Shaadi.com founder Anupam Mittal is in the news for exposing Havintha, a hair care brand on season 4 of Shark Tank India. Bharat Khatri, the founder of hair care brand Havintha, claimed that they only produce natural products that help stop hair loss. .
He was seeking ₹50 lakh in exchange for 2 per cent stake in his company. The brand’s logo perplexed BoAt’s marketing director, Aman Gupta, who thought the logo resembled a cannabis leaf.
During her speech, Khatri said that Havintha sells different types of hair care products. He then claimed that he had built his business with just ₹22,000 of credit card debt and had made sales worth ₹5 crore in the previous financial year.
Just when everything seemed to be working out for the pitcher, Mittal questioned his qualifications and the science behind his products. Later, the founder admitted that he had no qualification in Ayurveda but had an AYUSH license.
Needless to say, the speech left netizens impressed with Mittal, who supported him for calling out the brand’s ‘quackery’.
“Anupam is the only one to expose such Ayurvedic quackery. Some of these guys are behaving like idiots while presenting the TRP. He owns a manufacturing plant which will require huge investment along with various licenses and claims he doesn’t know not what ingredients and what order in the label,” one user said.
“Indians would buy anything in the name of natural, ayurveda and all that, I don’t doubt his sales or numbers, but Anupam’s comments were spot on, he should have had some support behind his claims,” another user said.
“He was not the real founder of havintha, what I think is that it was just a marketing stunt used by the founders of havintha in order to promote their product worldwide (as it is (were D2C products),” a third user noted.
“Ayurveda is a scam, most of its products are not science, it’s sudoscience. 90% don’t work. 10% have reality, but if you live long enough you can at least know some beneficial local herbs etc. which are given I always stay away from this nonsense,” commented a fourth user.
During the pitch, Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl said he believed Khatri and what he was doing. Even though he refused to invest in the company, Bahl asked Bharat to contact him when he converted Havintha into a private limited company.
After the founder left, Mittal and Bahl discussed the product and the entrepreneur.
Bahl said many home remedies have been passed down from generation to generation and many people don’t really know how these remedies work. Mittal, however, said: “When you pack ghar ka nuskha and sell it in the market, then you have the responsibility to do so responsibly. I’m sorry to say it, but I felt it was total charlatanism.
