The Incident Because Of Which Ashneer Grover Decided To Become An Entrepreneur
"When I reached the office, they gave me a tour and during that time I started getting shortness of breath, like I was going to get a heart attack. I had not seen such dead beat people ever in my life," Grover said, causing the audience to burst into laughter.
By Kabir Singh Bhandari •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Recently at an event in Mumbai, former BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover spoke about an experience after which he had decided that he would not be part of a traditional job ever again.
"There was a moment when I understood that I could no longer do a salaried job. After Grofers, I had gone to Ernst & Young for just 15 minutes. They were making me a partner of a start-up practice and were giving me good money for it too. When I reached there, they gave me a tour of the office and during that time I started getting shortness of breath, like I was going to get a heart attack. I had not seen such dead beat people ever in my life," Grover said, causing the audience at IIT Bombay to burst into laughter.
Grover then went on to explain why he had felt so.
READ: Ashneer Grover: 'I Will Cap Income Tax At 10 Per Cent If Made Chief Minister'
"When I was in Grofers, everyday there was something exciting happening. Sometimes the police would come to question us and take us away to the police station. At other times our own delivery boys would come to take us away because they had not got their salary. As a start-up so many things used to be happening simultaneously. After that when you go to a corporate office, it's like a test. In those 15 minutes I folded my hands to them and said this is something I won't be able to do, and that is the day I realized that a traditional job is something that I cannot do. At that time I didn't even know what I was going to do. So in hindsight, there wasn't any typical Shah Rukh Khan like moment where I was sitting with a bottle of alcohol and saying out aloud what I wanted to become," Grover narrated during the IIT E-Cell event.
Grover has raised around $4 million in seed funding for his venture Third Unicorn Pvt Ltd and shall be launching a cricket fantasy gaming platform called Crickpe. A while back, Grover had also put up a post on LinkedIn: "We at Third Unicorn have quietly and peacefully built a business that is shaking the market. Bootstrapped. Without limelight. And we are doing things differently. Very differently."
He give a glimpse of his venture in a slideshow and spoke about how the new company shall have only 50 members and that each employee who completes five years in the Third Unicorn shall be given a Mercedes.
"VCs-SheC's, please stay away. We use only desi/self-earned capital," Grover had added, saying that they are only looking at investors based in India and that venture capitalists should stay away. The first two unicorns he was part of were BharatPe and Grofers.
The author can be reached at bkabir@entrepreneurindia.com and Instagram.com/kabirsinghbhandari
