Founder of Tetr College of Business and Masters’ Union, Pratham Mittal, has joined Season 5 of Shark Tank India for a Campus Special. After admitting to feeling ‘imposter syndrome’ about it in a LinkedIn post, the businessman tells Hindustan Times in an interview that ‘despite the risk’ that comes with being on television, he thought it was worth it to champion student entrepreneurship.
“You can’t be overtly critical of someone so young. Even if they make mistakes, they need to be told it’s okay instead of putting them down,” he tells us. Speaking to HT over Zoom from Andaman, Pratham talks about everything from why he’s passionate about student entrepreneurship to his friendship with co-shark Aman Gupta, the co-founder of boAt Lifestyle, teasing which other sharks on the show he gets along with the most, and more.
Aim is to motivate, rather than criticise
Ask Pratham how he went from running colleges to landing his gig on Shark Tank India 5, and he chalks it down to ‘much of the business community is the same’. But he also seems prepared for what he’s about to take on. “I think I’ll say something controversial,” he smiles, adding, “I feel that reality TV is very ruthless. We need to bring more heart into it, and I hope I can be that positive voice. Right now, the narrative towards entrepreneurship is a little critical, and that makes me uncomfortable. I mean, this person has left their job to try something new. They need feedback, not criticism.”
Shark Tank India, over the years, has had moments that have been nitpicked and criticised not just by the pitchers but also by viewers. When asked about it, Pratham’s smile just gets wider. “I’m a very soft person. We haven’t met in person. But if you meet me, you’ll know it’s very difficult for me to say anything that’ll hurt somebody,” he says, adding, “I think I’ll be fine…I might be boring, but that’s a separate issue (laughs).” Does this mean that Pratham will not be butting heads with his fellow sharks at all? “You’ll have to wait to see that,” he says, refusing to reveal more, but adding, “Whatever you see on screen is reality; it’s quite authentic.”
However, there’s one person he’s surely not butting heads with, and that’s Aman Gupta. “Aman is a very close friend, and he helped me feel very comfortable while shooting. He also happens to be my neighbour. Peyush Bansal has been to Masters’ Union, so I’ve known him. I’ve also been in touch with Ritesh Agarwal in the past. Maybe because they’re all from Delhi, like I am, it helped us get along well. People have been incredibly nice. We don’t know what kind of companies we see on a given day; it’s as much a surprise for us as the audience,” says the new shark.
Moving beyond the 9-5 in more ways than one
Pratham has built a successful career by not just founding educational institutions, but also ensuring his students don’t feel boxed in any manner. “Gen Z and Alpha aren’t very patient, and climbing the corporate ladder slowly feels like a risk to them. For the young ones in my family, jobs are a backup because they aren’t as secure as they once were. To keep up with that, Masters’ Union and Tetr are based more on building businesses than mugging curriculum. It’s like if an incubator and a college had a baby,” he says, adding, “One motivation for me for coming on Shark Tank is also so I can talk more about this.”
Pratham also champions for a rehaul of the ‘exams, slides, lectures, grades, attendance and textbook’ rut that the education system currently hinges on. “The only place other than school with a uniform, bell and strict schedule is a jail. The system is hundreds of years old, when people were being prepped to serve in the army or work in factories. We need the system to be relevant for tomorrow,” he says, adding how ‘it makes no sense’ that most educational institutions in India don’t even allow students to carry laptops.
Much like ‘communities, political parties and countries we don’t understand’, Pratham states that AI is not something to be feared. “Holding the spider in your hand is the only way to gain a competitive edge. Robots will come and kill us one day, but that is maybe five or six years away,” he jokes.
Pratham also doesn’t believe in structured working hours, he says, at a time when Narayana Murthy and Deepika Padukone both shook up their respective fields with their opinions. “I think contentment is great, you’ll live longer and have a healthier heart. But if you’re unhappy, work smarter. If you’re satisfied, work regular hours. But I don’t have the authority to tell anyone how to work,” he rounds off cheekily.
Shark Tank India Season 5 will begin streaming on Sony LIV and Sony Entertainment Television from January 5, 2026.
