In the latest episode of Shark Tank India season 4, YouTuber Gaurav Taneja appeared as a pitcher for his fitness brand BeastLife along with his business partner. The fitness brand sells a variety of products such as easily digestible protein supplements, creatine monohydrate and energy-boosting mass gainers.
During the pitch, they said that the brand quickly gained traction and reported sales of Rs 1 crore within an hour of its website launch. After this, Vinita Singh, CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics, asked them: “You earn a crore an hour, so what are you doing here?”
During the pitch, Taneja and his business partner even talked about their subscribers and social media following. Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal then asked Taneja about his unique users on YouTube.
To this, Gaurav replied that he doesn't know much about social media numbers as they focus on business numbers. Later, Mittal says: “You're a good influencer but a terrible entrepreneur by far. I'm sorry, but you can't outsource entrepreneurship.”
Taneja asked for Rs 1 crore as a 1 percent equity swap to scale the business of easily digestible protein supplements. Taneja got no deal on the show because he couldn't answer simple questions.
Needless to say, the pitch was a hit on social media. Users were happy that the Sharks didn't invest in Taneja and called the pitch “brutal”.
“Couldn't be happier to see sharks have spines,” one user commented.
“It was so satisfying to see his ego crushed. The sharks were straight up honest and brutal with him (sic),” said a second user.
“Anupam ne sahi class lagani shuru ki (sic),” wrote a third user. A fourth user wrote: “Ab Influencer wala ego leke Shark Tank jayega toh Business k yojana kaise positively Lega (sic).”
“The last 5 minutes have been brutal,” said one user.
“Vineetha showed him that whatever sales he made, he was able to achieve it because of his followers and he has no future plans to compete with the giants in the same market,” another user noted.