JOIN USB’luru startup gets a second life after TV show
A Bengaluru entrepreneur who teared up and declined a funding of Rs 75 lakh while acknowledging his startup’s shortcomings on a TV show says it is experiencing an ‘afterlife’ now.
Ganesh Balakrishnan sold the entire India inventory of his innovative casual sneakers in 48 hours after his pitch aired on the business reality show ‘Shark Tank India’ on January 9, and became a talking point on
LinkedIn and Twitter. These were about 450 pieces, priced between Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,000, and made from banana fibre and linen.
Buoyed by a suggestion made on LinkedIn, the founder of Flatheads announced a limited edition of 900 sneakers for India on Monday. An ode to the entrepreneurial spirit, he calls it ‘The Not Out Edition’.
“We are only taking orders now. We will start production after we receive 600 pre-orders,” he shares. The Flatheads website had logged 418 pre-orders on Tuesday night when the story went to print. “Even our inventories in the USA and UAE have started moving,” he informs.
This begs the question everybody who saw the episode wants to know: Is he shutting his startup and taking up a job instead?
What happened
His pitch started on a promising note but as the gaps in his business became evident later, he admitted he and his cofounder (who has quit) had spent Rs 35 lakh from their pockets each to keep the startup afloat.
His wife, a software engineer, has been supporting the family. Moved by his honesty and tenacity, the investors advised him to get a job, learn new skills, build financial security, and bounce back to the startup world.
“The episode was shot last August when Flatheads was over for all practical purposes. It got a second life after the episode aired recently and I am trying to figure out what is the right way forward. Should somebody take over and run it under a larger portfolio of brands? Should somebody acquire it as a mid-premium innovative wear as an extension of their brand? I haven’t wrapped up Flatheads yet,” the Bellandur resident says.
Had the episode aired much sooner, the IIT-IIM graduate would have tried to revive Flatheads, which began in 2019. “In this gap of five months, we had let go of our employees and even placed some in other companies. I started taking up consulting projects,” shares the 44-year-old.
Unexpected support
Currently, Balakrishnan is mulling over “four-five interesting job offers”, including the one investor Anupam Mittal made on the show. “I have received about a lakh invites on LinkedIn since,” he spoke of the unexpected response from startup peers.
“The founders of The Souled Store (a clothing brand) said my episode took them back to their struggling days. I had so much traffic coming to my website but I had no products left to sell, I told them. We spoke at 8 am and by 6.30 pm that day, they launched a ‘Down, But Not Out’ line of T-shirts on their website and agreed to give the profits to Flatheads. They sold more than a thousand T-shirts in three days and are still selling.”
Balakrishnan explains why the episode resonated with many: “Last April, our startup was doing pretty well. But four months later, in August, when the pandemic had dissipated and people were buying shoes, we ran out of money. ‘Shark Tank India’ became our last-ditch effort to raise funds. A startup journey is about blood, sweat and tears on a daily basis (sic). I think that story came across well.”
And, organically. “At some point during the shoot, the focus shifted from me pitching to investors, to investors and I talking about the failures we have faced. Entrepreneurs often feel lonely. But they were helping me to show where I was lacking and what I could do going forward. That’s why I got emotional,” Balakrishnan says.