Our Shark Tank Episode Went Viral & Then We Got 16,400 Orders in a Week

Most companies dream of the viral moment. The Shark Tank appearance that changes everything. The offer from investors that validates years of work.

But nobody talks about what happens in the hours after the episode airs. When your website starts catching fire. When 16,000 orders flood in within a week. When your 15-person team suddenly has to process more than 1,000 orders per person while staying sane.

Ashis Katyal lived that exact moment eleven days ago. He's a founding member at Goat Life, India's high-protein overnight oats brand that appeared on Shark Tank India Season 5. They walked in asking for 36 lakhs. Their founder walked out with offers from all five sharks and closed a deal with Aman Gupta and Anupam Mittal.

The episode aired January 9th at 8 PM. By January 16th, they'd processed 16,400+ orders across channels: 6,000 on their website, 2,500 on Amazon, 8,000 on Blinkit. What Ashis calls "inside clarity" despite "backend chaos" somehow didn't break their systems or their people.

This is the story of learning in seven days what most startups learn in years. Welcome to the beautiful chaos of going viral when you're actually ready for it.

Key Takeaways: The Anatomy of a Viral Week

The Spike Timeline (Know Your Moments):

• First spike: Teaser drops during the same week (curiosity builds)
• Second spike: Episode goes live on Sony Live at 8 PM (limited audience due to subscription)
• Third spike: Episode airs on TV at 10 PM, spikes when first ad commercial hits
• Fourth spike (upcoming): YouTube upload - expected to be higher than all previous spikes combined
• They got 10 days of prep instead of expected 45 days (shoot happened first week of December, expected Feb air date)

Quick Commerce Dominated Everything:

• Blinkit alone moved 8,000 packets in one week
• Why? Instant gratification - people want to try NOW, not wait 5-10 days
• Impulse + FOMO + "I just saw them on TV" = Quick commerce is the killer channel for trials
• Website had higher AOV (Average Order Value) but Blinkit had more transactions
• Entry barrier: Website minimum order 500 rupees, Blinkit single packet 99 rupees

Preparation = Prioritization:

• Shut down "Build Your Own Box of 10" despite significant revenue - kept only preset boxes for easier ops
• Sent 90% of Amazon stock to FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) to reduce daily dispatch load
• Hired more warehouse staff from NGO before the spike, not after
• Had to accept: "We cannot be everywhere" - dropped Flipkart launch, focused on website/Amazon/Blinkit

Q: Walk us through January 9th, 8 PM. Your episode airs. What happened in the first few hours?

Ashis Katyal: We did a small screening party with our team, investors who bet on us super early, founder friends who helped throughout the journey. But most of the team was working, loitering around with laptops.

While everyone could enjoy the pitch, we were worried in our heads - is something going to break? Is checkout going fine? Sessions are spiking, is there a page loading slowly? Do we need to make changes to the website?

The first order - there are a few touchpoints where you can expect spikes. First spike when they drop a teaser about your brand during the same week. That's when curiosity builds. Second spike when the episode goes live on Sony Live at 8 PM. You start seeing traction, but Sony Live isn't like Netflix or Hotstar - not everyone has that subscription. It's a friction point.

Major spike comes when the episode airs on television at 10 PM. The spike actually starts when the first ad commercial hits. That's when people pick up the phone - "Oh, let's see it, let's order."

Next is when they post the episode on YouTube. We're expecting that'll be a slightly higher spike than what we've already experienced given the nature of YouTube. Everyone has YouTube. We have no clarity from the Shark Tank team when it's going to go on YouTube, so we're just waiting, prepping for it.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Viral isn't one moment. It's a sequence of detonations. Prepare for waves, not a single tsunami.

Q: You got 16,400 orders in one week - 6,000 website, 2,500 Amazon, 8,000 Blinkit. How close was that to your expectations?

Ashis Katyal: We were pretty close to our estimations and projections because we spoke to a lot of brands. This is a big moment for us, we cannot fall short.

The issue was our shoot happened first week of December. Shoots had started in September-October. We were expecting our episode would air sometime later, maybe in Feb. We were informed around Christmas - you guys are in 10 days.

Our preps had already started, but in our mind we had a 40-45 day timeline. That got crunched into 10 days. When that happens, you know there are going to be things you miss. There's going to be chaos.

The good thing about Shark Tank is it makes you deep dive into your business, just like any investor pitch. It's very extensive, very thorough. Just the process of filling it up, interacting with the Shark Tank team - it reinforces your business metrics into you. You know what you have to bet on.

