You might remember the tension in the room during Season 9 of Shark Tank. A 20-year-old founder named Disha Shidham walked into the tank with a lot of confidence and a pretty clever idea called Savy. It was an app that let you "name your price" for clothes. If the price dropped to what you wanted, you got an alert. Simple, right? But the pitch didn't go as planned. Mark Cuban basically grilled her for skipping college, the other Sharks felt the business was way too early, and she walked out without a deal.
So, Disha Shidham where is she now? Honestly, she did exactly what most people do after a public setback: she evolved. While the internet was busy debating whether Cuban was too harsh on her, Shidham was quietly pivoting away from the retail app world.
The Savy Fallout and the Big Pivot
After the episode aired in 2018, Savy didn't become the next big unicorn. In fact, by late 2018, the app had basically vanished. The website went dark, and the social media pages stopped updating. For a while, it looked like Shidham had just disappeared from the tech scene.
But here’s the thing about "failure" in your twenties—it’s usually just a redirection. Shidham didn't just give up on technology; she shifted her focus from retail consumer apps to something with a much deeper impact. She eventually took the advice many of the Sharks hinted at, though perhaps not in the way they expected. She didn't just go back to get a "business degree." She went for the hard sciences.
From Fashion Tech to NASA Data Science
It’s a wild jump, I know. Going from an app that helps you buy cheaper jeans to working on climate change data? That’s some serious range.
Shidham ended up attending Yale University, where she studied environmental engineering. She didn't just sit in a lecture hall, though. She leveraged that same "hustle" she showed on Shark Tank to land a spot at the NASA Ames Research Center.
🔗 Read more: Are High Yield Savings Accounts Worth It? What Most People Get Wrong About Interest Rates
Currently, Shidham is deeply involved in data science and machine learning. She’s worked as a Research Assistant at the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), specifically within the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science (RIACS). Instead of tracking the price of a leather jacket, she’s been using the NASA Web WorldWind SDK to help visualize geospatial data. Basically, she’s helping scientists tell the story of climate change through data.
What Most People Get Wrong About Her Story
A lot of people watch that old Shark Tank clip and think, "Oh, another failed entrepreneur." That’s a pretty narrow way to look at it.
- The "College" Argument: Mark Cuban was frustrated because she deferred her admission to the University of Michigan. He felt she was trying to learn the "bits and pieces" of business without the foundation. Looking back, she did eventually get the degree, but at Yale, and in a field that requires significantly more technical depth than a standard business major.
- The Experience Factor: She was 19 when she filmed that. Most of us were struggling to figure out how to do laundry at 19, and she was pitching to billionaires on national TV.
- The "Savy" Tech: Even though Savy folded, it was a "SaaS" (Software as a Service) tool at its core. The data-driven pricing strategy she was trying to build was actually ahead of its time. Today, every major retailer uses dynamic pricing, though they usually do it to raise prices, not help you find a deal.
Why She’s Keeping a Low Profile
If you try to find her on Twitter or TikTok today, you're going to have a hard time. Unlike many former Shark Tank contestants who try to milk their 15 minutes of fame to become "influencers" or "business coaches," Shidham has gone almost completely dark on social media.
Her LinkedIn is often deactivated or set to private. She isn't doing the podcast circuit. Honestly, it's a smart move. When you're working in high-level research and environmental analytics, having a "failed" reality TV pitch as your top search result can be annoying. She seems to have traded the "Founder" title for a "Scientist" one, and she’s clearly thriving in that lane.
The Reality of the "Shark Tank" Curse
We often talk about the "Shark Tank Effect" where sales skyrocket after an episode. For Shidham, it was the opposite. The "Shark Tank Curse" is real for founders who get a "bad edit" or face heavy criticism. The negative tweets and the "painful to watch" comments from viewers can be brutal for a teenager.
Shidham’s choice to pivot to environmental engineering and data science shows a level of maturity that most people missed during her pitch. She took the technical skills she used to build Savy—coding, data analysis, and product development—and applied them to a problem that actually matters: the environment.
Where is she exactly?
As of 2026, she has graduated and is working within the intersection of data science and environmental analytics. Her work with NASA Ames and RIACS suggests she is firmly planted in the world of academic and governmental research. She’s no longer the "Savy Girl"; she’s a data scientist with a background in engineering from one of the best universities in the world.
Lessons from the Shidham Journey
If you're an aspiring founder or someone who just felt bad for her after watching that rerun, here are the real takeaways from her path:
- Pivot when the data tells you to. Savy wasn't getting the traction it needed with big-box retailers. Instead of sinking ten years into a dying app, she moved on.
- Education isn't one-size-fits-all. Cuban was right that she needed more "depth," but he was wrong about the timing. She got her depth when she was ready for it.
- Privacy is a luxury. In the age of "personal branding," there is immense power in just doing the work and staying out of the spotlight.
If you want to follow a similar path into data science or environmental tech, your best bet is to look at the NASA open-source projects like Web WorldWind. It’s where she did some of her most significant post-tank work.
Next Steps: You can explore the NASA Web WorldWind open-source repository on GitHub to see the kind of geospatial tools Shidham was helping to develop. If you're looking for her on social media, don't bother—she’s busy doing actual science.