Why shows like Shark Tank are extremely misleading

Shark Tank is an American reality TV show in which "Aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world pitch their business models to a panel of investors and persuade them to invest money in their idea.". It was started in 2009 and is currently in its ninth season.

The show revolves around entrepreneurs who pitch their idea to a group of 4-6 investors and hope to secure an investment from at least one of them. While the idea behind this show is not only to provide a platform for entrepreneurs to win an investment but also improve and inspire young minds who watch this show, the show is extremely misleading.

In each episode, about five startups pitch their ideas to the panel. Each entrepreneur begins by introducing themself, their venture and their ask (eg. $100,000 for 10% stake). This is followed by the panel of 'sharks' questioning them about their product/idea/revenue/future plans and likewise. After this, potential investors either agree to invest or go "out", i.e. not invest. In every episode, at least 1 or 2 entrepreneurs win a deal, or so we are made to believe.

Why is this show misleading? Firstly, the show portrays that deals are easy to make and can be done in a matter of few minutes. This is completely untrue. The actual effort needed to win an investor in the real world is not portrayed. People, heavily influenced by this show believe that an investment can be secured by just asking for a sum of money, negotiating a little bit and then closing the deal. The show create an image of an Utopian world wherein two people bargain as if they were buying fruits and vegetables from a street vendor and both mutually agree or disagree within a very narrow time frame. The time and effort required to convince an investor to part with his money is much more than what we see on television. This creates negative inspiration for people to start their own business without the required skill sets or understanding.

Secondly, the show claims that investors invest their own money with no interference from the producers. While this is most probably true, according to various sources on the internet, it is claimed that only about 6/10 deals actually go through, as the handshake and hug that we see on TV is not at all binding. The due diligence carried out after an investor 'agrees' sometimes takes months and on many occasions has resulted in the deal not going through for other reasons. This side of the show is never broadcasted on TV and gives people an idea that at least 50% of pitches are successful.

Thirdly, the creation of a successor to this show, 'Beyond the Tank' in which, "Six business tycoons, who invested in start-ups, reconnect with aspiring entrepreneurs and check on their businesses to gauge their progress and talk about the difficulties of starting a company" , creates a false image that whenever there is a small problem faced by a company, their investor, who has probably invested in hundreds of other companies will help them sort their issues. The whole basis of this is completely flawed for the reason that these investors who earn thousands of dollars per hour would not waste their time tending to the problems of a company whose valuation is worth pennies. This just proves that the reason they 'care' about these companies is only to create content for viewers like you and me. What is in it for them? According to leaked reports, ABC pays sharks above $30,000/episode of Shark Tank. Clearly, they will be receiving the same, if not more for their time on Beyond the Tank. Well, they do not sound too much more 'caring' about these small businesses now, do they?

While I do agree that Shark Tank has been successful in teaching us basic jargon of the business industry and has given us the basic understanding of various structures of investments (debt, equity, royalty etc.), their way of presenting the show has mislead the masses.

Comments

Visiting the Kasturinagar (KA-03) RTO - a tumultuous but manageable experience to get a Learner's/ Driver's License without an agent/ driving school

Ask anyone, and I can guarantee that they will have a story (and in most cases, many stories) about their trip, or rather, numerous trips to the RTO for something as simple as getting a Learner's License (LL) or a Driver's License (DL). In this blog, I hope to make your life a tad bit easier by guiding you through the entire process, which may seem easy at first but is full of (overcome able) challenges if you know what you are doing. I turned 18 in January this year, and besides cutting a cake, I worked on my LL application online. I challenged myself to complete the entire LL to DL process by myself and without the help of an agent or a driving school, unlike what the majority do. The lengthy application process and multiple visits to the RTO, impressed upon me why most people decided to pay a little extra to get an agent to do it for them. Still, I was determined not to pay a single rupee more than the official cost. I succeeded. Do note that this answer is concerning the K...

Opinion on the Tax Rebate - Budget 2019

Source The Union Budget of India that was presented on Feb 1, 2019 was a populist-vote bank driven one filled with proposals to woo all possible stakeholders who are eligible to vote. Be it farmers, the middle class or the economically stronger ones, all sections of society after a brief glance at the highlights of the budget will be content with what Piyush Goyal has to offer in the sixth and final Budget of this term of the NDA. Although I found many parts of the budget a questionable waste of money to fuel populist schemes, I did enjoy certain parts of it, especially the newly introduced tax rebate. The proposed tax rebate in which income upto INR 5 lakhs is essentially tax-free is one that I wholly welcome for many reasons. The tax-rebate proposal and terms is something that I welcome unconditionally but the way how the Finance Minister has portrayed income up to INR 6.5 lakhs tax free (with the disclaimer that this is only possible if all the 'right' investments ar...

