Anupam Mittal is already a household name after hosting Shark Tank India for three years. Companies now grant him free equity, but he used to face the same hurdles as everyone else.
Anupam spoke on the Barbershop podcast about starting as an entrepreneur and progressing from living in a modest Mumbai flat to being a multimillionaire in his twenties. He said that, despite his father’s success in the textile company, they were not always wealthy
He shared, “We wouldn’t realise it as kids, but 20 of us were living in a 1,000-square-foot house at the time. People were sleeping on the dining table, under the dining table. But as kids, you don’t think of that. You enjoy having so many kids around.”
Over time, his father became successful, and Anupam went to the US to study. However, he struggled to find a job there. He decided not to tell his parents because they would insist he return to India. He also revealed that he had no money.
Opening up on the dilemma, he recalled, “Now the situation was such that I had no money, and if I asked them for money, they said, ‘Where’s your salary?’ I had no money. It was the first time I experienced hunger. This is something everybody should do at least once, because experiencing hunger teaches you a lot. There was a time when I didn’t eat for two to three days because I couldn’t eat. How long could friends help? They would’ve helped, but you also feel bad after a while… Credit cards are maxed out; everything is finished. It wasn’t like I was out on the streets, but I did experience some level of lack of resources.”
But Anupam’s luck turned around, and he became a multi-millionaire in his early 20s.
“It was crazy; I’d never imagined it. I’d ordered a sports car. We used to party in stadiums; our corporate parties would be on cruise ships. It was next level,” he said.
