This is the unfettered story of Ashneer Grover-the favourite and misunderstood poster boy of Start-up India.
Raw, gut-wrenching in its honesty and completely from the heart, this is storytelling at its finest.
A young boy with a โrefugeeโ tag growing up in Delhiโs Malviya Nagar outpaces his circumstances by becoming a rank-holder at the pinnacle of academic excellence in India-IIT Delhi. He goes on to do an MBA from the hallowed halls of IIM Ahmedabad, builds a career as an investment banker at Kotak Investment Banking and AmEx, and is pivotal in the making of two unicorns-Grofers, as CFO, and BharatPe, as co-founder.
As a judge on the popular TV show Shark Tank India, Ashneer becomes a household name even as his life turns upside down. Controversy, media spotlight, garrulous social media chatter descend, making it difficult to distinguish fact from fiction.
Is kitab padhne ke baad ya to aap ek dum apni naukri chhod doge ya fir zindagi bhar naukri hi karoge. At least beech mein nahi phase rahoge.
To get absolute clarity in life – read my incredible life story ! Order your copy of โDoglapanโ now on Amazon.
1: ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐
๐๐๐๐๐๐๐:
Ashneer (Born into a middle-class family) studied hard and went on study at IIT-Delhi & IIM-Ahmedabad, both being the best premier educational institutes in India.
๐๐ฉ๐บ ๐ช๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ช๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ต?
Later, when he worked as an Investment banker (Kotak & American Express) or finally co-founded BharatPe, a common theme was that he frequently crossed paths with some of his batchmates from those institutes.ย
2: ๐ณ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐/๐๐๐ ๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐:
Most people didn’t know much that a large part of his support group had always been his Family. Be it his wife, Madhuri Jain, has always been his pillar of support since the day they started dating.
After going through the book, you would have pure respect for her, considering the sheer number of risky decisions Ashneer has made (Trust me, they were plenty of difficult choices backed by conviction & belief in one’s abilities).
3: ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ 8 ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐
๐๐๐
When Ashneer started as a young recruit at Kotak Investment bank, he took up challenging M&A assignments for a vast range of Businesses (ranging from Electrical accessories makers, Real estate, Payments investment firms etc.) to name a few.
4: ๐ถ๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐
๐๐๐
One thing I must take away from this book is that he never restricted himself to one business sector. He has this insatiable curiosity to know everything about Businesses.
You will be blown away to discover that he, in some way or the other, is connected to almost every prominent Indian startup that has emerged right from the Flipkart days.
He is one of those rare individuals who has seen it all in the Indian Startup Scene. (For future generations, like Freedom fighters who have experienced so much of the Indian freedom struggle.)
5: ๐ฉ๐ ๐ท๐๐๐๐๐๐๐
When you are going for the bigger game, especially when competing against Billion-dollar players, you have to live with this state of mind that everyone is out there to get you and kill your business.
It’s like running, having the endurance to run a marathon with a 100-metre dash explosiveness. You cannot afford to celebrate your wins for too long.
๐ ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ-๐ซ๐๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ:
For startup enthusiasts: offers excellent insights into the whole Indian startup ecosystem.
๐๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐ข๐ฌ๐ง’๐ญ ๐๐จ๐ซ:
- Someone who is risk-averse and would rather prefer to live a safe & secure professional life.
๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ ๐น๐๐๐ ๐๐๐!
๐.๐:
The Epilogue section is the most valuable section at the end of the book, which beautifully captures all the lessons learned during Ashneer’s journey.
