Entrepreneur calls out Shark Tank India for rejecting his pitch due to language barrier

While Shark Tank India continues to entertain the audience in the third season, it is interesting to note that the new season is receiving a lot of bad press for various reasons.

In recent times, we have seen a lot of pitchers who failed to secure a deal vent out their anger and frustration on social media or media against certain sharks.

However, this time, it’s about an entrepreneur who has called out the show for denying him the opportunity to pitch his business to the sharks for funding because he wasn’t fluent in Hindi.

A Chennai-based entrepreneur Karthik Manikonda has taken to social media and has revealed that his start-up The Mind and Company was selected for Shark Tank India 3 but later, he wasn’t allowed to pitch.

He wrote on Linkedin, “The Mind and Company was selected for Shark Tank India, but was not allowed to pitch to the Sharks. Reason: I am not fluent in Hindi. It’s a Hindi show. It’s a national show. I proposed to allow me to pitch in English. And I hear a Big NO. Had they told me other reasons like – Your scale is not big or- This industry is too niche or- You are not investment ready etc I would have accepted.”

He continued, “But I can't pitch in non Hindi language was a bummer. I don't blame Shark Tank. They have a format. They have to protect that. But regional startups shouldn't lose out due to the language barriers. Any ideas how can this be solved? - AI real time translation? How do world political leaders communicate in their local language? #Disappointed but not out.”

While the founder was refused an opportunity to pitch his business on Shark Tank India, the post about the rejection led him to meet up with a VC.

The founder revealed in another post, “When one door is closed, many others open. Last week I wrote about my experience of not being given an opportunity to pitch to the sharks. Many supported and inspired us to keep going. Many others volunteered to hear our pitch. Yesterday, I got the opportunity to meet Mr. Shashank Randev. Founder at 100X.VC. He was in Chennai to meet young startups like ours and was kind enough. – He gave me time – Heard my business prospects – Gave valuable suggestions for future And that’s all I could have asked for.”