From Waste to Growth: The Story of Re-Life’s Pitch on Shark Tank Pakistan

From Waste to Growth: The Story of Re-Life’s Pitch on Shark Tank Pakistan

Introduction
When Re-Life debuted on Shark Tank Pakistan, the entrepreneurial community in Pakistan witnessed an environmentally friendly idea. In order to address the deforestation brought on by the manufacturing of wooden pencils, the firm proposed an innovative solution. Their idea promised to make learning enjoyable and interesting for students in addition to promoting environmental protection. The sharks closely examined their pitch in spite of the creative idea. This blog explores Re-Life’s background, their proposal, and the factors that led to the sharks rejecting it.

Company Overview
An eco-conscious firm called Re-Life has taken on Pakistan’s alarming pace of deforestation, where some 8 million trees are felled each year for wooden pencils. Making pencils out of scrap paper that has been infused with plant seeds is Re-Life’s innovative idea. The concept is to make learning participatory and sustainable by allowing students to plant the pencil stubs after using them, allowing them to grow into plants. At the moment, the company involves four people and manufactures four products.

The Pitch
Re-Life brought a powerful message of creativity and sustainability to the Shark Tank platform. Their environmentally friendly pencils, which were a ground-breaking substitute for conventional wooden pencils, were produced from imported lead and locally acquired paper waste. In addition to offering an educational tool that encourages children to interact with nature, the firm positioned itself as a company that addresses environmental concerns.

The Ask
Re-Life asked for an investment of PKR 1.5 crore in exchange for 10% equity, valuing their company at PKR 150 million.

Breakdown of investment

The breakdown of their investment requirements was detailed, focusing on acquiring five essential machines for production:

• Rolling machine: locally sourced.
• Drying machine: locally sourced.
• Cutting machine: imorted
• Abrading machine: imported
• Covering machine: imported.

The founders claimed the machines could operate 18–20 hours a day but planned to run them for 10–12 hours daily. They currently produce pencils at a cost of PKR 20 per unit and sell them for PKR 50 per unit, generating a revenue of PKR 4 lakh to date. They also explained that currently their product is expensive due to its cost of being totally handmade. They can reduce the cost by sourcing these machines.

The Decision of the Sharks
The suggestion was overwhelmingly rejected by the sharks, despite the excitement and attention to the environment. Their reasons were obvious.

Reasons Behind the Rejection

Unrealistic Valuation: Despite having little revenue and no established scalability strategy, Re-Life valued themselves at PKR 150 million. In order to support this assessment, the sharks asked how the company would produce PKR 10 million in development value every month.

Lack of Business Sense: The entrepreneurs did not show that they had a thorough awareness of their marketing plans, financials, or plans for growth.

Pre-Revenue Stage: The company was still in its infancy, generating only PKR 4 lakh in revenue; thus, the PKR 1.5 crore request seemed out of scale.

Ineffective Go-To-Market Strategy: Re-Life intended to sell its pencils by persuading schools to accept and sell them. Sharks believed that this approach was insufficient for growth and broad adoption.

No Proven Model: The company showed no signs of substantial market traction or client retention.

Inadequate Planning: Re-Life failed to provide a detailed plan for expanding marketing, distribution, or production.

High cost for resellers: Schools had little profit margin when the pencils were sold to them for PKR 27–28 each, with a resale price of PKR 30–35, making the offer less alluring.

The Future of Re-Life
Even if the proposal was unsuccessful in obtaining funding, the Re-Life concept has a lot of promise. Using an inventive and sustainable product to address environmental challenges aligns with the values of contemporary consumers. The company needs to:

• Create a scalable and successful business plan in order to proceed.
• Develop a more robust go-to-market plan that incorporates relationships with environmentally aware groups and direct-to-consumer channels.

• To increase their reach, investigate alternate marketing techniques, including retail and internet sales.

The success of Re-Life serves as evidence of how crucial it is to strike a balance between creativity and prudent business planning. With the appropriate modifications, his eco-friendly startup could still grow into a market leader in sustainable stationery.