Ankur Warikoo is an Internet Entrepreneur based out of India and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s top digital content creators. In addition to building successful businesses, he is a bestselling author and an online educator who conducts highly sought-after courses. Through his extensive library of content, his primary aim is to ensure that all the choices you make in life come from a point of awareness and never out of ignorance.
Growing up, Ankur Warikoo came from extremely humble beginnings. Experiencing a hand-to-mouth existence where money was always tight, the idea of studying abroad seemed like an impossible dream. However, his parents always ensured that he and his sister received a good education, pegging their dreams on their children to change the family’s trajectory.
He was one of those rare kids in school who always knew exactly what he wanted to do. He possessed a strict three-step plan: go to the US for a PhD, join NASA as a space scientist, and ultimately become the first man on Mars. Working tirelessly toward that goal, he made it to a top US university for a PhD program in Physics on a full scholarship.
To make the journey possible in 2002, his father took a loan of Rs. 55,000 just to pay for the one-way ticket to the United States. Despite doing extremely well in his classes, he soon realized a difficult truth.
While excelling academically, Ankur Warikoo began having tough conversations with himself. He realized that while he was good at Physics, he was not happy doing it. At the age of 24, he made the bold decision to drop out of his PhD program and return to India.
He landed back home with no savings, no financial backing, and absolutely no backup plan. Deciding to reset his life completely, he took a friend’s advice to pursue an MBA and applied to a young institution called the Indian School of Business (ISB). Getting accepted changed his life forever. Following his year at ISB, he joined A.T. Kearney as a management consultant, where he worked for three years until 2009.
While still working in consulting, Ankur Warikoo collaborated with a couple of batchmates from ISB to launch his first venture, SecondShaadi.com. In 2009, he finally quit consulting to pursue the startup world full-time. Over the next few years, the team built several websites across the automobile, education, and finance sectors.
The most successful of these ventures became Gaadi.com, which was eventually sold to goibibo.com in 2010. Following this success, he stepped into a new role in 2011 as the founding CEO of Groupon India. He successfully led the business for four years, eventually taking on the additional responsibility of managing Groupon’s APAC countries, including Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, in 2013.
In 2015, Ankur Warikoo and the core management team did something rather audacious: they bought the Groupon India business directly from Groupon to establish an independent entity. This bold move birthed nearbuy.com, which secured funding from Sequoia. He acted as the CEO of nearbuy until 2019 before stepping down.
Today, he is an active Investor in more than 30 companies. He loves to spend his time mentoring first-time entrepreneurs and guiding them through the complex realities of building modern businesses.
Those nine years of intense entrepreneurship taught him invaluable lessons about consumer behavior, fundraising, people management, and his own strengths. To create an employer brand and attract the best talent, he launched an online video series called “warikoo Wednesdays” on LinkedIn in 2016.
The series, which highlighted his experiences as a founder and manager, instantly clicked. Today, Ankur Warikoo has been creating content since 2005 and boasts over 7 million followers across all popular social media platforms. He loves public speaking, storytelling, cracking really bad jokes, and ultimately making awareness cool.
His first book, DO EPIC SHIT, went on to hit #1 in India, and he is already actively working on his second book. His life motto breaks down simply: DO is about action, EPIC is about a cause larger than oneself, and SHIT is about having fun while living life.
Ultimately, Ankur Warikoo believes that most people make choices in life because they do not know any better. His driving ambition is to help people make completely aware decisions, living by the foundational philosophy that “awareness is everything.”
He co-founded SecondShaadi.com, Gaadi.com, and nearbuy.com, and served as the founding CEO of Groupon India.
Despite being on a full scholarship and excelling academically, he realized he wasn't genuinely happy doing Physics and returned to India at age 24 to pivot his career.
It is his life motto and book title. "DO" stands for action, "EPIC" means serving a cause larger than yourself, and "SHIT" represents having fun while living life.
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