Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal is in the news for taking down another influencer-turned-founder after Gaurav Taneja aka Flying Beast. In a recent episode of Shark Tank India season 4, a business and finance influencer Vijay Nihalchandani faced the wrath of the Shaadi.com founder.
Nihalchandani came to the show along with his wife, his brother and his business partner to pitch his business Make My Payment. Make My Payment is an app that sends automated payment reminders to defaulting debtors. The founders offered ₹30 lakh in exchange of 3 per cent stake in their company.
After the influencer-turned-founder explained the basics of his business, ‘sharks’ were divided.
Emcure Pharmaceuticals executive director Namita Thapar seemed unimpressed. Thapar observed that anybody who defaulted on payments wouldn’t be swayed by an automated voice message and that they could simply block the number or ignore it.
boAt Lifestyle CMO Aman Gupta questioned Vijay on whether he does anything else on the side. To this, Nihalchandani replied that he is a social media influencer with around 1 million followers on Instagram. He also said that he runs a profitable hotel bookings business as well.
Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal asked Vijay about his earnings through Instagram, with Vijay replying that he makes around ₹5 lakh per month. Even though Peyush seemed to be impressed, his fellow sharks weren’t. Anupam Mittal said that this is not a business while asking the influencer-turned-founder to get serious.
Replying to a question on the number of users they have on the platform, Vijay’s wife said that out of 3,500 people who signed up, only 200 are paying subscribers. Anupam mentioned that this proves his point and said: “You’re making ₹30,000 per month, isse acha thela laga lo.”
Since they could not answer simple questions asked by the ‘sharks’, Make My Payment founders could not get any offer on the show. Meanwhile, Nihalchandani is not the first influencer-founder who faced Anupam Mittal’s wrath on the show.
Gaurav Taneja aka Flying Beast went to the show to pitch his protein brand Beast Life and sought ₹1 crore for 1 per cent equity. Mittal did not buy into the hype and questioned whether the influencer could commit to building a sustainable business.
He added that entrepreneurship demands continuous focus and full-time dedication. “You can’t allocate time in startups, you have to be there all the time. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but I trust in Indian entrepreneurship. They won’t let a part-timer like you win.”
