January 17: Sony Entertainment Television’s Indian adaptation of the world’s no1 business reality show – Shark Tank, had Sahil Pruthi, Keto India founder, on the show recently. Sahil Pruthi is the CEO and brand representative of Keto India and Livofy, an organization that stands by the belief to make everyone achieve a healthy lifestyle. The prime aim of the organization is to create a personalized and integrative patient engagement platform for chronic care management that helps people manage their chronic issues like Type 2 Diabetes, PCOS, Thyroid, Cancer, Weight Gain through highly integrative care solutions. Know it from the man himself on how his experience of the show panned out and why he had to say no to the highest offer presented in Shark Tank India.
“Before the term “entrepreneur” existed in my vocabulary, I worked with Innovaccer, Traveltriangle, Samsung and Kronos Inc. as a product manager in the former two and a developer in the latter two. Then, I became an entrepreneur by chance and had always wished to be a part of Shark Tank. I would see hundreds of entrepreneurs from around the globe pitch their companies’ concepts to a panel of investors and persuade them to invest money in their idea and compete on the classic reality show. I got an opportunity to pitch my health brands Keto India and Livofy when Shark Tank arrived in our area of the world,†says Sahil.
“Being a Shark Tank India contestant feels like my organization, and I have finally gotten the validation of being a successful startup. By accepting the offer of 1.6 crores and collaboration with the Sharks, the charismatic leaders of the start-up business, would have earned me national prominence and increased our brand’s awareness among people. I also understand that it is the highest offer on Shark Tank India so far, with four of the five sharks offering us capital; however, my motive is to break the prejudice people carry of healthy diets and ensure everyone gets how important personalised nutrition is. For the same, I need to expand my business to an exponential level, for which this investment and company valuation would not have sufficed,†quoted Sahil.
“Joining my strong vision of making a huge difference in society, Sharks Namita Thapar of Emcure, Aman Gupta of boAT, Peyush Bansal of Lenskart, and Ashneer Grover of BharatPe offered to invest 1.6 crores in Keto India. What a moment that was! So many emotions came gushing down. I was nervous, proud, confused, excited, everything at the same time.
But, I didn’t take the offer because the equity asked was higher than what I had in mind to dilute, and the capital, I felt, would not have been enough to scale the company fast. The step was what’s best for my company and what it stands by. It was nothing negative, in fact, it truly reflects our beliefs to make nutrition easier and helpful.â€
Sahil added, “I believe that the biggest learning from the entire process is that I may have done a lot of things well; there are still so many more things to do, so many things to achieve that even if there is a backlash of any kind, it’s natural and acceptable. I went to the show saying I needed mentorship and exposure more than anything else, and I achieved that. I want to thank the sharks again for putting the trust and belief in my entrepreneurial skills. This was definitely an experience of a lifetime!â€
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