Exclusive- Shark Tank India 3: Face Yoga pitcher Vibhuti Arora opens up about Namita Thapar and Vineeta Singh's grilling, says 'There were politer ways to say no, that's all I ask'

In the recent episode of Shark Tank India 3, the face yoga pitcher Vibhuti Arora had a sour experience in the tank. Despite a strong pitch, she went home with no deal. However, the entrepreneur has been quite active on social media and also voiced her opinion about the treatment she received in the tank. In an exclusive conversation with ETimes TV, Vibhuti opens up about her experience, Namita and Vineeta grilling her and more.

Apart from that 1-1 and half hour of conversation, only around 12 minutes of it has come on the episode. Now what has come out of it is a dual approach to me. While I am extremely grateful to the show and channel, whether you get a deal or not, the amount of screentime and air presence that they give us has definitely grown our business 10X. We are still trying to cope up with our orders and all. On the other hand, with my bitter-sweet experience, internationally in the West as well the sharks really grill you. But here in India, a little bit of a more neutral approach is preferable. That is when I went out and voiced my opinion that it's not a one-stencil fit, a little bit of humility and a little bit of neutrality is always appreciated.

The questioning got to a point where I wasn't in my best mojo. It does put your self-esteem and your confidence down. So even if you know all the answers, you are unable to put your best foot forward. Especially in my case where I went as a solo woman-preneur. Had I been on stage with my team or co-founders around, I would have doubled the strength. That is why I put that video after to voice my opinion. The part did get cut out where, Namita mentioned by training my teachers, by creating an institute I have created my competition. My ask was to create these face yoga centres across India and not my product. My differentiator was the techniques I created for Face Yoga and that is what I am leveraging.

When asked about her statement on blacking out due to Vineeta's reaction to her packaging, "I don't know, the initial part was brilliant, everything was going on fine with the pitch and then suddenly there was a switch off and the discussion about my packaging was a bit too prolonged. I understand that my packaging, I fully take onus it may not be the best but that is why I am here in front of you asking for mentorship, for guidance. I did not know the need to put that across not once but so many times. When I accepted it and I said yes quite a few times, I politely tried to say 'Let's move on'.

I was being interrupted quite a few times while pitching so I don't know if it was always done with the pitchers or if it was one for me. But I was definitely not prepared for that type of grilling. I think we need to be a little more softer. We are also real beings, real people who have created dreams, their dream businesses and there is so much firefighting that is done as an entrepreneur. A little more softer approach will always keep us more motivated.

Packaging was Vineeta's reason but I feel it is a very small reason, I have created so much more and if you are truly in then look at the bigger picture. I have also seen where they said to create omnipresence, create a centre, physical retail, and create an app. I have done it all. I have the app, and marketplaces, I am running on 10% EBITDA so that reason was not justified to me.

Aman said that he doesn't believe in services, but he has invested in the service business, Avataar being one of them. So definitely that was a miss. Namita told me that by creating teachers, I have created my own competition. The synergy aspect, the long-term growth, the global expansion, clearly we didn't cross paths. Either I couldn't pitch it well or they didn't want to understand what I was trying to say.

I thought Anupam would grill me a lot in terms of not just basic cogs and all. All the plans for the future, growth trajectory and all but that didn't happen at all. I was literally shunned from witnessing their reaction.

We genuinely have a lot of expectations, we look up to these sharks. So when they don't, it's ok if you don't understand our point but you can't put somebody down. I have had a lot of sleepless nights. It has taken me a lot to come out here and talk about it. People see me strong, but you see me crying. That is the unpleasantness of something that you don't want to experience. There were politer ways to say no, that's all I ask, to be a little more polite and self-aware. You are sitting in the seats of power, deploy it correctly.