The former managing director of fintech platform BharatPe, Ashneer Grover became a household name after he got featured in the investors’ panel in the reality show Shark Tank India and recently during an interaction with students of Lovely Professional University, he talked about his co-judges from the show.
Shark Tank India has been adapted from the American business reality show Shark Tank in which startup owners and business owners pitched the idea of business in order to attract the investors (sharks) for investing in their businesses. The shark panel of the Indian business reality show included some big names of the Indian business world – Aman Gupta, Vineeta Singh, Anupam Mittal, Peyush Bansal, Ghazal Alagh, Namita Thapar and Ashneer Grover.
During the lecture, Ashneer Grover told that he knew Anupam Mittal even before the show as he pitched an idea to him but Mittal took more than a month to respond and till then someone else had invested in Grover’s idea so he had to refuse Anupam Mittal. Talking about Vineeta, Ashneer Grover said that she was one of the hot juniors in IIM and though they never spoke to each other, they had exchanged flirtatious glances. Grover added that he met Namita for the first time on the show and everybody knew Peyush Bansal from Lenskart. Ashneer called Aman a great guy and told that their auditions took place together at his (Grover’s) place.
Ashneer Grover also shared his experience from the show and stated that none of them went to the show with an intention to earn money. He further added that some said they got paid Rs. 10 lakh or Rs. 5 lakh but they didn’t make any money from Shark Tank India. Grover goes on to say that the concept of the show is very simple, the show makers thought that they all (sharks) have money and they will be able to invest so they asked them to invest Rs. 10 crore in the show. Grover added that all the investors worked like bonded labours, that too for many hours.
Ashneer Grover became more popular than others investors because of his comments and harsh way to deal with those business owners whose idea he didn’t like.
The season two of Shark Tank India is also going to start soon and the promo is already being loved by viewers.