Shark Tank India has become one of India’s most famous business-inspired shows. The show has given a new ray of hope to our country’s startups and future entrepreneurs. While the show mostly made news because it featured unique startups, the second season also became notorious for featuring the entrepreneurs’ backstories.
In the most recent episode of Shark Tank India’s second season, the local premium footwear firm Flatheads captured viewers’ attention and moistened our eyes. Ganesh Balakrishnan, the startup’s co-founder and an IIT and IIM graduate who was about to close down the business, made a pitch on the program but was turned down.
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Balakrishnan sobbed on the broadcast as the sharks sympathized with him. It’s bizarre what happened following the emotional experience. The whole merchandise at Flatheads had totally sold out. While his perspective on the events describes an entrepreneur’s path, many people don’t know how people related to an entrepreneur got affected by all this.
#SharkTankIndia Ganesh made us cry today … Wishing him the best and hope to buy his shoes outside India one day #Flatheads
— RM (@thinking_loud) January 6, 2023
During the whole time, Flatheads co-founder’s wife Anuradha Pasupathy accompanied him through his highs and lows
Anuradha Pashupathy works for Continental, an IT company with its headquarters in Hanover. While her husband’s story became well-known recently, little is known about the story from her side. That’s why she recently shared her account of the incident on LinkedIn.
Anuradha opens her post with a bold statement, saying,
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“Mai kamati hu, vo udata hai.”
Some LinkedIn users thought this was a little too harsh, but Anuradha’s whole post explains how she persevered and worked hard at her regular job to keep fueling her husband’s dreams.
She talks about how scared and anxious she was when Ganesh left his comfortable corporate position to launch a business. Coming from a traditional background, she questioned if it was realistic to deal with the “rigors of entrepreneurship” in India. However, she still had faith in him. She wrote,
“But even with all the doubts, I still had belief in him.”
Anuradha describes her husband as a warrior
She was enthused about Flatheads after a few early company flops, but then the pandemic hit. According to her, it was “an existential jolt.” She even dreaded losing her job at her current firm. Thankfully, nothing like this happened.
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However, when Flatheads started to falter, Anuradha’s fortitude was put to the test. She pondered how much longer they would have to live with this horror since there were mountains of unsold items within the home.
She claims that, despite having superior high-paying employment options available to her as a programmer in Bangalore, she chose “stability over ambition.” She claims that the decision to look after the family while Ganesh chased his goal was made consciously.
She said that she didn’t cry while watching the Shark Tank episode with her family since all of these challenges have just made her stronger and more determined. She continued by saying that, despite the odds, she knows that this is simply another storm that they can navigate through.
Read the complete LinkedIn post below
For the uninitiated, Flatheads create environmentally friendly and long-lasting footwear
Despite the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, the business, which was founded in 2019, was able to compile roughly 20,000 consumers.
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The co-founder and CMO of the electronics business boAt, Aman Gupta, stated that his fundamentals were lacking and rejected investing along with the other sharks. However, when Peyush Bansal, the CEO of Lenskart, and Vineeta Singh, the CEO of SUGAR cosmetics, extended an offer to Balakrishnan, he declined, saying he wanted to reconsider his course of action.
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