Ankur Warikoo Success Story - From Dreaming to be the First Man on Mars to Founding the Brand 'Warikoo'

Everyone who has achieved success in life has a story to tell. An event that forever altered their lives and shaped who they are today. An event or an incident that gave them the guts and motivation to fulfill their life ambitions and goals.

There are many motivators and gurus present on the internet today who share knowledge about investments, startups, businesses, financial planning, personal life, and whatnot. There is one such prominent person who is an angel investor as well as a well-renowned YouTuber, Ankur Warikoo. Understand more about this gentleman – Ankur Warikoo’s journey in this writeup.

Ankur Warikoo Biography

Who is Ankur Warikoo?
Ankur Warikooo Education
Ankur Warikoo - Personal Life
Ankur Warikoo - Career
Ankur Warikoo- An Author
Story Behind the Brand 'Warikoo'

Who is Ankur Warikoo?

Ankur Warikoo is a business owner, motivational speaker, mentor, and angel investor by profession. Secondshaadi.com, Gaadi.com now Cardekho.com, and Nearbuy.com are some of the few startups that he co-founded.

Ankur Warikoo was one of the first employees hired by Groupon to launch and oversee its India operations in 2011 as it was its inception time. Deal-hunting was the most popular online activity at that time.

Ankur Warikooo Education

He completed his schooling at Don Bosco School in the capital city, New Delhi. Then he enrolled in Hindu College for a B.Sc. in Physics (B.Sc Physics). After that, he enrolled for Ph.D. in Physics (MS, Astrophysics) from Michigan State University, which he left after finishing his MS. He then went on to complete his MBA (Masters of Business Administration) at the Indian School of Business after returning from the United States.

Ankur Warikoo - Personal Life

Ankur Warikoo is a Kashmiri Pandit who was never born into a wealthy family. But he had a clear idea of what he wanted to achieve with his life, which turned out to be nothing like what he is doing now.

Despite his desire to work for NASA and travel to Mars, life had other plans for him. He dropped out of his Ph.D. program because he was unhappy with his work. Something was always lacking for him. He buried his emotions for years before seeing that this was not the road for him.

Ruchi Budhiraja Warikoo is the wife of Ankur Warikoo. She was Ankur's love in high school. She met her when he was a student at the Hindu college and she was a resident of Miranda House. They met on the bus on their way to college, where Ruchi and her friends used to perform silly charades virtually every day.

Ruchi is the only one who truly understands and supports Ankur in whatever he does. Uzma and Vidur, are their two children.

Ankur enjoys public speaking and is frequently seen giving talks at corporations, universities, schools, and conferences on topics such as motivation, leadership, consumer internet, and entrepreneurial attitude.

Ankur Warikoo - Career

After completing his studies, Ankur landed a position at AT Kearney, a consulting firm. Warikoo worked in the real estate industry and media and entertainment sectors in Dubai, New York, and India while working at Kearney. After getting his MBA, he worked at Kearney for three years until deciding to establish his own business in 2010.

While Ankur was at ISB, along with his batch mates he started his first venture, secondshaadi.com. In those few years after quitting his job, he joined in building various websites across industries like automobiles, education, and finance. One of the biggest hits was Gaadi.com which was eventually sold to goibibo.com.

Soon after these two startups, Ankur joined hands with Groupon as the founding CEO in India. Along with that he also managed businesses in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia for Groupon. He led Groupon's business in India for around four years until 2015. That year he took a major step and bought a major shareholding of India business from Groupon with Sequoia Capital and transformed it into a whole new independent startup, Nearbuy.com.

He started Nearbuy, a lifestyle company, in 2015 which provided interesting deals on restaurants, spas, beverages, and other local businesses. This startup was funded by Sequoia capital. He left his position as CEO in 2019 to pursue a career as a content creator. The other two co-founders still run the business of Nearbuy.

Ankur Warikoo was named to Fortune India's 40 Under 40 list, was the Social Media Entrepreneur of the Year held by CMO Asia in 2017, and was also featured in the LinkedIn spotlight in 2019.

Ankur Warikoo- An Author

Ankur Warikoo as a content creator always shared productivity and life skills on different platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

In 2021, He published all his posts compendium titled "DO EPIC SHIT" (National Bestseller), in which he talks about success and failure, habits, awareness, entrepreneurship, money, and relationships.

Again in 2022, he published another book on actionable hacks titled "GET EPIC SHIT DONE", in which he intricacies of management of life like mindset, focus, meditations, etc.

Story Behind the Brand 'Warikoo'

When Ankur was the CEO of nearbuy.com in 2016, he created the brand Warikoo.  The brand was created with the goal of owning the stories and building a brand for future talent. Ankur volunteered for the job since he enjoys public speaking, and one lovely Wednesday, he filmed a video with the headline "If you don't ask, the answer is always no!"

It was named "Warikoo Wednesdays" by him.

Since then, the brand has expanded by leaps and bounds, and it can now be found on nearly every major social media platform. The brand continues to expand mostly through video content, which assists consumers in making decisions based on awareness rather than ignorance.

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Conclusion

Ankur Warikoo encourages young people in their twenties and thirties to explore new things, make errors, and learn from their failures. Spending time with individuals who aren't like us was one of the three factors that let him live a life without a plan. "It is so easy for us to take our failures seriously and consider them the end of the road," he writes on his website ankurwarikoo.com in a PDF document titled My Failure Resume. I am the best proof that self-doubt exists, as well as the finest proof that it can be conquered — it's simply a never-ending struggle."

FAQs

What is the net worth of Ankur Warikoo?

The net worth of Ankur Warikoo is approximately $10 Million.

What is the education qualification of Ankur Warikoo?

Ankur Warikoo did BSc in Physics from Hindu College, dropped out from MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Michigan State University, and MBA in Finance from ISB.

What does Ankur Warikoo do?

Ankur Warikoo is a content creator, public speaker, and entrepreneur.