Homegrown audio and wearables company Boat suspends all marketing activities during the three months when Shark Tank airs. Aman Gupta, co-founder and chief marketing officer (CMO), who is a shark (investor/judge) of Shark Tank’s India edition, at Walmart Convergence event last week, said, “On a personal note, I love that people know and want to take pictures with me…for Boat there is so much free promotion when Shark Tank is aired that we stop spending on marketing for about three months.”
Gupta’s comment comes at a time when several startups, who have appeared on the show, have alleged that some sharks have delayed investments under various pretexts. A few also think sharks have been using the show for personal branding and have neglected some commitments made on the show. Some founders, who have pitched on the show, have admitted that post their appearance on Shark Tank they have seen 3-4X spike in business.
Recenly, PrivateCircle, a private market intelligence platform revealed that Namita Thapar, executive director of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, was bestowed with the most number of deals as a shark (investor/judge) during the first edition of Shark Tank. Other sharks including Ashneer Grover, Peyush Bansal and Anupam Mittal were at the bottom of the list collated by PrivateCircle.
The data, based on MCA filings till July 12, 2023, revealed that Thapar, honoured 13 of the 22 deals which led to a conversion rate of 59 percent – the highest among the seven sharks who featured in the show’s first season. Mamaearth’s Ghazal Alagh was the second on the list of best-performing sharks (in terms of the investment rate). Alagh had a conversion rate of 57 percent after she funded four of the seven companies she had promised monies. Boat’s Gupta was the third-best performing shark as he invested in 12 of the 28 startups he had committed funds to which translates to an investment rate of 43 percent.