FlexiMe co-founder reveals the enormous cost of 'thanking Shark Tank India'

FlexiMe co-founder Manjeet Singh took to LinkedIn to seek help at a time when his "dream-come-true" moment "converted into his worst nightmare" in just 30 days. The co-founders of FlexiMe, a wellness and fitness service platform, appeared on the Shark Tank India Season 3 on March 13.

"On 13th March, we got blessed and thankful to Sony Live and News Production and Shark Tank India for airing us on Shark Tank India season 3," Manjeet Singh said in a post. He first took the opportunity to explain how his company's brand recognition and visibility got a boost up after appearing on the show.

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"Our traffic grew by approx 80x and lead flow increased by over 40x. We got amazing visibility and branding and we were on the moon literally. We saw an amazing boost on social media especially Instagram and social media traffic boomed," Singh said.

A  month later, this rosy outlook took a nasty hit.

Exactly a month after, on April 13, FlexiMe founders started witnessing their "worst nightmare". Singh said, "suddenly our worst nightmare started on 13th April 2024, exactly 30 days after airing, when our Instagram suddenly got blocked without any warning."

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“Our ads account got blocked, it crashed our business and significant effect on leads and business,” he said. 

Singh said FlexiMe's revenues have been constantly falling since then, and its organic traffic took a hit. The company missed all its targets and the clients are getting worried.

 "We have no social presence and it's killer for an online business such as ours," Singh explained.

What had happened exactly?

Singh posted on LinkedIn post that Sony had "reported logo infringement and some other violations against" FlexiMe, and seven other companies.

"All we did was uploading some reels and posts of our own episode and thanking Shark Tank India. We never had any ill intentions," Singh said. "Suddenly all our Instagram and ad accounts have been blocked. We have running pillar to post to get it resolved," he added.

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Singh said his company did not get any warning e-mail or calls regarding the issue. The FlexiMe co-founder said if it was notified about any infringement, the company could have rectified it immediately.

He said his team has written apology emails to Sony Pictures Entertainment, Shark Tank India, legal teams, and also Meta teams. "However, no one is responding or helping us. It has been over 5 days, all of us founders and teams haven't been able to catch up sleep and (are) trying all alternatives," he added.

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“We are building FlexifyMe with a mission to help people live a life free from pain with best intentions,” he said. Singh lamented the founders and the team are losing all hope. He urged the LinkedIn community to help it wriggle out of the issue.

"We have built our accounts, business with years of hard work and sweat. Now everything is at stake," the embattled FlexiMe honcho said.

Livemint could not independently verify these charges.