We knew the SKUs we had to load up. But now comes the part where you have to accept - there are going to be few things you will miss. You cannot be everywhere. We were planning to go live on Flipkart, but since the episode got shot up so early, we had to leave that opportunity off the table.

That's how you maintain that sense of calm and clarity throughout this chaos - you accept that you won't be able to cover it all. Then you build a priority list.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Preparation isn't doing everything. It's knowing exactly what you'll sacrifice when chaos hits.

Q: Why did Blinkit move 8,000 packets when your website only moved 6,000?

Ashis Katyal: Let's talk in terms of trials and user acquisition. Quick commerce is the easiest, the fastest. Nobody wants to wait 10 days, even 5 days, for oats. That's something you want to consume instantly. That's where quick commerce kicks in.

Second, if it's an impulse - I've just seen you on television and I want to try you - my enthusiasm and eagerness is right in this moment. After 2-3 days, I'll probably forget about you, forget about the brand. If I don't get it right now, I'd probably not transact with you.

Third, while I had a lot more touchpoints via Blinket, my AOV is much higher on the website. So in terms of revenue, the website did significantly better than Blinkit. But so many single packets, single orders move on Blinkit.

For you to transact on my website, the cheapest product is 500 bucks. On Blinkit? 99 rupees for a single packet. That's what makes the difference.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Quick commerce isn't replacing D2C. It's the trial layer before D2C. Optimize for different metrics on each channel.

Q: You mentioned "clarity in chaos." Operationally, what does that actually mean?

Ashis Katyal: When Shark Tank is happening, there will be 100 people who reach out to you. Agencies for ads, content, branding. Channel partners saying you should list here. Thousands of things your investors will tell you. Thousands of things other brand owners will tell you.

That's when you realize there's a lot to be done, we don't have enough time, and that's when chaos starts. So you sit with your team, clearly demark and set priorities. This is where the entire business and brand is headed this month. This is what we're planning.

If you think whatever you're doing is not contributing to these priorities, tell us - "This piece of work I'm dropping right now, I'll pick this up instead."

That's what clarity meant - at least everyone on the team is on the same page before this happens. Because you won't have time as soon as the episode airs to rewrite plans. You'll have to make a good plan and then stick to it. That's what provides clarity in chaos.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Chaos is inevitable. Chaos without shared priorities is catastrophic. Write the playbook before the game starts.

Q: How did you keep your team from burning out processing 1,000+ orders per person?

Ashis Katyal: Part of the prep - we closed down certain things. On the website, we have multiple SKUs. We also have "Build Your Own Box" where you can pick and choose flavors. We had a box of 10 and box of 30 running.

We took a conscious decision to shut off the box of 10. While it was contributing significant revenue, we stopped it because that's a box where we don't know what the consumer will pick. As opposed to my preset SKUs - my assorted pack of six, assorted pack of seven - those are preset boxes my team can prepack and keep. I just have to send this box, I don't have to pack it.

Next, for Amazon there are two models - FBA where you send stock to Amazon warehouses and they do last mile, or you ship directly from your warehouse. We made sure we heavily sent 90% of stock to FBA so daily dispatching doesn't bother the ops team.

We also expanded, got a few more people in the picking and packing team - the women workforce from the NGO we work with. We hired more because you know the order volume is going to come. Might as well staff correctly so they don't have to worry later. It's not as if on 10th I'll know I need to hire more people.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Operational preparation isn't about capacity. It's about removing decisions from the moment of chaos.

Q: Your episode got fast-tracked from February to 10 days. What did you have to sacrifice?

Ashis Katyal: We had to leave Flipkart off the table. We were planning to go live there, but there wasn't time. Since you have to load up inventory at third-party warehouses for Amazon and Blinkit - they do last mile, not us - I have to plan. I have to send stocks at least 7 days before the episode so it's received, made live onto the platform.

We started prioritizing Blinket and Amazon because that's stock we had to send off earlier. For the website, at least we had leverage - we have time till 9th to prepare stock because it goes from my warehouse. I have 100% control there.

I'm very thankful we created relationships early on with all these stakeholders - Amazon, Blinkit, Swiggy. Most brands coming on Shark Tank are already on these platforms. Brands who'd already shot and received a deal were preparing since start of December because they didn't know when they'd air.

So people start prepping December onwards. While these stakeholders understood we were already late, they also understood this is the time they need to help us a bit. Really thankful they turned up when it mattered.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Relationships built before crisis are what save you during crisis. Platform partnerships aren't vendor management - they're strategic assets.

