We all have epiphanies where business ideas emerge in our heads. So why not create an opportunity for those whose lives can forever be changed by such a revelation?
On Thursday, August 6th, Neel Kothari and Siddhant Nahar from DP 2 organised The Shark Tank Jr. 2.0 competition. It was a simulation of the famous Shark Tank television series based in the USA. Numerous students submitted their business ideas in the preceding week and after a painfully scrutinising evaluation, 5 names flourished on the top - Sujan Nahar, Kushal Pai, Krish Khandelwal, Romir Chaphalkar and Saaransh Malhotra.
The esteemed judges were Mrs Pushpaja Nambiar, Mrs Nikita Johnson, Mrs Kumul Panwar, Mrs Vasudha Pai and Mrs Sheetal Bagati. The competition commenced at 4 pm sharp.
The first presenter was Romir Chaphalkar with his company ‘AMPHI VR’. He informed the ‘sharks’ about Virtual Reality headsets that currently cost in the tens of thousands. Thereon-forth he introduced his idea of making a WiFi-enabled 3D VR headset out of paper. Though peculiarly similar to the Google Cardboard, his product would cost a mere 2,999 rupees and would allow free access to newly released movies. An intriguing idea to say the least.
The next participant was Sujan Nahar. Sujan’s enterprise, ‘Flash’, would produce power bank vending machines, each holding 12 pieces. We all face the problem of running out of battery quite often, so his machines would lend users portable power banks for just 20 rupees an hour. His goal was to place one every km and this would cost him approximately 66 lakh with a break-even period of only 68 days. He admitted that some countries have already adopted this idea and showed a prototype model he developed.
Next up, we had Saaransh Malhotra. Saaransh’s company, ‘Illuminate’, was a BlueTooth and NFC technology competitor, however being one that operates 400 times faster. He believed that we could replace the above-stated technologies with an app that uses a phone’s camera and its flashlight to establish a mini Light-Fidelity ( LiFi ) cell. To make his idea clear, he used a working prototype model to convey how the technology operated. Moreover, through mathematical models, he projected that in 10 years, with 1% of the market share, profits would be approximately 940 crores. He predicted that the software would cost 20 lakh rupees to develop and the break-even period would be 1 year and 9 months.
The next participant was Krish Khandelwal. Krish’s app, ‘Reserve to Serve’, would restrict the transmission of the Coronavirus in malls when they open up. As most stores only allow a few people in at a time, using the app one could book a time slot for their visit to the store. He mentioned that by partnering up with a mall, people would receive a 10% discount from all stores visited by them. His current competitor, situated in Chennai, has developed a similar app but on a much smaller scale.
Our final participant was Kushal Pai. Kushal’s enterprise, ‘B-Tech’, targeted blind children, making their lives more entertaining. Being a fan of board games and puzzles, his idea was to manufacture Rubik’s Cubes whose sides are made of different materials to facilitate the blind into using their products as well. He believed his target audience to be around 7-15-year-old blind children in India, summing up to about 25 million citizens. To make this dream possible, he pleaded for an investment of 1 lakh rupees.
The sharks took a 20-minute session to decide on 3 questions to ask each participant about their business. Numerous business aspects were covered including sanitation shortcomings, range restrictions as well as target audiences.
At long last, the results were declared. Saaransh Malhotra took the first place with 230 points! Next was Sujan Nahar with 180 points! And then we had Kushal Pai with 45 points!
All in all, the event was one of illumination and evolution - both of what the future holds for the participants and of what the ideas could transform into. The students were advised by the teachers in the interjection round which would help them in becoming successful future entrepreneurs.