Jhaji Pickle: Shark Tank Pitch & What Happened Later

Jhaji Pickle, a Bihar based pickle brand started by two women in their fifties, pitched their product in Episode 4 of the first season of Shark Tank India. While the brand did not get funding from any of the sharks, it ended up getting funding from Velocity, a revenue-based financing startup focussed on helping ecommerce brands grow.  In the piece, I will walk you through what is the vision of Jhaji Pickle, the Jhaji Pickle shark tank pitch and also share updates about what is going on with Jhaji Pickle post the Shark Tank Appearance.  Vision of Jhaji Pickle: Hailing from a...

CocoFit: Shark Tank Pitch & What Happened Later

The Shark Tank CocoFit pitch was a unique one in the sense that the founders were looking less for money and more for the expertise of the Sharks to help grow their brand. The response that the pitch got from Sharks was also unique in the sense that two of them were very upfront in rejecting the offer and three of them were willing to get onboard with the founders.  In the piece, I will walk you through what is the vision of cocofit, the cocofit shark tank pitch and also share updates about what is going on with CocoFit...

Instagram Business Model Case Study

In April 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for a then-unprecedented $1billion. At the time of the acquisition, Instagram was growing fast, but it had only 25 million registered users — minuscule compared to Facebook's hundreds of million users. To top it off, Instagram was not bringing in any revenue; it was being run by 13 employees and was only two years old. Before Facebook closed the deal, even Twitter tried its hand at courting Instagram. But Instagram's founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, decided to go ahead with Facebook because other than the massive sum of money, Mark Zukurberg dangled the carrot of independence. If...

McDonald’s Business Model Case Study

McDonald's is ubiquitous. No matter which country or major city you go to, you are bound to find a McDonald's outlet. As of 2020, the company was operating 40,031 outlets worldwide and held the title of 'The World's Largest Restaurant Company'. But what if, I told you, McDonald's is a real estate empire hiding under the guise of a fast-food chain?  In its 2021 Financial Report, the company reported 41.9 billion dollars worth of assets in property & equipment before accounting for depreciation, making it the 6th largest public real estate company in the world even if we were to deduct the...

LinkedIn Business Model: How LinkedIn Makes Money

In the early days of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman did something he advises all startup founders to do; he went around and discussed the idea of LinkedIn with all the smart people in his network. But when he shared the idea of LinkedIn in his network, 2/3 or more thought Reid was nuts.  And to be clear, Reid’s network included some of the most influential people in Silicon Valley at the time because before starting LinkedIn; Reid was the executive vice president of Paypal, meaning he was a member of what is popularly known as the Paypal mafia. Most of Reid’s smart friends...

YouTube Business Model: How YouTube Makes Money

In November 2006, almost two years after its founding in February 2005, Google acquired YouTube for a then-hefty price of $1.65 billion.  In the 2021 annual report, Google reported that YouTube generated $28.8 billion from advertisements alone in 2021 (Youtube generates revenue through other income streams as well, which we will discuss below), contributing 11.19% to Google’s total 2021 revenue.  Youtube has, undoubtedly, been one of the most remarkable acquisitions in the history of tech. It is the second most popular website in the world after Google. Source: Similar Web  But when it comes to engagement metrics like avg visit duration, pages per visit...

Grammarly Business Model: How Grammarly Makes Money

12 years since being founded in 2009, Grammarly has more than 30 Million daily active users, over 10 Million downloads of its chrome extension, and 50,000+ professional and enterprise clients. And all this for a company that did not raise its first round of funding worth $110 Million until its eighth year of operation. Now, I'm not by any means trying to imply that Grammarly was bootstrapped for the initial 8 years of the startup’s journey — the founders did make some money from selling their first startup (nobody knows how much but more on that later), which was used to self-fund the...

Shark Tank India Ep 2: Here’s What Happened

For me, Shark Tank India’s Episode 2 was super engaging, given that it featured three distinct types of business pitches. The Episode also served as a revision of two basic business concepts such as gross income and valuation.  In this piece, I will first walk you through each of the three products — Tagz, Head & Heart & Agri Tourism — and then briefly explain the two concepts of gross income and valuation.  Tagz Shark Tank Appearance Tagz was the first to make an appearance on the second episode of Shark Tank India. What is Tagz? Founded by two young founders, Anish and Sagar,...

Richest Sharks on Shark Tank India ( Ranked in Descending Order )

Aman Gupta, the co-founder of Boat, is the richest Shark on Shark Tank India, with a net worth of Rs 700 crores. Ashneer Gover, the co-founder of Bharatpe, also has the same net worth of Rs 700 as Aman Gupta. So, we can say that Aman & Ashneer were the richest sharks.  To learn more about the sharks, their achievements, and their net worth, continue reading the full article.  Aman Gupta ( Net Worth: Rs 700 crores ) Aman Gupta is famous for being the co-founder & CMO of Boat, India’s largest homegrown consumer electronics brand. Six years after its founding in...

What Happened to Cool Wazoo After Shark Tank

In Shark Tank Season Episode 8, Ginelle pitched a product called Cool Wazoo, seeking $65k in exchange for 25% of her company. After all the Sharks initially refused to invest, Lori agreed to give the desired sum in an unusual turn of events. In this piece, I will run you through everything to know about Cool Wazoo — what exactly is Cool Wazoo, Cool Wazoo’s Shark Tank Pitch & Deal & Cool Wazoo’s update after Shark Tank. What is Cool Wazoo? Cool Wazoo is a multipurpose baby cover. The 5-in-1 baby pad functions as a heat shield for hot car seats and...