Bombay Shaving Company launches its own Shark Tank

Much has been said and continues to be said about the start-up ecosystem in India. Amongst the various counsels of the few rights and the many wrongs, what really gets lost is the role mentorship and access to an authentic panel of advisors plays in creating a sound value-generating business.   Shantanu Deshpande’s popular podcast, ‘The BarberShop with Shantanu’, comes back with a truly game-changing season 2 to address this gap.

Taking a step back: In Season 1 - ‘The BarberShop with Shantanu’ humanised entrepreneurship. Shantanu's intimate conversations with the likes of Aman Gupta, Ankur Warikoo, Vineeta Singh, Rohit Bansal and several other celebrated entrepreneurs brought audiences closer than ever before to a founder's and start-ups journey and myriad shades. Over 1.5 Cr people tuned in to watch season 1. A community of over 200,000 start-up content enthusiasts has been created in just 3 months. 

Now, in Season 2, co-powered by Bombay Shaving Company and Bombay, The BarberShop with Shantanu - Raiser's Edge is raising the bar by becoming an enabler for budding  start-ups and their founders. The season brings together a corpus of 60 founders, CEOs, business leaders who have pooled in capital looking to partner in  early stage, post-revenue, start-ups, in a journey towards discovering value together.They will invest 50L-2 Cr per company via the BarberShop, targeting 20 investments over next 1 year.

Entrepreneurship represents the aspiration of an emerging generation of Indian's. Both Bombay Shaving Company and Bombae are new age homegrown brands looking to participate in culture meaningfully.  In that light, we are delighted to back the mission of 'The Barbershop with Shantanu - Raiser's Edge', said Deepak Gupta, COO of Bombay Shaving Company. 

Over the course of 4 episodes every month, which drops every Friday - Several Founders will showcase their business & story, and be invited to access mentorship, advice, capital and capabilities they need to build successful businesses in India. Founders only need to write in to tbwsraisersedge.com to start the process. 

The first episode of The BarberShop with Shantanu - Raiser's Edge was released last Friday and within 48 hours, 400 startups have already applied to be part of the programme. The episode featured passionate Bhopal-based Prateek Vats and Deepesh Shrivastava, founders of Wanderloom. While the humor quotient in this episode was through the roof, they also narrated the tale of how they built a formidable business through Covid. In addition to Shantanu Deshpande, Mandar Vaidya, CEO of OYO Europe, and Meghana Narayan, Founder of Slurrp Farm were also part of the episode and sought equity worth 50 lakhs in Wanderloom.

Shantanu Deshpande, Founder and CEO, Bombay Shaving Company & Bombae, host and creator of The BarberShop with Shantanu said, “ “India is a service driven country. The fundamental thesis and intent of The BarberShop with Shantanu is to play a role in bridging the entrepreneurship gap in the country. I'm excited about how we’ve started. With Season 2 we want to turn the concept of ‘pitch meetings’ and ‘funding meetings’ on its head. We intend to be ‘founder-first’ in approach and language. Why shouldn't it be an honest conversation between 2 equals, and not a founder standing and investor on a throne?! We are not creating your typical funding-for-equity ecosystem; This is about true value creation that stands the test of the market, and in a format that’s open for everyone to witness and learn from. Authentic, and sans the drama of course.”

Each episode will feature curious equity seekers and emerging founders sharing  their visions to pursue rewarding outcomes. The first 4 investments have already been made, the details of which will be revealed in the upcoming episodes.