Shark Tank India: Lack of transparency, preparedness, arrogance, here are the biggest turn offs for Sharks

Season two of Shark Tank India, which is set to premiere next week, is already making waves. From the way it supports and celebrates the entrepreneurial community and the start-up ecosystem, the show already has acquired a sizeable fanbase.  
 
While the ‘Sharks’ have spoken about what they look for in start-ups while investing, this time they also decided to roll out some key features which are a big turn offs for them. Peyush Bansal (Founder of Lenskart), Vineeta Singh (CEO of Sugar), Anupam Mittal (Founder of Shaadi.com), and Amit Jain (CEO and Co-founder of CarDekho) sat down with film journalist Anupama Chopra to chat about the show. 

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Mittal shared that lack of preparedness on the founders’ part, and not very strong company fundamentals often turn him off. He also jokingly revealed that when a start-up doesn’t want him as an investor, that is the biggest turn off. “What is the market size? How will you grow? How will you give returns to the investors?” are some of the points Mittal looks for in the pitches. “If you don’t have that level of clarity, then I don’t think you deserve a slot.”
 
Singh shared that she gets turned off when entrepreneurs are not transparent, they lie or make up stories. She said that knowing numbers is fine but being dishonest puts her off. “At the end of the day you are making a gut decision in those two minutes,” she said. And, therefore, “trust” is a key factor.
 
Bansal said he gets very annoyed when he encounters an arrogant entrepreneur. It doesn’t happen very often though, he added. “They’re full of themselves, they have come here to market and they don’t even want to listen.”
 
He said that these entrepreneurs don’t even acknowledge the guidance or feedback sharks give them. This makes him question the reason for their appearance on the show. 
 
This second edition of the Shark Tank series stars Mittal, Singh, Bansal, Jain along with Namita Thapar (Executive Director of India Business, Emcure), and Aman Gupta (Co-founder of boAt).
 
Ashneer Grover (Co-founder of BharatPe) and Ghazal Alagh (Co-founder of Mamaearth) will not be joining the other sharks in this season. Grover and his family members are embroiled in a courtroom battle with BharatPe for misappropriation of funds, among other accusations. 
 
Grover, in fact, will be seen in a separate show with a similar format. He will be seen featuring in the second season of the popular series TVF Pitchers.