What Happened To The Savy Shopping App From Shark Tank Season 9?

Those who regularly tune in to ABC's hit reality series "Shark Tank" can tell you that every episode is often the definition of an emotional roller coaster. The series is, after all, predicated on the concept of would-be entrepreneurs stepping onto the "Shark Tank" sound stage week in and week out to either have their dreams fulfilled, or summarily dashed by the likes of the show's panel of potential investors.

Diehard fans of the series can tell you that the Sharks — like outgoing shark Mark Cuban – are, at times, pretty cutthroat in their critiques of products they think are not worth investing in, as they were with the infamous Season 3 Sullivan Generator pitch. And yes, the "Shark Tank" investors can be just as cutting when it comes to would-be entrepreneurs they believe have walked into the studio ill-prepared to present their product.

It is, however, pretty rare that you actually get one of those double-whammy sort of presentations in which the presenter is both not ready for the do-or-die stakes of their pitch and also showcasing a product that is clearly not yet ready for serious investment consideration. Unfortunately for the founder of Savy Shopping App, her Season 9 "Shark Tank" presentation ultimately proved to be one of them. Here's a look at how things went down for the inventor of the Savy Shopping app during her pitch, and what became of the app after its prime-time closeup. 

If you've seen the Season 9 "Shark Tank" episode in question, you know things were shaky right from the get-go for the young creator of Savy Shopping app. Indeed, 20-year-old Disha Shidham was visually unsettled in the first moments of her "Shark Tank" pitch. The founder displayed a lack of confidence that was certain not to encourage the sort of bidding war viewers saw in Season 5 when Bruno Francois assuredly displayed his Cycloramic App. In fact, Shidham was stammering over her words just seconds into her pitch, and even stopped briefly to collect herself before she could keep going.

Initially, the Sharks are encouraging of the young entrepreneur, with Shidham pushing past her nerves to pitch a shopping app she believed could be huge in the e-commerce arena. So much so that she was asking the sharks to front $100,000 for a 10% equity share in Savy. For the record, that equates to a $1 million valuation, and you can see right off the bat that the panelists are not convinced Savy is close to living up to that appraisal. They were even less convinced when Shidham laid out Savy's user numbers of about 2,000 and an income of exactly zero dollars.

As for the product, Savy was designed to alert online shoppers when products they've marked in certain participating shops are discounted to a price-point they are willing to pay, and potentially even allow them to make offers for said products to retailers. Unfortunately, many of the panelists believed the app was not developed enough, and even worse, not scalable. As such, Shidham left the "Shark Tank" studio without an investment deal in place. 

As Disha Shidham's "Shark Tank" pitch unfolded, it became clearer that the panelists were not going to back her or her product. The scene bordered on contentious, with the Savy App creator believing the Sharks were missing the message about the app's potential. In turn, several of the sharks questioned not only the state of the young entrepreneur's product, but her own decision to work on Savy instead of going to college to learn the ins and outs of the business world she hoped to conquer. 

In her exit interview, Shidham was clearly frustrated, and remained defiant in the face of rejection, saying of the "Shark Tank" investors, "I don't need them." Meanwhile, the Sharks took a moment to bemoan the Savy creator's pitch and product. It's easy to see their point, as the Savy Shopping app pitch was, arguably, one of the more cringe-worthy in the annals of "Shark Tank" history. In the end, it would seem the panelist's assessment of the product was pretty on-point too, as the shopping app is no longer operational.

As reported by some outlets, it seems that Shidham's, and thus Savy's disappointing showing on "Shark Tank" may have prevented it from getting the same sort of bump in users many products receive after the prime-time exposure. Nonetheless, in an interview given days after the "Shark Tank" aired, Shidham remained dedicated to bringing Savy to the shopping masses on her own, and claimed to have even earned a spot with Stanford's StarterX program to help further develop the concept. Alas, it was seemingly not enough for Savy to find its user base.

It's not entirely clear when Savy — which Disha Shidham actually started when she was in high school — went under, though some sites are reporting the company may have shuddered its doors as early as 2018. As of this writing, the company's online presence is virtually non-existent. So too are Savy's social media operations, and the app itself is no longer available in Apple's App Store. Whatever the case, the lack of any presence online or elsewhere likely means that Shidham's company has indeed been down for some time, and is not likely to return in the near future.

With Savy having officially gone kaput some years ago, it is not entirely clear what became of Disha Shidham after the closure. Information about the young entrepreneur is relatively scarce online, save for a handful of interviews she granted to media outlets after the airing of her "Shark Tank" episode. It would appear that she does not even have a LinkedIn profile to speak of at the moment, signaling that she may be doing her best to stay out of the spotlight these days.

Given the rough time Shidham had on "Shark Tank," and the ultimate fate of her company, one could hardly blame her for wanting to keep a low profile. It's possible she even decided to take some of the shark's advice and attend university. Whatever the case, given Shidham's feisty entrepreneurial spirit, we'd be surprised if she didn't turn back up with a new product looking to take the business world by storm.