Shaily Mehrotra Joins Shark Tank India Season 5 as New Shark
Shaily Mehrotra, the co-founder of Fixderma and FCL, has officially joined Shark Tank India Season 5 as one of the new sharks. In an exclusive conversation with LiveMint, the entrepreneur leading a ₹1,500 crore company shared insights about her remarkable journey.
From Varanasi to Stanford: A Transformational Shift
Shaily Mehrotra grew up and studied in Varanasi before moving to Stanford at age 24. She describes Varanasi as giving her a solid foundation. "It's a city where life moves at its own pace, and you learn patience very early," she explains. "I grew up seeing people value sincerity over showmanship, and that shaped how I look at work even today."
However, the move to Stanford dramatically changed her perspective. "Moving to Stanford at 24 felt like someone suddenly widened my field of vision," she reveals. "Until then, I had ambition, but it was quiet, almost private. Stanford taught me that it's okay to dream loudly."
Seeing peers building global ventures with confidence transformed her mindset. She realized that approaching problems with clarity and honesty makes scale achievable through consistent work.
The Bootstrapped Journey: Staying Honest When It Hurt
Fixderma remained bootstrapped for 15 years before receiving funding from Lotus Herbals in 2021. Shaily recalls challenging moments when choosing integrity felt risky. "When you are bootstrapped, there were many moments when choosing the harder path felt almost irrational," she admits.
She remembers times when compromising on raw material quality would have improved margins. Competitors launched cheaper alternatives while Fixderma obsessed over active ingredients. "I had sleepless nights," she confesses. "But I also had a very clear line in my head: dermatologists trust efficacy, and consumers trust integrity. If we lost that, we'd lose everything."
Building Trust Without Legacy Background
Without industry connections or business lineage, Shaily earned dermatologists' trust through persistent effort. "I had no playbook and no industry surname to lean on," she states. "I started by simply showing up at clinics, city to city, with humility and curiosity."
She approached conversations not as sales pitches but as genuine attempts to understand skin concerns. When dermatologists criticized formulations, she took feedback directly to the lab. Her transparency gradually built credibility. "Over time, doctors realized that Fixderma wasn't here to just sell; we were here to solve," she notes. "Trust grows slowly and silently one honest conversation at a time."
Recognizing Scale Through Milestones
Fixderma's current valuation stands around ₹1,500 crore, but Shaily didn't experience a sudden realization about its potential. "There was no dramatic 'Aha!' moment," she says. "It grew on me gradually."
Key milestones included dermatologists preferring Fixderma products and consumers sharing success stories. "The first time a consumer wrote to us saying we had helped them with a concern they'd struggled with for years, that's when I realized this was bigger than numbers," she recalls.
Even today, she focuses more on problem-solving than valuations, reflecting Fixderma's brick-by-brick growth over 15 years.
Shark Tank India Approach: Backing Authentic Founders
As a new shark, Shaily feels drawn to founders with clarity, authenticity, and passion. "You can immediately sense when someone has lived the problem they're solving," she observes. "It shows in their eyes, not in their pitch deck."
She particularly connects with founders who have built quietly without recognition, relating to that journey. While profitability matters, she prioritizes intention. "Is the founder building to last? Are they willing to put in the boring, unglamorous work?" she questions. "Those are the people I find myself rooting for."
Uncomfortable Truths About Entrepreneurship
Shaily acknowledges that social media often hides entrepreneurship's harsh realities. "Social media shows the highlight reel, never the waiting period," she points out. "The truth is: being self-made is lonely."
She describes feeling caught between ambition and limited resources. As a woman entrepreneur, she balances multiple responsibilities silently. "You're constantly balancing emotions, family, work, and guilt, often all in a single day," she shares. "None of that shows up on Instagram."
Entrepreneurship involves doubt, sacrifice, and uncelebrated efforts. Her advice to young women: "You don't have to be perfect or fearless. You just have to be consistent and kind to yourself while doing it."
Shaily Mehrotra brings this grounded perspective to Shark Tank India Season 5, combining Varanasi's sincerity with Stanford's ambition to evaluate India's next generation of entrepreneurs.
