Jeevika Tyagi, the co-founder of Aastey, an athleisure (athletic and leisure clothing) brand presented her pitch in a recent episode of Shark Tank India season 3 with Kanupriya Mundhra.
In their pitch they asked for an investment of Rs. 80 lakh for a 2% equity, but while the Sharks liked the idea of the brand they were shown to be taken aback by the reveal that the startup spent almost all of the Rs. 10 crore they got from investors on just marketing.
When the team was asked how much is their bank balance they were shocked to hear that it was zero.
Shark Aman Gupta said “Aap keh rahe hai ki Rs 1.50 lakh ki sale ho rahi hai, paise zero hai. To hum invest kisme kar rahe hai. Business kaha hai? Maal bhi bikk nahi raha (You are telling us that Rs 1.50 lakh’s sale is happening, money is zero. So, where will we invest, where is the business? Your products are also not selling)”.
Vineeta Singh also commented “Ye jo financial indiscipline aapne dikhaya hai, that is baffling me (The financial indiscipline that you have shown is baffling me)”.
The Founder’s Response
Jeevika then posted on social media a video saying how Namita Thapar, Executive Director – India Business, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, said “You took Rs 10 cr from the investors and spent the amount primarily on marketing? I am out” and called out the judge and the channel’s selective editing claiming it showed the startup in a very different way.
She took major offence to the way their answers were edited and how other parts were left out saying in the video ”Even though the episode is called ‘Celebrating entrepreneurial breakthroughs’, theme poster pe likha hai ‘Is this financial indiscipline’? Muje lagta hai Namita yeh bohot hi bada ‘Financial indiscipline’ hai ki ek choti si baat aapko nahi samajh aayi.’
Agar episode ka theme hamari inventory ke upar hai aur sablog discuss kar rahe hai ki hum apni inventory kyu nahi bech rahe. Woh inventory kaha se aayi? Saare Rs 10 crore humne marketing pe kharch kar diye? Inventory ka paisa kaha se aaya? Inventory kaha stored hai? Team ke paise, business operations ke paise? Jo saara part aur break down Sony ne edit out kar diya hai, uska kya?”
(“Even though the episode is called ‘Celebrating Entrepreneurial breakthroughs’, the theme poster reads, ‘Is this financial indiscipline?’ I think Namita this is a very big ‘financial indiscipline’ that you could not understand a simple thing.
If the episode’s theme was our inventory and everyone is discussing about why we are are not selling out invenstory. Where did that inventory come from? We spent the entire Rs 10 cr on marketing? Where did the money for our inventory come from? Where is the inventory stored? where is the money for the team, business operations? The entire part and its breakdown was edited out by Sony, what about that?”)
It seems her videos have already been removed from Instagram, although from Jeevika’s Insta stories, it was due to copyright issues because of which Instagram removed her videos.
A lot of the reports also seem to be claiming it was Namita Thapar who made the ‘financial indiscipline’ comment, where it was actually Vineeta Singh who said that. This confusion could perhaps be from the co-founder’s video itself where she used Namita’s name before saying financial indiscipline.
Calling this out in her stories Jeevika stated “What is the copyright issue in my own views” and “This is a new low. My voice had reached 5 million people. Is this the best sharks could do? I will keep posting. This is a new low in freedom of speech.”
She reposted the video on her Instagram page later on writing “This video had 5 million views. 100 million impressions together were generated by my 4 videos that they got removed. Reposting this one without Namita’s face. 1000s of videos rotate around the internet with reactions. Post getting articles, this was max you could do. New low in ‘freedom of speech’.”
However, it seems not everyone was supportive of the CEO with one user commenting ”Namita was never wrong please learn from the feedback instead of being petty,” while another said ”Instead of learning from a woman who worked hard and is an expert on the topic. You are condemning her on your petty reel”.
Source & Credit – Chirali, ED Times
