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Age: 41 Years Hometown: Srinagar, Jammu And Kashmir Wife: Ruchi Budhiraja
Some Lesser Known Facts About Ankur Warikoo
- Ankur Warikoo is an Indian entrepreneur, public speaker, mentor, and angel investor.
- Ankur Warikoo was brought up in New Delhi.
Ankur Warikoo’s childhood picture
- In one of his blogs, he shared that he made a career plan while he was in school. He wrote,
I was one of those rare kids in school that always knew what I wanted to do in life. And it was a 3-step plan, Go to the US for my PhD, Join NASA as a space scientist, and Become the first man on Mars.”
- In an interview, he talked about the rejections at the beginning of his career. He said,
My CV was a Failure Résumé, it wasn’t a smooth ride. I tried JEE twice. Didn’t clear it, and I even tried IIT for MSc (master’s degree in the field of science) but didn’t clear.”
- He has talked about facing financial difficulties in one of his blogs. His blog reads,
I came from extremely humble beginnings. We never had enough. Hand to mouth existence. Always out of money. My parents, irrespective of our financial situation, always ensured that my sister and I got a good education. Their dreams were pegged on us. We were the ones to change our family’s orbit. I worked hard towards that and made it to a top US university for a PhD. program in Physics, on a full scholarship (the only way we could have afforded it). I recall my dad taking a loan of Rs. 55,000 to pay for the one-way ticket to the US.”
He further added,
I had to keep my parent’s house as collateral to raise money for my sister’s wedding. To gift Vidur a bicycle on his birthday, something he had been asking for a year, we had to sell Ruchi’s gold bangles. We surprised him when he came from school. He broke down. So did we. “
- While he was on his way to his college on a bus, he met Ruchi Budhiraja for the first time, and at that time he was 19 years old.
- After dropping out of a PhD program in 2004, he started working at NIS Sparta in New Delhi, a corporate training consultancy.
- He worked there as a consultant for a year, and in May 2006, he joined Kearney, Chicago, a management consulting firm.
- After working there for almost three years, he co-founded an internet firm Accentium Web in Gurgaon, Haryana.
- Ankur joined Rocket Internet (headquartered in Berlin) in December 2010 as a venture partner and worked there for a year.
- He worked as a Head (Groupon APAC Emerging Markets India, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines) at Groupon (an e-commerce platform) in March 2011.
- He started working as an individual angel investor in July 2014.
- In August 2015, he started nearbuy.com, an e-commerce platform company com in Gurgaon, Haryana. After working as a CEO for almost four years, he stepped down from the position in 2019. He is one of the board members of the company (as of 2022).
- From 2014 to 2017, he was appointed at the Indian School of Business, New Delhi as one of the board members, and he was also a member of the ISB’s Next Generation Leaders Board (NGLB) there.
- He ventured as a content creator in 2019 and conducted courses on entrepreneurship, career management, and personal growth as an educator. In an interview, when he was asked about the challenges he faced while starting his career as a content creator in his 40s, he replied,
Answering the question, ‘What the hell are you doing creating content in your 40s?!’ Why do you think someone needs a grey-haired individual telling them how they should be living life? I have stopped answering this question; I just let the quality of my work take over. But that has been the hardest thing to answer.”
- Ankur is also an author and published his first book “Do Epic Shit” in 2021 which is also considered as one of the top-selling books in India in 2021.
Ankur Warikoo holding copies of his books Do Epic Shit
- He is also working as a social media influencer and public speaker. As of January 2022, he has more than 1.28 million subscribers on his self-titled YouTube channel. He uploads videos on managing finances on his YouTube channel.
- In an interview, while sharing his blogging journey, he said,
I’ve had multiple social media debuts. My blog, which was my first social media debut, was in 2005 and I’ve been blogging now for 16+ years. My first video came out in 2016 on LinkedIn, not YouTube. My YouTube debut happened in August 2017 and Instagram in 2018. A large part of what you see seems like an overnight success. But it’s actually been in the works for several years. This year we completed 50 million plus views on YouTube and 49 million of that happened in the last year, though we’ve been running that YouTube channel for four and a half years. That is the power of consistency. Eventually, the curve will take over and the next thing you know, that’s history.”
- In one of his tweets, in 2020, he talked about his weight loss. The tweet reads,
From 89kgs and 26% body fat, I went to 69 kgs and body fat of 8% in 5 months. 80% of the reason was food.”
- During an interview, he shared the names of the people who have influenced him. He said,
I love Naval Ravikant for his views on work, the mind, and how to live life. I love Gary Vaynerchuk for his persistence, audacity, and consistency. I love Jay Shetty for the simplicity with which he approaches things. I’m quite inspired by the thoughts of the Buddha, even though I’m an atheist. I also look up to Ryan Holiday for his ideas on stoicism.”
- He is often spotted drinking alcohol at parties and events.
- He has been actively participating in various marathons.
Ankur Warikoo during a marathon
- In January 2022, HT Brunch edition, he was featured on the cover page.
An article about Ankur Warikoo in HT Brunch