The latest business reality series Mission Start Ab focuses on ten grassroot entreprenuers who are seen competing against themselves to become India’s next potential unicorn. These early stage founders face relentless challenges testing their entrepreneurial mettle in the seven episode series hosted by Cyrus Sahukar and Masaba Gupta.
The last-standing entrepreneur gets the chance to receive funding from India’s top investors - Kunal Bahl (Titan Capital and Snapdeal co-founder), Anisha Singh (She Capital and Mydala founder), and Manish Chowdhary (Wow Skin Science co-founder), who act as judges and mentors to guide and nurture contestants to sharpen the skills needed to scale their startups.
In an exclusive interview with DNA, we asked the investors and the show's co-host Cyrus on why they agreed to be a part of Mission Start Ab. Kunal said, "We are all incredibly passionate about entreprenuership because we are all entreprenuers in our own rights in different kinds of businesses. Through a show like this, we can share our learnings and backgrounds with a far larger set of aspiring and current founders. This show is about the ten startups and not about the three investors or the two fantastic hosts we have. We are just the enablers of their journey and thus, our goal is to inspire the innovators and risk-takers in the country."
Anisha stated she didn't know what she was getting into but she wanted to join Mission Start Ab becuase she started her own journey after seeing a founder. "What I love about the series is now, we see a lot of celebrations about the founders and we only see the good stuff. This show actually shows you the challenges and the lows in their journeys, and the grit and the resilience you need to be an entrepreneur", she added. Actor and VJ Cyrus also shared his reasons to host the show as he stated, "It's an ecosystem that I am inherently not a part of so there will be a lot of learnings and understandings. It's a great platform and I get to interact with these wonderful entrepreneus. This is a beautiful world to step into."
On being asked how is Mission Start Ab different from Shark Tank India whose third season will release soon after the two highly successful seasons, Manish said, "What you see in a 15-minute pitch, you don't create an attachment with that founder. In this show, those founders are going to be the poster boys of this country. They are going to be the superheroes of the show. It's a very respectful show towards the founders, which is so important in this ecosystem."
Made in association with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and directed by Srimanta Senguptta, Mission Start Ab is streaming on Prime Video.
