Shark Tank contestant alleges online harassment, says show will change the game for her company

Paradyes (the semi-permanent hair colour brand) CEO and founder Yushika Jolly, on Saturday, took to the social networking platform LinkedIn to share the hate she received online after being featured in Shark Tank India season 2 and securing a deal.

While her co-founder, and husband Siddharth Raghuvanshi, was "praised for his excellent negotiating skills", she said that the hateful messages she was receiving were coloured by "gender prejudice".

"I’m starting to believe that we, as a country, despise women for being assertive and having opinions. In the last 48 hours, I have been called "rude," "smug," "manupulative," "greedy," , “b****” and "unprofessional." Hate messages abound in my DMs, in the comments on my personal page, and even on my brands' page," Jolly wrote.

Defending her decision to go with 'boAt' founder Aman Gupta and Sugar Cosmetics CEO Vineeta Singh's offer rather than Lenskart CEO Peyush Bansal's, she said that she knows her "business better than any keyboard warrior".

"As a founder, I’d like to believe I know my business better than any keyboard warrior. We decided to go with Aman and Vineeta for 2% at that time since we thought they were better suited to our needs. We could have chosen Peyush if we were truly that "greedy", Jolly highlighted.

Jolly and her husband Siddharth Raghuvanshi had gone into the show asking for Rs 65 lakh for 1 per cent equity in their company. Even as Piyush Bansal offered them what they asked for, the two ended up taking up Vineeta Singh's and Aman Gupta's offer of Rs 65 lakh for 2 per cent equity.

".. And for everyone asking why create a mess for 1%, please go and build your own business and only then will you realise how important even 1% is," she added.

Having said this, she also highlighted how Shark Tank changed the game for Paradyes overnight.

The founder and CEO added that following the airing of the episode, the company's sales have almost doubled on our website and in a few specific marketplaces. "Our website has seen a 20x spike in traffic. Numerous distributors and detailers have contacted us. In the last two days, our Instagram has gained more than 9k followers. On a personal level, I have received over 3,000 LinkedIn requests, and my number of followers on this site has grown from 1,000 to 6,000+," she added.

"All in all, I believe that being on Shark Tank will change the game for us and cause you to see us much more frequently moving forward," she said.

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