PremiumShark Tank India 3 | Azhar Iqubal tells Sorich co-founders who sacrificed lavish wedding to shut down company
On Shark Tank India Season 3, Vineeta Singh and Aman Gupta disagreed with Azhar Iqubal's advice to shut down Sorich Organics, which was making crores of money.
Last Updated: 03.19 PM, Mar 11, 2024
On the latest episode of Shark Tank India, the married co-founders of the healthy snack brand Sorich Organics – Richa and Sorav Sachdeva – were told to shut down their business by shark Azhar Iqubal after they demanded Rs 90 lakh in exchange for 2.5% equity in their business, having invested all their funds in the startup instead of holding a grand wedding. Vineeta Singh and Aman Gupta, the other two sharks on Shark Tank India Season 3, however, disagreed with Azhar's logic as the company is already generating crores of revenue currently.
Azhar Iqubal's response to Sorich Organics co-founders
Despite the impressive healthy products, the duo has been making and selling as well as the underlying sob story about letting go of a magnificent wedding to divert all the funds towards Sorich, shark Azhar Iqubal seemed unconvinced about the further existence of the brand. According to Azhar, the company's sales had stagnated and he suggested shutting shop right away. “Shut it down, you’re going nowhere,” he said in his matter-of-fact tone to the co-founders.
Aman Gupta's curiosity about Rs 90 lakh
Aman Gupta was intrigued by the co-founders' claims that they decided against a lavish wedding in favour of investing all of the money in their company. Anupam Mittal, however, couldn't understand why they were only requesting Rs 90 lakh. He posed the rhetorical question, "Isse kya hoga (What good will this do)," during their pitch. In response, the duo told Aman that although they had reserved a banquet hall and saved almost Rs 60 lakh for the occasion, they ultimately chose to marry in a temple rather than have a lavish wedding. Following a cancer diagnosis of one of the founders' mothers, the brand was established. During this trying time, Richa said, she created some nutritious tea for her mother, and eventually the brand was set up.
Other sharks disagreed with Azhar Iqubal's suggestion
Their products really impressed Vineeta Singh, but Anupam Mittal thought they were a little pricey and commented, "You’re selling something worth Rs 20 for five times more, is anyone even buying this?. Your company's name is accurate." However, Peyush Bansal said that flavours should be enhanced. Anupam, adopting Azhar's point of view on stagnant sales, stated that high pricing is the cause of this. Agreeing to this, Peyush stated that others had developed businesses in the healthy snacking space valued at Rs 100 crore in a shorter time.
The fact that the founders had not yet entered the quick commerce space astounded Anupam as well. He asked the Sachdevas, " What in the world were you doing in the last two years when the market was exploding?" To this, Azhar's idea of shutting shop on Sorich was met with disagreement from Vineeta who gave the entrepreneurs credit for building a business entirely on their own and bringing in crores of revenue. Ultimately, the founders were left with nothing when Peyush recommended that they bring on a new team member who could aggressively grow the company.