“Hassan Kashif, Founder of Gum & Gums, Seeks 7 Million PKR Investment to Expand Dr. Floss Brand on Shark Tank Pakistan in Exchange for 10% Equity”.
Hassan Kashif , the founder of Gum & Gums is from Pakistan. He studied Biology and MBA from USA, he completed his education in the last 11 years from the United States, from high school to all the way masters. His academic background was in Biology, and he was on the pre dental tracks shadowing dentists and worked in the field, and that’s how he came up with the product. He said in Pakistan 80 billion children suffer from dental cavity, that’s why he invented Dr. Floss.
Dr. Floss is a patented flossing solution that cleans your teeth with the click of a button. They already have raised 10 million PKR in non-dilutive funding through various pitch competitions and grands. They are partnering with some of the top dental schools such as Columbia & NYU. He asked for Rs. 70 lacs PKR for 10% equity. Rs. 7 Cr PKR Valuation.
The market size in 2025 is expected to be 4.9 Billion PKR . Shark Usman Bashir asked him if there is any competition of this water jet like style floss? He answered that there is no competition because its one of its kind. Shark asked him what is its barrier to entry and if there is any unfair specific pattern you got, and there are variations also? Founder said that as far as they have done their MVP prototyping till now, he thought that the unfair advantage would come in the form of a thread based floss. Their startup stage is just a pre-revenue because they are prototype.
Shark Junaid Iqbal said him that you have invested your 1 Cr PKR on it you must have to test this product first in the market, simply he answered that they are in bulk and the prototype in that needs to put more manufacturing design, for that purpose they need funds. Sharks asked him to test this product in the market, he said that they made a mold and they took some units to the dental schools and they liked it.
As per my analysis, the founders was not able to answer where they spent Rs. 10 Million PKR raised earlier and why his product is not in the market with this amount. The other reason is that such innovative products need huge funding for research and testing and VCs in Shark Tank normally don’t fund such startups.
The founder is highly qualified and working on something innovative but in early stages. If he keeps doing the stuff then he will surely grow his startup. At the very end the Sharks are out and the deal is not excepted.
Sumbal is shark tank enthusiast, ever since the show started airing, she has followed it. She likes writing and researching about startups. She is also helping a few startups scale.
