Exclusive: Viraj Bahl on the public admiration he’s been getting due to Shark Tank India; says ‘I still feel embarrassed when people ask me for selfies’

Entrepreneur Viraj Bahl, Founder and Managing Director of Veeba (VRB Consumer Products), has joined the Shak Tank India 5 panel. This is his second time in the show and spoke about his experience with the new pitchers, his views and approach towards his own business and more while speaking to Times of India TV.

While meeting so many entrepreneur in Shark Tank India, if his approach towards his own business has changed, Viraj said, “You know, frankly it has. I would think sometimes that I found our company lacking in certain things which I saw the younger starters were doing much better than us, especially in the digital marketing and digital sales. If you look at our company, 71-72% of our revenue comes from general trade, you know, kirana shops. 10% comes from modern trade and only 10% comes from e-com and 10% is B2B. This figure of 10% of e-com revenue was only 2-3% 2 years back when I came to Shark Tank. It was very eye opening for me to see that what the younger companies are doing and we need to or we should learn from them. I think we've done a good job learning from the younger companies at how important e-com sales are and today I'm very proud to say we are category leaders in almost every quick com slash e-com, you know, marketplace that we operate in and I think the inspiration for this came from the younger entrepreneurs.

I still get embarrassed to be honest, if someone comes and asks me for a selfie or especially if I'm with my sons and someone comes and asks me. It's very embarrassing because they get excited and I have to contain their excitement also but you know I understand that people are doing it out of love, I understand people are doing it out of a very good place and a nice place. I have learned to appreciate it a lot now, you know, I don't feel, how do I say it, by doing this, I feel thank you for doing it.

I've made many mistakes. There was this one year we launched a very big brand, a massive launch, massive distribution. We've always been near about breakeven, we've always been plus minus breakeven, that one year we went heavily into loss making and it really shook my core as an entrepreneur and now I sometimes sit back and tell myself, okay Viraj, it has happened but because of that. I can't stop taking risks, so that setback or that failure I think stopped me from taking a lot of other opportunities which were much safer but that fear had sat in my head that what if I, you know, burn another big hole in the company's balance sheet. With our last brand launch, I think I took the risk and the consumer is giving us so much love, it's doing very well, so I'm trying to, you know, overcome that.

Sometimes as founders, even I've been guilty of it, sometimes as founders, like our idea so much that we're not willing to listen to the market. The product I just spoke about which failed and it was a nutrition product, we were putting, I made it for my own children, you know, it was probably the best milk additive that you can find in the market but to make it the best and the best and the best, the price point reached 300 rupees for 200 grams, the other brands were selling it at a lower price so my creation, no one was willing to kind of buy. Sometimes you need to balance your own crazy ideas with the reality of the market and that is a place where I would like a lot of entrepreneurs to focus on.

I think I'm a product person. For me, product always is very important. If I look at my journey, it was product first journey. So, a product, a good product can find the market. But if the product is not good, no matter how great or brilliant the entrepreneur is, you know, product will not find its market fit. So, I think product is, I think even if I say very bluntly, Viva is bigger than Dheeraj. So, the product is always bigger than the founder.

The piece of advice I would give is twofold. One is, focus on the details. In business, that's everything. And second is, you'll have bad days, you'll have really bad days. But, you know, Shah Rukh Khan said, picture abhi baaki hai meri dost. Picture abhi baaki hai. Life does not come to a standstill because of punches to your chin. Rest, recoup, go back to work the next day at 9am, show up and things will start falling in place. Failure is a part of life. I am guilty. Agar merko aaj koi jaa ke bolta na, 20 years back, Viraj ko kuch advice do, the only advice I would have given myself is don't take everything so seriously. Chill a bit in life. I think I forgot to chill in life in between. So, I think I would give that advice to entrepreneurs. This is not everything.

They're very young. They're 14 and 11. I don't know if they will. I just want them to be happy. If they want to join business, they'll have to prove themselves to join. If they, one day run Veeba, they have to doubly prove themselves that they're capable of running Veeba. But my business, or not my business and something other, I genuinely want them to be happy. And I hope they excel more than me in life. But I, as a father, emotionally speaking, their happiness is one of my driving forces. I still keep thinking what can I create for them, for my two sons.

Excited, you know, very excited. They say, ‘Papa, you're on TV’. It's amazing. So, I want that childlike excitement for myself. You know, I saw myself on Shark Tank. I think after they had seen it for five times and they forced me. I felt a little weird watching myself on TV. It was like, how do I say, cocky, that you're eating popcorn and watching yourself on TV. It was just feeling weird. So, I have seen my episodes on Shark Tank, but fast forwarded.