Q: In the last 10-11 days, what did you learn about your customers that you didn't know before?

Ashis Katyal: So about our existing customer - I personally feel this is not the right time to dive much deeper into customer insights. Reason being, right now most people consuming my product are consuming it out of FOMO. They just want to try it because this brand showed up on Shark Tank.

It's quite possible it won't fit their daily lifestyle. It's not meant for them. They just want to try it. So customer insights from this moment might be misleading.

But overall, what did strike us - since one of the USPs of the product is convenience, tier one continues to dominate for us. The fact that you can tear the pouch open, add the product to milk, and it's set - that's super convenient. It's an entire meal ready. You don't have to depend on anyone, don't have to wait, don't have to follow a strict recipe.

Hence the translation onto quick commerce, and hence tier one being the best market - because people have less time, they're in corporate jobs, they need something quick and healthy.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Post-viral data is noisy. Separate trial curiosity from product-market fit. The real insights come 60 days later.

Q: You mentioned team members canceled New Year's train tickets to stay and work. How do you build that kind of commitment?

Ashis Katyal: As soon as the news came that we're airing on 9th, people canceled their train tickets around New Year's. That love for the brand exists throughout the team.

Why does that exist? The freedom that's been given to the team. The freedom to feel it's their own brand. You cannot for a second feel it's just Yash's brand (the founder). It is OUR brand.

That feeling - I felt the team actually rooting for Goat Life. The team is super exhausted now, and a break is in order, for sure. But that panic only happens if you're very committed to the brand. I won't start panicking for something I don't care about.

Everyone was coming up - "This is what I'm doing, is there anything else I should pick up? I have more room, can I pick this up?"

There are a couple of members from the corporate team who are in Kota for the last 10 days helping the ops team. As long as I know you're going to stand by this brand, that's what you need in your founding team.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Skills you can teach. Commitment you can't. Hire for the second, train for the first.

Q: You've worked at another Shark Tank brand before (Tac). What's different experiencing it from the inside as a founding member?

Ashis Katyal: At Tac, I saw it from a distance. I wasn't part of the core prep, the pitch preparation, the investor deck. This time, I was in it - the extensive forms, interactions with Shark Tank team, loading inventory, deciding priorities.

The biggest difference? Ownership. At Tac, I was executing someone else's plan. At Goat Life, I'm co-creating the plan. When things go wrong, it's on me. When things go right, it's because the team executed together.

Also, I learned something crucial from Tac - Meta costs will increase, organic reach will die, and you better have a plan beyond paid ads. At Goat Life, we did that with the 30-day Blinkit viral series - we became Blinkit delivery executives, did protein hunger strike, wrapped a car with our packets. Just stupid viral ideas to get noticed organically.

Everything started outcome-backwards: we want to increase sales on Blinket and tell the world we're live. Then the idea came - let's do a 30-day series. Then we built an idea bank, scripted a few. The only ideas we say no to are ones that won't ever make sense for the brand.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Observing someone else's viral moment teaches you what to expect. Living your own teaches you what to sacrifice.

Q: Looking back, what small preparation made the biggest difference?

Ashis Katyal: Reprioritizing the SKUs on my website so it's simpler for ops to handle. That's from a purely ops standpoint.

We made sure our funnel was right on the website. We launched merch for the first time - "Hot People Eat Breakfast" tees. That started trending, so we picked it up, made t-shirts, sold it.

From a branding standpoint, we made sure that even if you pick any isolated post from Goat Life's page in the last 3-4 months, and you don't tell anyone it's from us - if the person has heard of the brand, they'll just look at that post and say, "Hey, this is like Goat Life."

That constant theme, that invisible thread that ties everything together - you look at something and you're like, "This is from this brand." That consistency is so hard to do, but it's what makes a brand recognizable beyond logos.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Brand consistency isn't about repetition. It's about creating a signature your audience recognizes even when you don't sign it.

Q: What broke first, and what surprisingly didn't break?

Ashis Katyal: What broke - our capacity. We were at 4,000 packets per day. We ramped up to 15,000 packets per day. I feel that could have happened sooner.

The other thing - we're unique because of in-house manufacturing. Most D2C brands don't have that. It adds security - the product will be right. But it adds an extra layer of function to manage: ops, warehousing, AND manufacturing.

