when they had rejected their pitch in the earlier season. So, despite its vicious title, what Shark Tank India offers viewers is hope—if those ordinary, hard-working and optimistic people can make it this far, so can anybody with a workable business plan and the smarts to see it through.
(This piece first appeared in rediff.com)
