Why Shark Tank is the new IPL? 🦈 🏏
Distribution king in the making.
Welcome to the 116th edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 94,400+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
Quick context 🗓
An episode featuring Ganesh Balakrishnan aired on Shark Tank earlier last week. The Flatheads founder sought a valuation of Rs 25 crore, instead was offered Rs 75 lakhs for 33.3% equity at a valuation of Rs 2.25 crore.
Ganesh humbly rejected the offer.
This is where it gets interesting 🤞🏻
Within minutes, Ganesh was all over the internet. In 38 hours he sold off it’s entire inventory. There were 1000s of posts written across LinkedIn & Twitter on his journey. He became a celebrity with over 100K+ followers on LinkedIn. All with one Shark Tank episode.
And the pattern is interesting 🎯
So we dug deeper. Here’s a quick look at last year’s rejection list on Shark Tank.
Pure Holidayism: A pitch to commercialise agro tourism to connect travellers with farmers for a one-of-a-kind tourism opportunity in a village. The pitch got rejected, but the idea lived on. Two months after the show got over, Namita Thapar, co-founder of Emcure Pharmaceuticals invested in the brand.
Jhaji Pickle: The Bihar based pickle startup by two women sought ₹50 lakhs for 10% equity. The pitch didn’t make it, but they got funding from Velocity, a revenue-based financing startup. After the pitch aired, they sold pickles worth ₹25 lakhs in a day.
Theka Coffee: Bhuvinder Madaan, Theka’s founder is a brave heart. Theka was his 8th startup and he sought Rs 50 lakhs for 10% equity. With no Deal on Shark tank, he raised INR 2.5 crore via Dubai-based Zenith Multi Trading & has offers from Reliance/ Microsoft to sell it at their company premises.
Here’s why Shark tank could beat IPL ⬇️
First, it’s access to high value audience.
Brands selling their inventory post airing the Shark Tank episode shows high purchase power from the TV audience.
Second, it’s solving for marketing formats.
Most pitches last for ~10 mins of air time. That allows story telling & showcasing how the product works. Key to a lot of products selling like hotcakes.
Third, it’s full of drama.
Shark fights to emotional stories, everything shouts - entertainment, thrice. Indian’s love drama - period.
All adds up to 161 million viewers.
And the distribution is opening doors for startups, especially direct to consumers ones. At $0 marketing ad spends D2C brands could get massive spiky TV distribution & borrowed trust from TV (Indian’s trust TV ads more than a facebook ad). So if you are a consumer product company, this might be the launchpad to change orbits.
Missed last few stories?