Shark Vineeta Singh on importance of having a personal brand: 'You need to have a voice'

Shark Tank India judge Vineeta Singh recently opened up about the need to have a personal brand as an entrepreneur. Speaking to during a podcast with Tanmay Bhatt, the CEO of Sugar cosmetics emphasised that with the current trend of how social media is being used and consumed, one has to have a personal brand.

"I don't think you have an option but to have a personal brand," Singh said. "People are spending almost eight hours on their mobile devices. Personally, I used to be an introvert but this one time I posted something and suddenly journalists were calling... so if this (having a personal brand) helps the business, then why not?"

"Extending that to 2022, I think there's no option. You have to have a voice because young people don't trust ads, they trust authenticity. So a brand is equal to authenticity which comes from your voice," she added.

Vineeta Singh has recently found herself facing flak after the first episode of Shark Tank season two was aired on January 2. Viewers appeared to be disappointed with the judges on the business reality show after the most of them rejected the pitch of two entrepreneurs because they represented a cosmetics brand Recode. Since Singh too heads a cosmetics company, the Sharks refused to invest in "friend's rival business".

The move did not sit well with netizens who called out the Shark Tank India judges for being "unfair".

Although Singh has not commented on the incident yet, fellow Shark and Emcure Pharmaceuticals executive director Namita Thapar hit back at the critics. "Being a shark doesn’t mean we are not entitled to our independent values and speaking candidly so if I don’t invest in a fellow sharks competition, that’s me, no regrets," she said on Twitter.