The glitz and glamour of Shark Tank India may dazzle viewers with promises of crores of rupees in investments, but what happens after the cameras stop rolling tells a different story. In a recent eye-opening interview, Namita Thapar, one of the ‘sharks’ on the Sony LIV show, shed light on the harsh realities behind the scenes, revealing that many deals showcased on the show fail to materialize.
Speaking candidly on YouTube channel Finance with Sharan, Namita Thapar disclosed the unfortunate truth about the post-show process, highlighting a disturbing trend of founders exhibiting a “lack of integrity” and even “ghosting” investors after their deals air on television. She expressed frustration at the discrepancy between the numbers quoted by founders during their pitches and the actual figures uncovered during due diligence.
She said, “A lot of people are very clueless when it comes to the count of investments because what they don’t realise is when we start doing our due diligence, there are multiple things that… there’s literally a lack of integrity on the part of founders. There are many founders who have ghosted me. There are many founders who, when we do the due diligence, the numbers they quoted at the tank, they are completely off, not just marginally but substantially off.”
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“So what people don’t realise is, that they see us giving these offers and then they say ‘you did not do the deal’ but what they don’t realise is that there is a lot of integrity issues, which is why the count goes down substantially. I think this is one thing that whoever is following Shark Tank must be aware of, that there is a margin between what’s revealed at the tank vs what really comes out in the due diligence,” Namita added.
Adding to the discussion, Vineeta Singh, another investor on the show, revealed that founders sometimes receive more enticing offers from other investors after their pitches air, prompting them to abandon previously agreed deals. She said, “Once they air, they get better deals outside so then they prefer to go with those. I understand where an entrepreneur is coming from, where they are optimising for valuation, feels unfair… but you have to… I mean that’s the rule of the game.”