We started treating manufacturing as a separate function slightly late. Even when we spoke to other brands, senior people in the industry, they never thought of it from a manufacturing lens. All the advice was limited to warehousing and functions that follow.

We never got much advice on manufacturing. Eventually, we just missed it out as a totally separate function. We're doing pretty well, but could have done better.

What surprisingly didn't break - the team. I thought we'd have people saying, "I can't do this anymore." But everyone stepped up. That's not something you can plan for. You just hope you've hired people who care.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Systems break predictably. People break unpredictably. Build for system failures, hope you've built a team that won't fail.

Q: You mentioned the average age of your team is 24-25. How does that shape how you operate?

Ashis Katyal: We have daily markers, things everyone has to take care of in their respective tasks. Once that's done, the floor is now open for you to do any kind of stupidity - brainstorm with everyone, throw ideas around, banter, jokes.

We haven't had time to do any of it from the past month, but that's the culture. The freedom to experiment, to be stupid, to fail publicly in a safe environment.

Young teams have energy but lack pattern recognition. My job, having worked at Tac and being a futures trader before, is to bring that pattern recognition. "I've seen this movie before, here's how it ends." But I don't kill their ideas. I just add context.

The 30-day viral series? That came from the team. The "Hot People Eat Breakfast" merch? Team. My job is to say yes or no based on brand fit, not to be the idea person. That keeps everyone invested.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Young teams with old guidance outperform old teams with young energy. Mix matters more than average age.

Q: What advice would you give to founders preparing for a Shark Tank appearance?

Ashis Katyal: First, it's not just about the pitch. That's 5% of the work. The other 95% is what happens after the episode airs.

Second, start prep the day you shoot, not the day you get the air date. We thought we had 45 days. We got 10. Assume you have no time and prep accordingly.

Third, build relationships with platform partners NOW. Amazon, Blinkit, Flipkart, Myntra - they'll make or break your spike. Don't treat them as vendors. Treat them as partners who need to trust you.

Fourth, accept you cannot be everywhere. We dropped Flipkart. It hurt, but it was the right call. Prioritize channels, then go all in on those channels.

Fifth, clarity before chaos. Sit with your team, write down priorities, get everyone on the same page. Once chaos hits, you won't have time to realign.

Last - your team will make or break this moment. Skills you can train. Commitment you can't. Hire people who'll cancel New Year's plans without you asking.

🔥 ChaiNet's Hot Take: Shark Tank isn't a pitch competition. It's an operational stress test disguised as a TV show. Prepare accordingly.

Final Thoughts: The Beautiful Chaos of Being Ready

Ashis on what matters most: People see the Shark Tank pitch, the offers from all five sharks, the deal with Aman and Anupam. They don't see the team in Kota packing orders at midnight. They don't see the canceled New Year's plans. They don't see the spreadsheet chaos that somehow creates a beautiful picture when compiled.

The bottom line: Viral moments don't create great companies. They reveal which companies were built to handle them. Goat Life didn't get lucky with 16,400 orders in a week. They got ready.

Ashis and the team made hard choices: shut down revenue-generating SKUs, dropped platform launches, prioritized clarity over coverage. When the spike came, they didn't scramble - they executed.

The lesson for the rest of us? Viral is a test, not a reward. It tests your systems, your team, your relationships with partners, your ability to say no to good opportunities for great ones.

If you're building for a viral moment, build for the day after the moment. Because that's when everyone's watching, and your operations are your marketing.

You can find Goat Life at goatbrand.in and on Blinkit, Amazon, and Swiggy. Use code CHAINET12 for 12% off before January 31st. This is what happens when operational excellence meets viral opportunity - not chaos, but clarity at scale.

Q: How can people connect with you and try Goat Life?

Ashis Katyal: You can find us at goatbrand.in. We're also live on Blinkit, Amazon, and Swiggy Instamart - wherever you prefer to shop. For ChaiNet listeners, use code CHAINET12 for 12% off before January 31st.

If you want to connect with me or learn more about D2C operations, scaling through viral moments, or just want to chat about the startup journey, find me on LinkedIn. Always happy to share what we're learning in real-time.

Final words: The most dangerous assumption about viral success is that it solves your problems. It doesn't. It multiplies them. Goat Life went from serving steady customers to processing 16,400 orders in a week because they built systems that could handle multiplication. Your systems are fine until they're tested at 10x scale. The question isn't whether you'll get your viral moment. It's whether your operations can survive it. Because viral attention without operational excellence isn't opportunity - it's public failure at scale. Build for the spike before the spike finds you.