Archive

The five young entrepreneurial teams had come well prepared with their bait. An equal number of ‘sharks’ were ready to bite. Cheered by the enthusiastic audience, the ‘sharks’ offered to  repose confidence in the entrepreneurs by investing sums varying from USD 10,000 (Rs 7,16,605) to USD 100,000 (Rs 71,66,050) at the first Zoroastrian Shark Tank (ZST) organized by the Youth Wing of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC) on July 3, 2019. The Canada based start-up Dhansak and Company "actually turned down a few offers made by the ‘sharks’ and opted instead for one of the investors to mentor them,” revealed Rashna Sanjana who had played a key role in masterminding this event during the Seventh World Zoroastrian Youth Congress (7WZYC) in California.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She was happy to report to Parsiana that Tanya Hoshi and Anaheez Karbhari of Dhansak and Company were quick to launch their apparel brand on Shahenshahi Navroz, August 17. The organizers have also come to know that one of the other entrepreneurs, Arius Iri of Tribe Hotels in Costa Rica has closed a deal with one of the ‘sharks.’ Ruzbeh Bacha of City Falcon, UK, a financial news engine, is still in talks with investors as is Farzan Dehmoubed of Lotus Trolley Bags, USA. Even if the program does not result in equity investment for all entrepreneurs, "they have taken back some great learning and definitely opportunities to get mentored by these iconic investors,” confirmed Sanjana.
"We went in with a clean slate of expectations considering this was the first ever Shark Tank style event anyone had ever done in the community,” noted Sanjana. As compared to a prerecorded Shark Tank TV show that is not in front of a live audience and hence can be edited to suitably depict the entrepreneurs and ‘sharks,’ the pressure on ZST participants was very high, realized the organizers. Each of the entrepreneurs was only permitted 20 to 25 minutes within which they had to make a presentation for 10 minutes and reserve the balance time for questions and negotiations with the ‘sharks.’
"When 7WZYC chair Parshan Khosravi and program chair Arzan Wadia approached us to conduct a ‘WZCC Day’ at the 7WZYC we knew that 7WZYC was the right fit for ZST for a global launch. The full team of the WZCC pitched in to make ZST a success including 7WZYC giving us backend support through it all. WZCC global president Edul Daver and Arzan were integral in grilling out details of how the first ZST should be carried out as well as sharing their knowledge of who would be good investors on the panel,” acknowledged Sanjana.
Potential ‘sharks’ were identified by the team based on their relevant experience in their respective fields, and their interest and ability to support the ventures initiated by the youth. Since they wanted the ‘sharks’ to be present during the event, they targeted mainly those in North America. Sitting in as ‘sharks’ were Xerxes Wania (serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Toronto, Canada), Cyrus Mistry (Google product manager, Michigan, USA), Alayar Dabestani (Dabestani Group, Washington, USA), Feroze Bhandara (entrepreneur, Texas, USA) and Khosro Mehrfar (Mehr Solar, California, USA).
Entrepreneurs were asked to submit their details on a Google form, along with important documents. Yazdin Mistry (an investment professional with the Kurlon Group) and Sanjana scrutinized applications every week for one month. Five were shortlisted "on the basis of different factors (such as financials, entrepreneur background, need for equity infusion and others) and scored them accordingly,” conveyed Sanjana. Those who scored the highest and indicated a willingness to spend on their travel and lodging costs for the trip to Los Angeles were selected for ZST. This meant excluding a few of the budding entrepreneurs from India.
Since the WZCC annual general meeting (AGM) in Orlando was in May 2019 and the Youth Congress two months later, being unable to make two back-to-back trips, WZCC youth director Jehaan Kotwal and Sanjana asked Daver which one they should attend. Seeing the opportunity of introducing 400 youth to WZCC, Daver advised them that their presence at the Youth Congress would be more productive. "They worked confidently and diligently and things gradually started falling in place. Rashna and Jehaan’s passion, ‘can do’ attitude and mature professionalism were a joy to witness and we are very proud of them. I personally feel that the entrepreneurial spirit of our youth is shining bright,” beamed Daver. He shared a quote from Mehrfar who wrote after the event, "I have been to a good number of investment meetings in different cities with various cultures and yours (given the limited time and also being the first one) is among one of the best I have been to so far. Kudos to Rashna and Jehaan for planning, managing and running such a successful program.” 
Coordinating for ZST whilst managing their respective business was a challenge as Sanjana runs StitchMyFit.com, an at-home designer service she co-founded for customized clothing for women, and Kotwal is chief executive officer of  JFK Transporters and founder of Humsafer Driver Safety Foundation. "It is always difficult to take out time from a venture that you are yourself trying to build and put that energy into something else, but we were pretty passionate about this from the start. It did require a lot of hard work,” admitted Sanjana. To adhere to deadlines, even after "terrible days at work I would be sending out emails as late as 2 or 3 a.m. so as to keep things on track.”   
Their interaction with entrepreneurs taught them that many in the community are looking for information on different kinds of funding/ how to go about receiving that funding/ what are the benefits associated with each. An educative session on funding will hence be organized this year.
Planning to conduct ZST every year, alternately in and outside of India, they propose to organize this session in conjunction with other events such as the WZCC AGM, Youth Congress, North American Zoroastrian Congress, World Zoroastrian Congress. For the second ZST that will be held in Lonavla to coincide with the WZCC AGM from January 3 to 5, 2020, they hope to draw more entrepreneurs. Expecting Mehraban Ardeshirian, WZCC director from Iran, and his team to attend the next AGM in Lonavla, they look forward to seeing entrepreneurs emerging from that region too.
While WZCC membership was not a prerequisite for entrepreneurs seeking funding through ZST, knowing that "WZCC has introduced many value added programs and benefits, it behoves our community to become members and encourage WZCC to do even more,” observed Sanjana. She referred to the palpable excitement after the ZST event with several youth talking of initiating or pursuing their business dreams. "We need to make a community of engaged mentors and entrepreneurs and this is the perfect platform to do so. Successful businessmen want to share their knowledge and expertise and budding entrepreneurs need it!” added Sanjana convinced that "Nothing breeds success more than success itself.”