On a recent episode of Shark Tank India, the ‘sharks’ — Vineeta Singh, Anupam Mittal, Aman Gupta, Amit Jain, and Namita Thapar — heard a pitch from a rather talkative founder from Delhi. Vani Chugh and Richa Kapila brought their women’s innerwear brand D’chica to the show, and while the pitch was well received, it was Vani’s loquacious nature that rubbed Vineeta and Anupam the wrong way. Even Aman said that he had an issue with the founders and could not see him working with them.
However, Richa and Vani managed to bag a combined deal with Namita Thapar and Vineeta Singh. The deal was closed at an investment of Rs 80 lakhs for 2.5 percent equity and 1 percent royalty until Rs 80 lakhs were recouped. After the episode, Vani and Richa spoke to Indianexpress.com, sharing their experience and how they have taken all the feedback positively. They also discussed the show’s impact on their business.
Talking about the experience Vani said, “Honestly it was amazing, of course, you get nervous listening to that music. The pitches are usually longer, ours was about an hour long, and there is a lot of open conversation with the sharks. It seems very intimidating when you walk in but these guys are very candid, they try to make you feel very comfortable, and they laugh a lot and joke. So it was great. We are used to investor pitches, only presenting it on TV and facing the cameras can feel a little bit intimidating.”
Also Read: Shark Tank India: Founder of innerwear brand for teens rubs Anupam Mittal the wrong way, Vineeta Singh says, ‘You don’t listen’
When asked about the critical stance the Sharks had especially on Vani’s talkative nature, the D’chica co-founder shared, “Being an entrepreneur, one needs to be very thick-skinned for all kinds of feedback. During the episode you are trying to present your information in the best possible manner, we were also trying to do that. Vineeta and Namita are all very passionate entrepreneurs, if they felt that way the answers were coming sooner than the questions, then that is feedback taken.”
Vani further added, “Vineeta is now an investor so when we have the next conversation, I will make sure I listen to Vineeta fully even before I comment. You do feel bad momentarily, but when you are looking for fundraising, it is all water under the bridge, you should see if you can take something positive from the feedback.”
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Sharing who they were intimidated by during the pitch, Vani said, “Honestly, Anupam can be a little intimidating. He has tough questions for everyone, his persona is like that, but when the pitch started he made some jokes and then came with the tough questions. Namita was great even when others were critical, she even said a lot of positive things.” Richa also added, “Anupam gave very good inputs about the product, and that feedback works well when it is on national TV. But we felt a lot of things we felt could have been asked, which they didn’t. However, after the episode, we started working very seriously on the feedback, especially the inventory part.”
Richa also added that their business has been holistically growing after their appearance on Shark Tank India. She said, “Distributors have shown a lot of interest now.” Vani also added, “Conversion-wise the impact is amazing, we got a revenue jump and a lot of brand searches. Our conversation rate has grown immensely. The conversion has become faster. Unlike some people, we have not seen a 4x or 5x jump in revenues, but there is a sustained increase.”
Vani even shared that the moment Anupam told her ‘aap bohot bolti hain (you talk too much)’ they felt things were not going in the right direction. But then, Vineeta and Namita offered them a deal. Vani also shared that two weeks after the shoot, they were contacted by Vineeta and Namita’s teams, she added, “I have heard so much about Shark Tank India that the investors don’t reach out, teams ghost you, but it was very professional with us, paperwork has been closed.” Richa also added, “After the shoot, the approach from the sharks was quite proactive.”
On a parting note, Vani and Richa shared that their meeting for the way forward is scheduled with Namita and Vineeta in April.
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