Whatever Happened To Savy After Shark Tank?
While many entrepreneurs on "Shark Tank" — like The Comfy founders Brian and Michael Speciale — have larger-than-life personalities as they confidently pitch their businesses, some are blatantly nervous as they stand in front of the sharks.
On Season 9, Episode 18, Disha Shidham stumbles on her words as she explains her creation of Savy: an app that allows shoppers on a budget to get alerts when a too-expensive product that they love drops to a price they're able to pay. She says, "I love shopping online and, you know, as a teenager on a budget, you can't negotiate on prices at all, right? So Savy helps you set your price."
Shidham, age 20 at the time of her "Shark Tank" appearance, had been running Savy for a year after a previous shopping-centric start-up, which she launched as a high schooler, failed. Was her shaky presentation enough to land her a deal, let alone her request of $100,000 for 10% equity? Read on to find out.
Savy doesn't get a deal from the sharks
From the get-go, the sharks express concern with Disha Shidham's Savy app. Despite having 1,000 stores and 2,000 users signed up, not a single sale has been made through Savy. Though Shidham stresses that she has verbal commitments from several large retailers to join, this isn't enough for the sharks, especially Lori Greiner. "A verbal commitment isn't anything to an investor," says Greiner. "We have to know tangibly, what are we investing in? I don't feel like this is fully fleshed out yet."
The sharks also aren't thrilled with Shidham's varied background, which includes dropping out of college and leading Tru Colors, a program to help rehabilitated gang leaders start a brewery. Mark Cuban tells her, "There's a whole world that you know nothing about that you're trying to pick up in bits and pieces," while Kevin O'Leary says she needs some discipline in her life.
As for Robert Herjavec, he's empathetic about her decision to leave school but doesn't feel she has the drive just yet to make it as a business owner: "If you're not gonna go to school, I need you to be fanatically obsessive about what you're doing, and you're not. I'm out."
Shidham leaves with no deal and is upset about how her "Shark Tank" experience went down. "I'm pretty angry," she says off-stage. "I don't think they took the time to listen. I feel like they're missing out. I don't need them."
Savy is no longer in business
Disha Shidham tried to continue Savy post-"Shark Tank," telling WECT that she had potential partners reaching out to her as she planned to launch a paid version of the app. She said, "Leaving there, obviously, it hurt coming away without a deal. It wasn't the outcome that I wanted, but ... I'm grateful that I got to go through that experience, and right now I'm just working away. I have a lot of emails to respond to, and [I'll] continue coding and developing contacts with retailers and such and keep moving Savy forward."
Shidham believed she could make Savy successful without a shark investment, but ultimately, she was wrong. Not very long after her failed "Shark Tank" appearance, Savy fell to the wayside like her previous business. At the time of this writing, the website is dark and the last Instagram post came in December 2018, almost a year after the episode aired.
There may not have been a huge need for Savy
No concrete reason for Savy's demise has been revealed by Disha Shidham. Ultimately, Savy likely failed because of the reasons listed by the sharks: lack of sales and Shidham not dedicating her entire focus to the app. There's also the possibility that there simply isn't a market for something like Savy. Yes, it would be great to finally snag that expensive clothing item for a discounted price. However, a sale could take weeks or months, and by then, the customer could likely find a cheaper alternative elsewhere. Therefore, even if Savy got a shark investment, it's not a given that it would've been successful.
Due to her lack of public social media profiles, including LinkedIn, it's unknown whether or not she still has the entrepreneurial spirit and is trying her hand at a fresh concept. Still, according to Shidham in her WECT interview, one good thing came out of her "Shark Tank" appearance: Tru Colors got some positive exposure and, at the time of this writing, is still very much in operation.