Giving Wings To A Dream: Shark Tank India

Hello Friends,

Reality shows on television are quite a craze these days. There are lot of such shows being  aired in the recent times on a regular basis. These are based on varied topics ranging from game shows, talent hunt, dance & singing shows to name a few. Latest addition to this range is one of the popular business reality series named Shark Tank India which is the Indian franchise of the American show Shark Tank. The show provides a much needed platform to the budding entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas to potential investors or Sharks (Named as per the pattern of the show) and gain required financial boost along with the valuable expertise of the investors. The show  in its very first edition of the Indian version gained huge popularity due to the uniqueness of the concept, value addition to the startup ecosystem. Presence of some of the renowned as well as trendsetting entrepreneurs as the investors gave it that additional mileage. Big round of applause to the makers for showing the courage to bring a show like this which can definitely be a game changing moment in the arena of entrepreneurship in India. The show received varied feedbacks from audience as well as critics across social platforms which will definitely help the creators to make it further big in the coming seasons.

Talking about various aspects of the show first mention has to be about the quality and experience of the Sharks (Judges). Must appreciate the show makers for choosing such an elite panel for the first season of such a prestigious show. Their inputs for the participants would have been the best takeaway even in the case of no funding given. Every shark was unique in their own way while assessing a certain business. If  Ashneer Grover (Co-Founder: BharatPe) had a very direct way of responding to the business owners about his thoughts after checking mainly with the financial aspects of a particular business, Peyush Bansal(CEO: Lenskart) & Anupam Mittal( Founder: shaadi.com) were more with a rationale thought process who like to bet on the entrepreneurs more than the business they own. Aman Gupta(Co-Founder: boAt) was the most energetic and fun loving of the lot. No applause is enough for all the female panelists Namita Thapar(Executive Director: Emcure pharma), Vineeta Singh(CEO:Sugar cosmetics) & Ghazal Alagh( Co-Founder: MamaEarth) for their contribution to the show especially in encouraging the budding women entrepreneurs. It was an excellent idea to make the judges sharing important  lessons in terms of building a business and also explaining small business business terms in simple language for the better understanding of the common people. The businesses that got the funding would definitely feel fortunate to have the guidance of such enthusiastic  entrepreneurs.

Looking at the trends it can be said that India is definitely one of the biggest startup hubs globally. It was mind-boggling to see so many innovative ideas coming from various parts of the countries. The startup wave  is no more limited to big cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, or Chennai. Small town entrepreneurs with big dreams were the real treat of the season. This show also reinstated the fact that to make it big in the business world you need not necessarily be an IIT/IIM pass out as so many great ideas were presented by founders who are not from renowned management or engineering colleges.  Also it was heartening to see a big chunk of young as well as  women founders/co-founders. When we keep seeing the slogan of encouraging women entrepreneurship in India, platforms like Shark Tank should definitely be a big step towards the same goal. Isn't it? Though there have been certain criticism of some of the judges for being too rude towards the budding entrepreneurs at the initial level, it is fair to say that as the season progressed, judges as well as the participants made the required changes for the sake of the bigger goal.

There couldn't  have been a better time than this to come up with a show like Shark Tank India.  After the humongous success of the first season definitely we all will be eagerly waiting for the next season. At the same time as audience we would have certain expectations from the coming season like 

• Will we get a brief account of how well the businesses are doing after getting the funding as well as the guidance in the first season?
• How about the businesses which didn't get the funding? Can we get to know if only an appearance in the show got them that required mileage in terms of increased sales for a long period or even being noticed by external investors.
• Also can we see the Sharks  taking more risks to invest more in innovation. This time around though there have been various category of businesses who presented their ideas for funding, a large chunk was observed from food & beverages segment. Ideally a lot more diversified spread in terms of business categories can be more encouraging for small businesses.
• Icing on the cake would be if the sharks themselves can share any of their specific experience or success story with regard to the funded businesses of this season.

I am sure all of you must have your own expectations too after the first season. You can mention them in the comments section.

Entrepreneurship probably never happened to be the topic of discussion on dinner table in India. But a game changing show like this made it possible. In a country like ours where still starting on your own is considered to be more riskier than a job, shows like this must be made more for a shift in mindset. Whereas we keep encouraging to include entrepreneurship in our education system from an early age there can't be a better idea than promoting it in digital space too. Such shows in television or in OTT, the most sought after mediums of the current age can definitely be a big boost in creating several more outstanding Made in India brands.

Image Credit: Sidditor, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons