'We all started with moonlighting': Shark Tank India judge Anupam Mittal reminisces early years as start-up founder

Shark Tank India 2 is seeing some interesting revelations by the purported 'sharks'. Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of the People Group, revealed that he moonlighted in the initial years of launching his business, a topic that has been lately doing rounds at the boards of all IT firms in the country.

“We all started with moonlighting. It is needed to manage expenses,” Mittal confessed in Tuesday’s episode of the start-up pitch series. For the unversed, moonlighting refers to having a second job, in addition to one’s regular employment without informing the employer. 

This conversation took place when a healthy meals brand, SoupX, was pitching its business idea to the sharks. One of the co-founders admitted that he was employed by a company and worked on the start-up during the night from 11pm to 4 am. He also revealed that he was unable to receive funding, which compelled him to take the job and invest a major portion of his salary into the business.

While this shocked the other sharks, the founder of Shaadi.com jumped in and stated that moonlighting is normal in the initial years for an entrepreneur. 

SoupX received an offer from Vineeta Singh, CEO of Sugar. She offered to invest Rs 50 lakh for 18 per cent equity and gave Rs 25 lakh in debt at a rate of interest of 12 per cent. 

Mittal is one of the most prominent angel investors within the Indian start-up ecosystem. He is known for his investments in iconic start-ups and unicorns such as Ola Cabs, BigBasket, Rapido, Druva, and many others. 

He has invested in over 150 companies in the last 15 years. 

Apart from Mittal and Singh, other sharks seen on the show include Peyush Bansal (Founder of Lenskart), Namita Thapar (Executive Director, Emcure Pharmaceuticals), Aman Gupta (co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of boAt) and Amit Jain (Co-founder and CEO, CarDekho).

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