From Ghazal Alagh To Anupam Mittal, Here¡¯s How Shark Tank India¡¯s Sharks Started Their Careers

Shark Tank India is inspired by the American business show Shark Tank which has currently inspired millions of young entrepreneurs across the country and proven its huge popularity among the viewers. The show helps start-ups by delivering business presentations to a group of seven sharks or investors who decide whether the company is worth investing in or not.

The Indian version of the Shark Tank reality show began airing on December 20, 2021, on Sony TV. The show has been a success and is bringing in inspiring talents from across the country.

Seven successful Indian entrepreneurs who are judges of the shows, Vineeta Singh, Co-Founder and CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics, Anupam Mittal, founder & CEO of People Group, ED of Emcure Pharmaceutical Namita Thapar, BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover, BoAt co-founder Aman Gupta, Lenskart co-founder Peyush Bansal, and Chief of MamaEarth Ghazal Alagh.

Since not many know how these sharks started their careers, here are the details:

Vineeta Singh

Vineeta Singh | Photo: Instagram

Co-Founder and CEO of SUGAR Cosmetics is one of the leading cosmetics brands. The brand is manufactured in state-of-the-art facilities across Germany, Italy, India, USA and Korea. After completing her schooling at Delhi Public School, R.K.Puram, Vineeta graduated from IIT Madras in electrical engineering and pursued Business Studies at IIM Ahmedabad. Vineeta featured on the cover of the WEEK at the age of 23, became India¡¯s first and youngest B-school graduate to ditch a ¡°?1 crore¡± job offer from a leading investment bank and started her own HR company.

During her interview with Entreprenuer.com she said, ¡°I always felt strongly about building something with women as the core customer, so when my first startup didn¡¯t scale, I decided to launch a beauty subscription company with my co-founder, Kaushik, in 2012. The 200,000 women who shared their detailed beauty preferences with us were at the heart of our pivot to SUGAR Cosmetics, which launched as a direct-to-consumer makeup brand in 2015.¡±

Currently, the SUGAR cosmetics app has more than 1 million downloads and a big following on social media. The brand also has offline retail stores in over130 cities across India.

Anupam Mittal

Anupam Mittal | Photo: Sonyliv

An investor, and successful entrepreneur, Anupam Mittal is a founder & CEO of People Group a company that brands companies like shaadi.com, makaan.com, Mauj Mobile App, and People pictures. Anupam is a well-educated businessman, he is a postgraduate and completed MBA in Operation and Strategic Management from Boston University Massachusetts, United States. Not just Shadi.com, Anupam also laid the foundation of Makaan.com, which helps the real estate holder and buyers in various ways and invested about ?1 Crore in OLA Cabs, currently, he has a 2% share of OLA Cabs.

But many of us don't know that before becoming a business icon among youth Anupam worked as a product manager in an American firm, 'MicroStrategy' a business intelligence software company. Anupam is listed as one of the 25 people to watch out for by The Week magazine and among India's 50 Most Powerful People listed by Business Week also voted by IMPACT Digital Power 100 list 2012 & 2013 amongst top Icons of India¡¯s Digital Ecosystem.

Ashneer Grover

Ashneer Grover | Photo: BCCL

Co-founder and MD of digital payments platform BharatPe, Ashneer Grover is one of the sharks reality show 'Shark Tank India' who has taken a voluntary leave of absence starting January 20, after an audio clip of him allegedly abusing a bank employee went viral and plan to return on or before April 1, 2022. ¡°After much deliberation, I plan to take a temporary leave of absence from BharatPe till March-end. I will return on or before April 1, 2022,¡± he posted a statement on his linkedin account, adding he will utilise this time to ¡°rejuvenate¡± and ¡°refresh¡± himself.

Well if we talk about Ashneer's education, he completed his engineering from IIT Delhi and pursued his MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. Ashneer has worked with Kotak Bank as Vice President, in American Express as Chief Financial Officer for seven years, and in Grofers as Chief Financial Officer until he decided to enter his own start-up in 2015.

Ghazal Alagh

Ghazal Alagh | Photo: Instagram/Ghazal Alagh

Co-Founder and CEO or Chief Mama of India¡¯s first toxin-free baby care brand, 'Mamaearth', Ghazal Alagh. A corporate trainer turned artist cum entrepreneur Ghazal Alagh is another shark of the Indian version of Shark Tank India. Ghazal completed her BCA from the Punjab University and also attended the New York Academy of Arts for Intensive Courses in Modern Art, Design, and Applied Arts. Before becoming a Chief Mama of India's best skincare brand Ghazal worked as a Corporate Trainer at NIIT Limited for 2 years 6 months where she trained managers and engineers from various IT companies in SQL, J2ME, and Oracle.

Peyush Bansal

Peyush Bansal | Photo: BCCL

India's one of the most successful entrepreneurs, Peyush Bansal is the Co-founder, Chief Executive & People Officer of billion dollar brand Lenskart since 2008. He attended Don Bosco School and completed his honors of Engineering - Electrical - IT, Control & Automation from McGill University in Canada and also holds a degree in Management Programme for Entrepreneurs and Family Businesses (MPEFB) from IIM Bangalore. Peyush Bansal quit the job as Program Manager at tech giant Microsoft in 2007 and returned to India and founded the company which entered the unicorn club in 2020.

Namita Thapar

Namita Thapar | Photo: Instagram/Namita Thapar

Another woman shark of Shark Tank India who has invested a good amount of money in various deals so far in the show is Namita Thapar is the CEO of a worldwide pharmaceutical company, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, and has been associated with different companies in the USA since 2001. Namita holds a Chartered accountant degree from ICAI and an MBA degree from Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.

After completing Her MBA, Namita worked as a business finance lead at a US-based firm, 'Guidant Corporation' which designs and manufactures artificial cardiac pacemakers, implantable cardioverters for around 6 years. She came back to India and joined Emcure as a chief financial officer in 2007. Namita serves as a Board Member on the India Regional Advisory Board of Fuqua School of Business, a trustee on TiE Mumbai Board of Trustees, and is also an active member of Young Presidents Organization.

Aman Gupta

Aman Gupta | Photo: BCCL

Aman Gupta is the co-founder and Marketing Director of Boat a Bluetooth speaker, Earphones and headphones makers. Aman is one of the successful self-made entrepreneurs who is getting enormous fame after he featured in one of the most innovative business reality shows premiered on Sony TV. Aman completed his schooling at Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram and Bachelor of Business from Delhi University.

Not many know that Aman also cleared the CA entrance exam and attended the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India but destiny and his entrepreneur mind want him to become a businessman. He also pursued an MBA in Finance and Strategy from the Indian School of Business and that's not enough; he also holds an MBA degree in general management and marketing from Kellogg Graduate School of Management, USA. Aman started his career as Assistant Manager at City Bank for over 2 years, CEO & Co-Founder of Advanced Telemedia Pvt Ltd for 4 years 7 months, Senior Management Consultant (Strategy Services Group) at KPMG for 8 months and Director in sales for HARMAN International from 2012 to 2013. Not just a Boat, Aman is also Co-Founder of Imagine Marketing India and Chairman D2C Council of Internet and Mobile Association of India. Now you know why he became a successful self-made entrepreneur?

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