Aman Gupta is one of the most talked about sharks on Shark Tank India. The co-founder and former CMO of boAT has invested millions of dollars in several startups today, but there was a time when he had barely seen any money. Raised in a lower-middle-class home, Aman once described himself as “a lost soul.” In a recent interview with Humans of Bombay, Aman opened up about his childhood and revealed how a personal tragedy changed his perspective on life, pushing him to Prioritize happiness over material success.
Recalling the early days of boAT’s growth, Aman said: “When we received funding from Warburg, I was very excited. I thought, ‘Wow, paise aa gaye, maze aa gaye,’ because I had never seen so much money in my life. My mother was a school teacher and my father was a salesman. We had never seen money. My upbringing was lower middle class. Gradually, when we started receiving so much money, I would sit down and check my bank account several times.” He joked: “So much so that our banker came home to check on us.”
Speaking of the lifestyle changes After that, he added, “I spent a lot of money. I flew business class, stayed in the best hotels, bought luxury cars. But after a year, even this lifestyle started to bore me.”
Aman emphasized that financial success eventually took a backseat to personal happiness. “Keeping myself happy is my top priority. You must have heard Shah Rukh Khan’s dialogue: ‘Haso, jiyo, muskurao, kya pata kal ho na ho!’ I understood this deeply because I lost my brother in an accident on his birthday. You never know when life will end. After that, I learned to enjoy every day. Even when I had no money for almost six years, I enjoyed every day building boAT,” he shared.
Reflecting on his childhood, Aman said, “My childhood was fun. I was a lost soul; I never had a clear goal and often copied what my friends did. I followed CA because my father asked me to. We lived in a small one-room house in a joint family setup where each family had one room. We had ups and downs. My father started a business, suffered losses, then recovered and moved to a new house, but my parents and I continued to visit each other frequently.
Aman had earlier told Prakakhar ke Pravachan: “I worked very hard. I traveled in buses every day and got on the bus at the first stop because it was empty. I tried especially hard to reach the first stop, just so that I could get a seat and sleep for two hours, or study. I have worked very hard. I have worked 16 hours a day, I have changed jobs. All my friends were doing very well. Until I was 40, I depended on my wife to earn my income. life.
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Before founding boAT, Aman had tried nearly five startups, all of which failed. boAT became his sixth venture and required years of perseverance to succeed. Throughout this journey, he credits his wife, Priya, for supporting him both emotionally and financially.