As an entrepreneur if you are interested in investing in certain businesses, but are uncertain whether it's a sound decision, Shark Tank India's Anupam Mittal has some pointers for you. The Shaadi.com founder and CEO said he follows a model of investment he calls the "T5".
Here's what the five Ts in the model stand for:
1.) Total Market
While explaining what Total Market or "Tam" means, Anupam Mittal had explained in an episode of Shark Tank India, “How big can the potential market be for this product? Meaning, if I put in Rs 10 lakhs today, am I one day going to make Rs 10 crores?”
A product or service is only as good as its scalability across a wide market of potential customers, he explained. “I want to see a company that can return at least 100x, because 90 per cent of my companies are going to fail. So if I need 510x of my capital, then I need 10 companies to return me 100x, right That’s the startup game,” Mittal said.
2.) Team Anupam Mittal also stressed on the importance of team chemistry. He also revealed that when it comes to team members, he finds more than three to be worrisome. "There are high chances of a team breaking away if it has more than three members. That's why I usually look for a company which has two to three founders. But what matters more is their chemistry and for how long they have been working," Mittal said in the chat show.
"Most companies don't succeed because the chemistry among the founders is lost after sometime."
3.) Timing For Mittal, it is important to understand if the market ready for a product like that he is looking to invest in. To explain this, he recalls one of his own Shark Tank India investments, Nuutjob. “If you think about Nuutjob, most certainly you’re seeing a lot of attention towards beauty and personal care, with men getting more and more conscious,” he said.
“I think this is a hygiene-slash-grooming product that has an opportunity because there are not a lot of players in this space, but the BPC space (beauty and personal care) is certainly growing by leaps and bounds,” Mittal had said in Shark Tank India.
He also stated that the best example for timing is the success of D2C (direct to consumer) model of business because the internet use in the country shot up in the last four years.
4.) Technology
"In today's time, if you do not have a technology that sets you apart, then eventually you will get disrupted," Mittal said, explaining the role of technology in business.
Using the example of Shaadi.com, he said, "We don't use any raw materials, our business itself is heavily dependent on technology because we're making people meet virtually."
5.) Traction Traction refers to the different market figures and metrics that when trending, indicate the potential a service or product has in its target audience's mind. “When I’m evaluating if a company is beyond sort of the very early stage, then I want to see how their metrics are trending," Mittal had said in an episode of Shark Tank India.
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