I came across Shark Tank while switching TV channels aimlessly on a lazy Sunday morning. It struck me like a hammer. Here is one of the best ways to hustle and drum up much-needed foreign capital and investment.
In the Shark Tank episode, two entrepreneurs with two contrasting products pitched to the four judges – two men and two females –for capital for their enterprises. The judges who are investors are known as Sharks. They decide instantly whether to invest or not after giving their reason.
One product was a toilet timer to measure the time taken sitting on the throne. It's a fancy little plastic or glass case timer. The entrepreneurs were a man and a woman. The man did all the talking, which would have created a furore in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal as the privileges of patriarchy.
After familiarising the Sharks with their products and sales, actual and prospects, the man told an amount to the judges.
He informed the Sharks that he sold his product on Amazon. Each Shark judge asked their questions, with three opting out and one deciding on investing, I think, $200,000 for a 15 per cent cut. The whole thing took less than five minutes on TV.
Another participant slid onto the stage wearing his ski shoes. He gave an impressive sales pitch with information about the unique quality of his self-balancing ski shoes, which made ski sticks and boards redundant. Calling himself a sales monster, he gave remarkable sales progression information in a short period.
He also told the judges that he sold people to people directly as the distributors tried to wring him out of his profit. His shoes cost $100 a pair. It seems the guy would get the capital, but he failed! First, except for one judge, nobody had much clue about skiing. Another male judge knew about skiing, but he said the skiing industry was worth billions of dollars. It was too small a business for him. The fourth fence sitting judge decided to opt out after listening to the entrepreneurial journey. She asked him point blank if he was not going to stab her in the back.
The lesson here is you may have a great product, but if people perceive a lack of honesty and integrity, which is a strong trait of the Nepalis, you lose out.
I hope our traders will find this a productive read and participate in such programmes where they can pocket a few hundred thousand dollars in a flash. There is no need to keep on harping on foreign investment. It has to be legal in the country, and the programme manager must find our traders worth their time. But it is a great way to go to the investors. Our TV channels can start an imitation programme.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 29, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
