Journey of Ankur Warikoo Education From Hindu College to MSU Michigan

Ankur Warikoo is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and active public speaker. He also serves as a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs and teaches internet courses on business, careers, and personal development. Nearbuy.com, India’s No. 1 Lifestyle App was founded by Ankur Warikoo and he resigned from the CEO position in 2019. Ankur pursued his MBA from the Indian School of Business in 2006 where he was honoured with the Young Leader Award. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Physics from Hindu College, Delhi University, and an MS degree in Physics from Michigan State University.

Ankur Warikoo Education Journey From Hindu College to Michigan State University

During his college life, he actively participated in debates and other such competitions. He also remained a part of public speaking and debate societies throughout his school and college life. After his graduation, the next best step according to him was a master in the related field degree. But he went on to pursue an MSc in Astronomy and Astrophysics from MSU in 2002, with a full scholarship. Even though Ankur Warikoo aced in all exams and loved physics, he wasn’t happy and decided to drop out of his PhD programme.

School	Don Bosco School, Delhi
College	Hindu College,DU
Graduation	BSc Physics
Masters	Michigan State University
Course	MSc Astronomy and Astrophysics
MBA	Indian School Business

Ankur Warikoo’s After MSU

Ankur Warikoo came back to India still confused and absolutely lost about what to do next. Someone suggested that he should go for an MBA. And so he did. He pursued an MBA in Finance from ISB, Hyderabad. As said by Warikoo himself, that one year at ISB changed his life. Further, after the MBA  in 2004, he began working at NIS Sparta as a financial consultant. He left the position after a year and went to work for A.T. Kearney. He was a member of ATK’s India Consulting Team and worked on projects in a variety of industries, including Media & Entertainment, Retail, Real Estate, Private Equity, and Oil & Gas. He also worked in Dubai and New York. Alongside his job at Kearney he also started working on his first venture with his few classmates from ISB, called SecondShaadi.com. In 2009, he quit his full-time job and went on to join the startup and over the next coming years he built many websites and other ventures around finance, automobiles, education and many more such things. His biggest feat according to him during all this was Gaadi.com which was eventually brought by goibibo.com.

Also Read: How to Budget, Save and Make Money by Ankur Warikoo

Entrepreneurial Journey of Ankur Warikoo

Following SecondShaadi.com and Gaadi.com, he became the founding CEO of Groupon India in 2011. And until 2015, he was the CEO of the company for four years. He was also assigned the duty of managing Groupon APAC countries Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines in 2013.  He and his team purchased the Groupon India business from Groupon in 2015, together with the core management team of Groupon India, and turned it into an independent corporation. Nearbuy, which was backed by Sequoia, was born. Warikoo served as CEO of nearbuy until 2019, when he stepped down, leaving the company in the hands of two other founders. Ankur Warikoo, after the ups and downs of 9 years, got interested in consumer behaviour, he had learned so much about various things like investing, funding, and one of those things also made him inquisitive about his own personal journey. He decided he would like to do something of his own. He established an online video series called “Warikoo Wednesdays” on LinkedIn in 2016 as a strategy to build an employer brand and attract the top personnel. Where he discussed his experiences as a founder, CEO, and people manager, as well as the lessons he learned from them. 

Ankur Warikoo’s Massive Social Media Following

Ankur Warikoo has over 4 million followers combined across YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. From just a couple thousand followers in March 2020 to a massive following in 2022, Ankur Warikoo is among the top 10 influencers in India on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter etc. 

Platform	Handle	Following
LinkedIn	Ankur Warikoo	15,13,014 followers
Youtube	warikoo	1.52M subscribers
Instagram	ankurwarikoo	1.2M followers
Twitter	warikoo	327K followers

For those who think I am really big today on social media, here is who I was at the end of March 2020

Followers, as of 29 March 2020
Instagram: 14,596
LinkedIn: 765,078
YouTube: 7,517
Twitter: 16,675

— Ankur Warikoo (@warikoo) December 31, 2021

Ankur Warikoo’s First Book – Do Epic Shit!

He gathers his core concepts in his first book, which range from the necessity of developing habits to the foundations of money management, from embracing and accepting failure to the true truth about learning empathy. This is a book you will read and reread, a book whose lines you will underline and ponder over and over, a book you will give to your family, friends, and strangers. He believes that this book will go down in history as the most gifted book ever!

❤️❤️❤️❤️ https://t.co/Q3ht6D2UuL

— Ankur Warikoo (@warikoo) February 6, 2022

Awards & Achievements of Ankur Warikoo

• The Indian School of Business gave him the Young Leader Award (class of 2006).
• In 2014, he was included in Fortune Magazine’s India’s 40 Under 40 list.
• TEDx NIT Srinagar receives India’s Most Promising Entrepreneur Award (2018)
• He was named to LinkedIn India’s Top Voices for three years in a row, in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Ankur Warikoo Biography

Name	Ankur Warikoo
Born	August 25, 1985,
Occupation	Youtuber, Entrepreneur, Public Speaker, Angel Investor
Founded	Nearby
Education	BSc in Physics from Hindu College, MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics from Michigan State University, MBA in Finance from ISB

Ankur Warikoo net worth

Ankur Warikoo is believed to have a net worth of $1 million to $5 million dollars. He has amassed enormous money as a result of his primary work as an executive.

Who is Ankur Warikoo?

Ankur Warikoo is a successful entrepreneur, motivational speaker, mentor, and angel investor. He launched several firms, including Secondshaadi.com, Gaadi.com, and Nearbuy.com.Ankur Warikoo was one of the first workers hired by Groupon in 2011 to develop and run the company’s India operations. At the time, deal-hunting was the most popular internet hobby.

Ankur Warikoo – Personal Life

• Ankur Warikoo was born into a poor household. He did, however, have a clear vision of what he wanted to do with his life, which turned out to be quite different from what he is doing today. Life had other plans for him, despite his desire to work for NASA and visit Mars. He left his PhD program because he was dissatisfied with his work. For him, something was always missing. For years, he hid his feelings before realizing that this was not the path for him.
• Ankur Warikoo’s wife is Ruchi Budhiraja Warikoo. She was Ankur’s high school sweetheart. She met her while he was a Hindu college student and she was a Miranda House tenant. They met on the way to college on the bus when Ruchi and her friends used to do stupid charades almost every day.

• Ruchi is the only one who genuinely knows Ankur and supports him in his endeavors. Their two children are Uzma and Vidur.

• Ankur likes public speaking and is regularly seen giving speeches on themes such as motivation, leadership, consumer internet, and the entrepreneurial mindset at organizations, colleges, schools, and conferences.

Story Behind the Brand ‘Warikoo’

In 2016, when Ankur was the CEO of nearbuy.com, he launched the Warikoo brand. The purpose of the brand was to own the tales and establish a brand for future talent. Ankur volunteered for the task since he likes public speaking, and he produced a video with the headline “If you don’t ask, the answer is always no!” on a beautiful Wednesday. He gave it the moniker “Warikoo Wednesdays.”The brand has grown tremendously since then, and it can now be found on practically every major social media site. The brand’s growth is mostly driven by video content, which helps consumers make decisions based on knowledge rather than ignorance.

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