Ganesh Balkrishnan (founder of Flatheads shoe company) sells his entire Company within 2 days
After declining Shark Tank offer, IIT-IIM alumni Ganesh Balkrishnan sells his entire inventory in 2 days
Shark Tank India Season 2 is ongoing and streaming on the SonyLIV platform. In this season so far, there have been many pitches from start-ups across various verticals, but one that caught everyone’s attention was from the founder of Flatheads, Ganesh Balkrishnan, who is an IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) and IIM (Indian Institutes of Management) alumni.
In the January 5 episode of Shark Tank India Season 2, Ganesh Balakrishnan, a shoe brand pitcher, made the Sharks emotional with his story about how he is on the verge of shutting down his business. Anupam Mittal offered him a job at his company.
Balkrishnan is the founder of Flatheads, a shoe brand made of breathable fibers. Since he pitched his business, everyone following Shark Tank India has been talking about him and his courage to talk about a loss-making business on camera. Balkrishnan pitched his business as a loss-making one, which would break most entrepreneurs. But his zeal and dedication to turning the loss-making business into a profitable one received a great response. So much so that in just 2 days of the episode telecast, the entire inventory of Flatheads was sold out. Balkrishnan informed about the same through a LinkedIn post and thanked Shark Tank India and the Sharks — Anupam Mittal, Vineeta Singh, Peyush Bansal, Namita Thapar, and Aman Gupta.
“We’ve almost sold out our inventory in India, so pardon us if you aren’t able to find your size on www.flatheads.in. Would be amazing if you can tell your friends in the US and UAE to try our shoes,” his LinkedIn post read. In another post, Balkrishnan wrote, “After the Shark Tank India episode aired on Friday, there has been an unbelievable wave of compassion and support across the country. And along with that, we’ve received record traffic on our Flatheads website, all organic! I’m super excited to share that we’ve sold out our limited remaining quantity of shoes in 2 days flat! And for the first time ever, our CAC was Zero! (sharks please note).”
Despite having a loss-making business, Balkrishnan received two offers at Shark Tank India but he declined them to take up a job and learn the basics of business. He got an offer from Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com and People Group, and Vineeta Singh, Founder of Sugar Cosmetics, and Peyush Bansal, Founder of Lenskart. While most entrepreneurs would have taken the offer, Balkrishnan listened to boAt founder Aman Gupta who suggested Flatheads founder should take a job and learn the basics of business before taking his business forward.
To further encourage Balkrishnan, Gupta shared that his entrepreneurial journey was full of ups and downs. Gupta recollected that he once took up a job to save money and restart his failed business. Gupta also said that there’s nothing wrong with taking up a job if someone’s business is not working as expected. There’s no shame in looking for a job. When my businesses didn’t work, I took up a job, saved money, and came up with a new business,” the boAt CEO said during the Shark Tank India Season 2 episode. Inspired by the thought, the Flatheads co-founder rejected the Shark Tank offer and said that he would take a job, save money and come back stronger with his shoe business.
