Ankur Warikoo is a content creator and enterpreneur who is well-known from Youtube with the majority of his subscribers from India. His content revolves primarily around motivation, personal development, financial upscaling, and money investment.
Ankur Warikoo Early Life and Education
Warikoo was born in Amritsar in the Hindu family of Kashmiri Panditi origin and his family moved to Delhi when he was three. His father used to work in the Pharmaceutical industry.
As per his Linkedin, he completed his 10+2 from Don Bosco High School, New Delhi in 1998 and obtained B.Sc in Physics from Hindu College. In 2002, Warikoo enrolled in MS program in Michigan State University in Astronomy and Astrophysics but dropped out later. He then did his MBA from Indian School of Business.
Enterpreneurship and Nearbuy.com
After working on two start ups, SecondShaadi.com and Gaadi.com (aquired by goIbibo) Warikoo was the founding CEO of Groupon India which later got rebranded to nearbuy.com in 2015 after funding from Sequoia Capital. He worked in Nearbuy for four years and stepped down as the CEO when the company touched break-even in 2019.
Interesting Facts about Ankur Warikoo
He was named Ashneer for a moment when he was born
Warikoo said in an interview that his parents named him Ashneer briefly when he was born as his father’s name is Ashok and his mother name is Neerja. Warikoo was stating this fact when he was quizzed about Ashneer’s jibe at him which was “Don’t take Warikoo’s name and my name in one sentence.”
Didn’t used to send money to his father while studying in US
In an interview with Humans of Bombay, Warikoo revealed that he used to get the stipend close to $1348 every month during his 100% scholarship MS program in USA. However, he never used to send part of that money to his home fearing that his Dad would plow that money in his already failing business which Warikoo opined was never going to get successful through his Dad’s endeavour.
“She was way out of my league” Warikoo on his wife
Warikoo met his wife Ruchi Bhardwaj in ISB when he was studying. Interestingly, Warikoo admits that his wife was way out of his league. Warikoo also revealed on Twitter that his wife used to earn close to Rs 2 Lakhs a month somewhere around 2013.
Ankur Warikoo’s first remuneration after completing his MBA was Rs 15 Lakh rupees. In the second year after completing ISB, he was earning Rs 30 Lakh rupees a year.
Controversies involving Ankur Warikoo
“Insensitive” comment on Prithvi Shaw
Indian-American businessman Ankur Nagpal took a jibe at Prithvi Shaw’s fitness when the images of the cricketer became viral for his achievements. Nagpal commented “Indian diet and genetics are unparalleled. This is a 23 year old Indian athlete. 23!” Ankur Warikoo joined the bandwagon and joked that Prithvi Shaw’s mother would be thinking that her son had lost weight. Comments on the thread made Warikoo realised that his remark had come of as insensitive as the cricketer had lost his mother at the age of four. Warikoo, upon realizing the gravity of the remark he made, apologized without any hesitation.
Ashneer Grover’s jibe at Ankur Warikoo
Ashneer Grover was requested by a fan on Twitter to lower the price of his newly launched book “Doglapan – The Hard Truth Of Life”. Grover replied with a jibe towards Warikoo opiniating that a cheaper alternative book is available to buy which is “Get Epic Shit Don”, the book authored by Ankur Warikoo.
Warikoo joined the post thread and replied that he can arrange books for the OP if he wants to read them.
Jibe from Ashneer “Don’t take my name and Ankur Warikoo’s in one sentence”
Grover took a jibe at Warikoo again. While answering questions at an event organized by Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad Grover was asked by a fan (31:13 minute) if there is a similarity between him and Ankur Warikoo as both are now influencer from an enterpreneur background? Grover, seemed surprised for a second and responsed that he is feels extremely offensive about such comparison.
“I’ve never heard a more offensive statement. I’m so offended, I want to get up and leave. You don’t take his and my name in the same sentence. I have just one rule, you can say whatever you want to me. You can abuse my mother and sister, I won’t say a thing. But don’t compare me to Ankur Warikoo,” Grover said.
Warikoo was asked about The Ashneer jibe on him in one of the podcasts, to which he replied that he has never met him. He sarcastically added that it is always necessary to “Punch Up” on social media, implying that since he has more followers overall on social media, therefore there is no point in replying to Ashneer’s remark on him.
