Two sisters from Hyderabad presented their natural supplements brand, Earthful, on the latest episode of Shark Tank India. The sisters said that their hero product is a pill for menopausal women. The founders aimed for a valuation of Rs 75 crore, requesting Rs 75 lakh for 1% equity, showing substantial growth from their initial revenue.
Despite initial interest, the pitch raised several red flags among the investors.
Titan Capital founder Kunal Bahl was worried about their product-market fit. He highlighted the low repeat rates and noted that even with a standout product — a pill for menopausal women—they still needed to spend on marketing to attract return customers. He withdrew from the deal.
SUGAR Cosmetics co-founder and CEO Vineeta Singh was particularly alarmed when the founders said the pills need to be consumed within 2 months for best efficacy and revealed their shelf life is 12 months.
The sisters later revealed that they insisted the user should finish a bottle in 2 months since they wanted quick turnovers. To this, Singh said: “This is scary.”
Emcure Pharmaceuticals executive director Namita Thapar expressed concerns over the phrasing on the product. Thapar asked even if the founders were talking about efficacy, why would anyone take a product after it is no longer effective.
She added that the wording on the product can be easily construed as expiry.
Thapar and Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal were skeptical about the lack of clinical trials. Anupam even called out the founders for making big claims without conducting clinical trials.
Additionally, he criticised the tagline, “‘Nutrition that feels like comfort food,’ I have no idea what that means. How can pills be comfort food?” Vineeta Singh also withdrew from the offer, mentioning financial and logistic concerns.
She said that she does not believe that the founders are facing a product-market fit issue but there are other issues that are much bigger than PMF. Singh added that even though the founders are facing losses, their losses are decreasing.
“I think there are a couple of issues, the biggest is your 12-month shelf-life. It might take four months for your product just to reach customers. Also, you haven’t budgeted for inventory that might expire on your end, and that’s very dangerous in a loss-making business. And if only 35% customers are returning in a year, that’s very less.”
Despite concerns, Ritesh Agarwal offered a conditional deal, proposing Rs 75 lakh for 2.5 per cent equity, reduced to 2 per cent upon negotiation, based on meeting revenue projections. This deal was accepted by the sisters.