Plan A, Plan B. And Plan C?

I wrote this in May 2026 and then left it sitting in my drafts for six weeks. Partly because it feels more personal than what I usually put online. Partly because writing honestly about uncertainty is uncomfortable when most of us are busy performing certainty. And partly because I wasn’t entirely sure I believed all of it yet. I’m still not sure. But perhaps that’s the point. So, here goes. ----- May 2026 Two years ago, I moved back to India. I hadn't planned on it. In fact, if you'd told me in 2020, when I packed my bags and left Bangalore for France, that I'd be back in four years, I'd have laughed it off as a failure of imagination. The plan had always been to stay abroad and build a career in Europe. The universe, well, had other plans. Four years abroad had been, by most measures, a good run. Two years in France at Sciences Po, a well-paid summer internship in Paris, the youngest funded researcher on a research project between Princeton, Columbi...

The Road to Sciences Po - Application to Acceptance to Admitted Students' Day

Sciences Po has been my dream college since tenth grade. I made a radical shift in the first half of tenth grade and decided to drop culinary arts as my career choice and focus on politics and international relations. Sciences Po was the obvious choice. What made Sciences Po lucrative in the eyes of an Indian (international) student like me? Their interdisciplinary program that does not restrict you to just Politics/ IR/ Economics/ Sociology etc. I have to choose my major in my third semester which gives me time to experience the different fields and make a suitable choice, Their teaching methodologies (seminars/ lectures, civic projects, small-sized classrooms for discussions etc.) All English courses - I must specify this because not all universities In France/ Europe teach in English. Even in Sciences Po, only 3 out of their seven regional campuses teach in English at the UG level. The mandatory third year abroad at one of their 470 odd partner universities wh...

Paneer

In the past few months I have started to enjoy cooking. With one of my favourite ingredients, Paneer I created my own dish. Here is the recipe: Ingredients: Paneer Coriander Leaves Salt Pepper Oil (Preferably Olive Oil) How To Make It: Cut the paneer into small pieces to get small cubes. On a frying pan shallow fry the paneer to get a light brown colour. Put it into a bowl and add salt and pepper to taste. You can add the coriander leaves as dressing or for a light flovour of herbs. Serve it HOT. Variations: You can also add some lemon juice for tanginess. Coming soon- a tasty recipe that uses brinjal!

Hampi

As you might already know from my previous post, my family and I went on a holiday to Hubli and Bijapur. You can view the previous post by clicking here . After coming back to Hubli, we left our grandparents at their house and then left for Hampi. Day 1 We departed from Hubli at 11:45 a.m. and reached Hampi at 3:30 p.m. After checking into a hotel we walked around Hampi. First we went to a temple. The architecture inside the temple was very nice. We left the temple and went to the river nearby. As the river is very dirty we decided not to step in to the river. Afterwards we went to a place which had a few rocks and ruins. We climbed a few steps and then stopped and headed back to our hotel as it was getting dark. Then we went to Hampi's famous restaurant for dinner - The Mango Tree. Day 2 We had breakfast at around 7:30 a.m. Then we hired a guide and an auto-rickshaw. The guide agreed to take us around Hampi. First we went to a temple called the Virupaksha Temple. Vir...

Life during the COVID-19 lockdown

The past three weeks have impacted people around India in different ways. The migrant labourers and daily wage workers have unarguably been affected the worst. It has been an interesting three weeks in which the concept of privilege was spoken about vastly in the media. Even though the salaried middle class is also affected, their lives have been phenomenally better than, for example, those they employ to clean their houses or wash their dishes. It is at times such as these that I realise how lucky a majority of my friends and I are. While most of the country is suffering (suffering in the real sense of not being able to afford and procure three square meals a day and NOT because a shop ran out of imported cheese) in lockdown, my parents could work from home, without intruding into each other’s personal space and could carry out some, if not most of their work from the comfort of their house, unlike the majority of the country. I have been reading articles about the shortfalls of in...

Sanjith Rao

Search This Blog