Ashish and Aditi Java, founders of Personal Touch Skincare, recently slammed investors in the entrepreneurship-oriented reality show Shark Tank India 4. The founders claimed that the sharks, as the investors are called on the show, did not treat them fairly.
The founders specifically trained their guns from Vinita Singh, co-founder and CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics. They accused Singh of insulting and disrespecting him.
During Personal Touch Skincare’s pitch, Singh was skeptical about the skincare brand’s reach and sales data. Singh couldn’t believe his Instagram reach was organic and not boosted.
Looking at their Shopify data, the CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics accused the founders of falsifying their data. In a video posted on her Instagram account, Aditi said that it was her dream to go on Shark Tank India and it would be nice if she got this deal.
“Not having one didn’t affect us that much, but what was damaging was how the sharks treated us and how they kept saying our community wasn’t real. They kept questioning our authenticity.”
His brother and co-founder Ashish Jawan said the “harsh reality” was that the Sharks couldn’t believe what the brother-sister duo had done and achieved in the last 2 years.
“We also showed our Shopify data, which is a very confidential thing. We did it to prove that we’ve built a group of customers who are like family to us and buy from us a lot, which is why our brand Has grown 11x year-on-year We are very saddened that our PT family was called fake.
Needless to say, the attitude of the pitchers did not go down well with social media users. Netizens not only accused the founders of running an MLM-type business, but also slammed them for playing the victim card when they didn’t get a deal.
They supported Vinita to bring out startups with numbers that don’t add up.
“They are running an MLM type of thing I feel. The way their followers are grouped together and they are all middle class 25-40 year olds tells you all you need to know. So their sales increase towards the end of the month because they are given targets and these people offer sales and new launches at that time, so they have no organics outside of their cult community. Brand does not exist B-Prak Things like concert and to keep them together my gf is a huge skincare geek, even she has converted 12/15k users in lifetime ACV of 19k is so fake that Vinita allowed them to go on the tank Also said for the first place,” commented one user.
“Genius step now victim card marketing,” said another user. “This year, thanks to Vinita, she is exposing a lot of startups with fake numbers. She said in an interview that her previous investment on Shark Tank gave her some bad experiences,” observed a third user.
“Vineeta is a gem. She literally busted them on their numbers when the boy had his laptop. Bhai ko laga 15 crores ki degega ki figure and sharks latu ho jaynge but isko nahi pana tha ki sab namitha Did Tarah ignore the facts. Great job, Vinita (sic),” another user said.
“Dude, I’m checking her Instagram, she shared a Vande Bharat Express long train of sympathy stories,” said another user.
