Indian American entrepreneur gets invite to 'Shark Tank'

A 26-year-old Indian-American entrepreneur from Nevada, in southwestern US, has been invited on Shark Tank, the popular American television series, the American Bazaar reported on Wednesday.

Shaan Patel will be pitching for investment for his startup '2400 Expert', a company that prepares students for SAT (scholastic assessment test) and ACT (American college testing) on the January 29th episode of ABC's hit show which has the ability to make multi-millionaires in a few years of those who manage to get a deal.

While SAT is more of an aptitude test, testing reasoning and verbal abilities, ACT is and always has been a curriculum-based achievement test, measuring what a student has learned in school. 

Patel's start-up '2400 Expert' offers six-week courses in 20 major US cities and online.

A Clark High School graduate, Patel put in nearly 2,000 hours of work into developing the curriculum and books for his prep course. 

His product pitch claims 100 strategies developed by a perfect-scoring SAT student, double the course hours and half the price of top instructors.

"The secret to getting on Shark Tank is to ignore Shark Tank. Entrepreneurs who would like to get on Shark Tank should not focus on getting Shark Tank. Instead, they should focus on building their business," the American Bazaar quoted Patel as saying in an interview to CBS. 

Patel who has bootstrapped the venture is not resting on the possibility of whether he gets a deal or not on the TV series. However, he is creating a buzz within the community with his call-up on the show, said the report. 

"You should start with a great idea, but more importantly great execution of that idea. Once you have done that, Shark Tank will be much more interested in what you have to offer," Patel said.

Patel is also trying to "recruit" viewers for his Shark Tank episode. And he's throwing a viewing party on January 29, 2016 at his alma mater Clark High School where he'll also be giving away $30,000 worth of SAT prep books and another $100,000 in prep courses to the general public, revealed the report.