Shark Tank India is all set to make its much awaited comeback to the silver screen, with a whole new set of budding entrepreneurs who are ready to test the shark infested waters to see if they have what it takes to land an investment from some of the best business people in the country. A new addition to the tank this season is Amit Jain, the CEO and Co Founder of the CarDekho Group. The businessman, who seems to be replacing Ashneer Grover in the tank, has over a decade of experience as an entrepreneur, and is well aware of the mettle that is required to survive in the business world. In a candid chat with OTTplay, the entrepreneur opened up about what made him become a part of the show, his dynamic with his co-sharks, the lessons he learnt from his own business journey and more,

Excerpts from the interview…

What made you say yes to the show?

I’ve been running a company for 15 years and have been fortunate enough to get a lot of wisdom during the course of it. Coming to Shark Tank India, I’ve seen the first season become a great hit, and the show even inspired people from my neighborhood as well. I thought this would be a great platform for me to give my wisdom a voice and make an impact in the country and take the country forward in a way. I think that’s probably what excited me the most. Mostly I was excited by the fact that I can use this platform to inspire entrepreneurship across India.

You have been following the show since the first season. Didyou have any doubt or hesitation before you said yes, since it is reality TV?

I didn’t even think that much about it really. And I don’t even know the repercussions of reality TV yet, I guess. I was excited to say yes, I did not have any hesitation.

Before you went into the show did you have sort of a game plan? Had you already decided upon which kind of companies you would invest in? Or was it a decision that you took on the spot only after hearing each pitch?

Obviously, there was this philosophy of investing that I had before I went in. I wanted to invest in companies where I can make a good amount, multiples more than what I invested. Some places I wanted to invest in, where it could inspire a lot of people, I may not make a lot of money, but it will inspire others to do it.

Obviously, you will decide on the merit of the person who’s pitching, the founder and the idea that the person is proposing, but broadly, I think after these two things it can be divided into like, lets say, buckets.

The first one is where the pitch and the pitcher is great and there’s nothing but upsides. Second is where the founder is great but the idea may not be that scalable, but it could inspire a lot of other people in India to start entrepreneurship. And that’s the purpose of the show itself. To spark the entrepreneurship spirit of people sitting at home and watching the show.

As far as pre-decided plans were concerned, I was hoping to meet some great entrepreneurs with great ideas, which did happen.

When you analyse the pitch or when you decide upon a pitch which is more important for you, is it the person as in the entrepreneur or is it their product or business idea?

It’s the entrepreneur obviously, at such an early stage of business usually the entrepreneur is the key and then obviously, I would look into other factors like the market and how viable the product is.

When investing did you invest only in the areas which you considered your area of expertise or did you try to diversify your investment portfolio as much as you could?

I was not sector specific in my approach at all. I wanted to invest in every single area that also helps me have a larger exposure across various kinds of industries and also increase my own learning. I have been a founder first kind of, first principles of business guy rather than saying than let’s invest in only one sector.

How was your dynamic with the other sharks on the show?

I think we had a good time. In the heat of the moment we fought on some of the deals as well as had fun on the sets. But what happens in the tank, remains in the tank, which is the good part. When you go out of the tank you’re always seeing a professional friends.

In the show, of course, in the tank we are all trying to win deals, competing with each other at times and collaborating with each other on other times. But the good part is that whatever happens in the tank stays in the tank and in our professional lives we are friends.

I also wanted to know a bit about your own business journey. You graduated from IIT, worked in TCS and other reputed companies. So what made you take the plunge and become an entrepreneur?

I was from a joint family and my father was diagnosed with cancer. So me and my brother decided to move back to take care of the family and we both knew IT, being programmers, started a company around our own skills.

We had been thinking about opening a company for at least three years before we started. And this event kind of reset everything. And I’m happy that we took the plunge.

During the course of your business journey you witnessed a lot of ups and downs. During the tough times did you have any kind of mantra, which helped you get through the bad times?

I think that the times of crisis will probably teach you more than the times of success. You should learn to welcome the learning that you get along with the tough times and the downs. As things get difficult, you find out better ways to accomplish the business aims. And so I think it kind of helps to reboot, restart, and rise from the ashes again. I think you should welcome the learnings that come along with the failure.

Do you have a message for the up and coming entrepreneurs in the country?

Experience is something you will never gain until you try. And there’ll be a huge amount of learning. Irrespective of whether you succeed or fail, you will find a better version of yourself that is wiser. And I think if you’re starting a business, don’t start it for raising money or valuation. Find a true problem around you that you personally feel strongly about and build a solution around that and interact with all consumer, as in the consumers of your solution and you will get better versions of the solution every day. Be a better version of yourself and your product every day. And you will finally hit the gold mine eventually. Be perseverant. There are no shortcuts to success. You’ll fail more often. And that’s called learning, but you keep on persevering.