The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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Balakrishnan Rejected Shark Tank Offer Because 70 Lakhs Was Insufficient
“And I genuinely believe that
You know, 70 lakhs is not enough for, you know, creating this all over again.
Which is why I said no.”
Balakrishnan: Flatheads Should Have Paused Operations During COVID Lockdowns
“I would have paused everything. I would have told people to go take a holiday, right? And come back and we will try when this madness dies down. I would not have spent as much on trying to force the product into the market where the demand was low, which is wh…”
Functional Positioning Fails to Create Brand Aspiration in Footwear
“Functional positioning, you are not able to create the aspiration. So I would have played the brand story a little differently, right? Given a little more of an emotional connect rather than a pure functional connect.”
The Indian Foot Has Never Been Measured in a Scientific Study
“The Indian foot versus the Chinese foot versus the American foot. Versus the European foot is very different. And guess what? We are the second largest consumer of footwear in the world because we are the second largest population in the world. But Indian foot…”
Flatheads Is Dormant and Exploring Potential Acquisition Partners
“Right now the company is still very much, you know, pretty much dormant, right? We have done all our supplier negotiations and closed stuff. So we are trying to figure out whether there is a potential home where flatheads can belong. It could be another brand.…”
Shark Tank India Judges Called Public Reaction to Flatheads Pitch Unprecedented
“Every shark has called me and said this is unprecedented, right? Throughout the two seasons, they have not seen anything like this, right?”
Shark Tank India Was Flatheads' Last-Ditch Effort to Survive
“Actually, that was our last ditch effort at You know, keeping flatheads alive. So once the episode was done and we realized that, Hey, there's movement is not forward. So then, you know, we had a lot of conversations with our, you know, suppliers, partners, ev…”
Flatheads Founders Incurred 70 Lakh Rupees in Personal Liability
“So both of us had put in 35 lakhs each. So there's about 70 lakhs of personal liability that we have. Not counting the pre-corporation of the company, one and a half years that we worked, that was about 20, 25 lakhs each.”
Flatheads Lost All Potential Funding Term Sheets in April 2022
“And then when April happened, all the, you know, conversations and potential term sheets that were on the table also went away. So when the demand actually came, we didn't have the marketing money to do something meaningful.”
Flatheads Expanded to Zappos in the US to Hedge COVID Disruptions
“So then second wave, we hedged our bets. We decided to go international, right? Zappos had called saying, Hey you know, we need fresh infusion of interesting shoes and USPs for our core audience. So we are opening up an international program. Would you be inte…”
Flatheads Generated 25% of Organic Traffic From LinkedIn and Twitter
“We got 25 to 30% organic traffic from LinkedIn and Twitter, not from Instagram as a brand, right?”
Flatheads Previously Raised 10.5 Crore Rupees for 33% Equity
“Look, I had raised 10 and a half crores for 33% earlier, right?”
Flatheads' Advisors Explicitly Advised Shutting Down During the Pandemic
“Our advisors told us this, that shut down and take a vacation. The voices were there. Okay. And these were voices who have been through multiple, you know, cycles of bad times and good times. This was a once in a generational event for sure, but the voices wer…”
Flatheads Converted One in Three Customers at Pre-Pandemic Pop-Ups
“Every week we used to do at least two roadshows, and that worked beautifully well, right? People tried the product, one in three customers who used to walk into our pop-up used to convert into customers.”
Flatheads Sold Out All Remaining Inventory Within 38 Hours of Airing
“Within 38 hours, all the remaining inventory that we had, we sold out.”
Flatheads Paused India Operations While UAE and US Inventory Sold Autonomously
“We had some limited inventories in India, and we had inventories in UAE and US, which were selling on autopilot. So that is something that was going on. We said, let it continue. Eventually, this episode will air. So at that time, we'll see what happens. Until…”