What Makes the Indian Internet Industry Unique: A Discussion with Co-Founder of nearbuy.com, Ankur Warikoo

Welcome to the podcast. I am Shane Barker, your host of Shane Barker’s Marketing Madness podcast. In this episode, we’ll discuss what makes the India internet industry unique and what it takes to grow an e-commerce company. My guest, Ankur Warikoo, is an internet entrepreneur, angel investor, and motivational speaker. He’s a co-founder and board member of nearby.com, a hyper-local e-commerce company in India. Previously he was the CEO of Groupon India, APAC, an MD of Rocket Internet India. He’s also the co-founder of ACM Web and a managing consultant at Kearney.

Well, cool man, once again, thank you for being on the podcast. I figured that we’ll probably start the podcast off today. I want to get, like, get the audience to know a little bit more about you and like, where you grew up, and like your family and that kind of stuff. Like, tell me—where did you grow up? You grew up in India?

Awesome. And then how big of a family are you from?

Got you, you know, so funny. So you’re—are you older than your sister? Younger?

Oldest? Yes, see, that’s the same with mine. So I’m older. My brother was six and a half years younger, which was an interesting little gap, you know, because it’s like, it’s—well, you know, I don’t know, growing up what your sister was like. But my brother, like, always wanted to be, you know, hanging—he thought it was cool for whatever reason, always wanted to be hanging out with me. And it was like, kind of, you know, it was just a long enough gap, a long enough gap that you’re like, “God, I just, you know, you’re annoying,” you know. But he’s like, “I just want to hang out with you,” you know, just wanted to hang out with me. And it was just—it was—it was kind of the same way in your family?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess it’s—you know, now that I look at it, it’s kind of like, oh, it’s kind of awesome that you looked up to me that way, but I didn’t look at it that way. You know, back in the day, it was just like, “God, you’re so annoying.” But really, at the end of the day, it’s like you’ve got somebody looking up to you that might not ever happen again in life. You ain’t got to be real careful, you know, that might have been your only fan, you know, not you. But I’m just saying anybody, you know?

It took somebody else to pull it out of her, huh? She’s like, “Well, okay, I guess you, but yeah, I’m gonna fully admit it, but I’ll give you—I’ll give you a little bit of credit,” because I got a WhatsApp message from somebody that kind of put me over the edge. I’m at 51% of being proud now, totally. I hear you. That happens. Sometimes it happens. So like, what about you? What about you? Get any other, like, interesting facts of growing up? I mean, it sounds like you were more of, like, kind of to yourself and friends and family, which is not a bad thing, but any other interesting facts like that? I mean, I always have some people that bring up—like, one lady I interviewed was like, “Oh, I was in a cult for 18 years.” I’m like, oh, okay, that’s pretty interesting. I didn’t know that was going to be the interesting fact—not that I think you should have been in a cult. You can be interesting to not be in a cult. But is there anything that, like, any interesting facts, anything fun, that you’re like…

Yeah. I mean, what were they doing? They knew that you want to see it. It’s like, why were they holding out like that? They don’t think about how you feel.

Yeah, it really was. So I’ll ask you—since you’re kind of the sci-fi guy—do you believe there are aliens? Do you think they’ve come down and visited us?

Now we’re talking!

Isn’t it crazy? When you see that kind of stuff and think, this is maybe a little too close to home. You’re like, “Wait a second.” I liked it because I think people are in these silos, and this is life—it is what it is. You don’t really think outside of that. But when you have a movie or something that makes you start thinking, it’s kind of mind-numbing, and kind of scary, but also exciting.
Most people don’t want to think about that. They just want to make it through life. “I’m not trying to figure out that there are aliens around me.” Or, “How am I even going to handle that?”
Totally. Yeah. Did you see the thing in the U.S.? A few months ago, there was that plan to storm Area 51. Someone put it on Facebook, it went viral, and the government said, “Do not come. We will not shoot you.” Not a direct quote, but that was the tone.
People started getting nervous because the town outside Area 51—maybe 20 people live there. Then it turned into something like 200 people planning to show up, maybe 2,000. A small town, and now people were like, “We’re going to storm the gate.”
I thought, oh my God, this is going to be a mess. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt or anything to go wrong, but I thought, “I’ll just grab my popcorn, catch a livestream, and see what happens.”
I hoped there’d be no blood. I’m not a big fan of that. I just thought it would be interesting because if you’re going to Area 51, there are definitely going to be people on drugs. I figured it would be wild—but it didn’t happen.
We’ll find out eventually—aliens, neighbors, simulation… something cool. Hopefully in our generation. Hopefully before we die. That’d be awesome.
You’d want that for your DAGs, I know that. And probably you’d die right after that, once you find out. That might be your life’s mission, besides your wife and kids and all the fun stuff.

Yeah. Well, Musk and Bezos and everybody else—they’re working on it. It’s possible.

And then the aliens will take over. Anyways, it’ll be fun. So where do you currently live now? Are you still in Delhi?

Wow, interesting. See, that’s what always fascinates me. Because obviously, that background—there’s nothing you probably learned in college that tied into what you’re doing now. It’s like someone going to school for music and then suddenly doing something totally different, right? It doesn’t necessarily have a tie-in.
So how did that transition happen? At what point did you say, “You know what? I don’t still want to go to Mars. I just maybe won’t be the first person on Mars.” Like, how did all that happen? Take me down that road.

I was just gonna say, as I told you, I’m in India right now, and I got nervous just knowing that about you. I’m like, I don’t know. Am I safe now, knowing you said, “Listen, this is what I’m gonna do. I’m just gonna go ahead and pretty much say, I don’t want to do this anymore.” I wish there was a video camera in your house. So when you told your parents that—and I think the fact that you survived that is epic. Like you’re a survivor.
Not to get your parents wrong—they weren’t violent or anything—but just saying, culturally, I know it’s like, no, that’s not what you’re gonna do, because your path is already planned out for you, right?

You’ve lost your mind.

I was gonna say, it kind of sounds like… not to say you’re a rebel, but this doesn’t make sense. You were probably prepped growing up like, “This is just the way it is.” And then there’s that aha moment where you’re going through it, and you think, “Wait, maybe this isn’t what I should be doing.”
And usually, those thoughts are suppressed—like, “No, no, no, stay on track. We’ve got a plan for you. Just don’t deviate.” That’s interesting.
So then, where did you meet your wife?

Man, that’s awesome. So she was the one that says, “Hey, I don’t think you’re crazy.”

Well, no wonder you guys got married. I mean, come on, she was your ride or die. That was your Bonnie and Clyde right there. That’s awesome.
And so you’ve been married for how long now? Twelve years? That’s great—you know what, we’ve got some similarities. I’ve been married 13 years.
I hope that’s not the wrong number, because my wife’s probably going to listen to this. I only have one listener. It’s my wife. That’s why I get real nervous—I don’t want to say the wrong stats.
Or she’ll be like, “When is her birthday?” And I’m like, “Oh God, here we go again.” I’m not sure. I just know that I love her. If you’re listening, maybe just let Daddy love you so close to 13 years.
And you have how many kids? One? Two? Tell me about that. How old?

Ain’t that crazy? And that changed your whole life. Just the whole thing. She completely played it. Just completely.
Do you have kids? I do. You know, I like a 20-year-old with, you know, do the math on that a little later, and you can see me. I know this is a podcast. You can see me. I look extremely young, obviously, right?
I mean, you’re like, “God, this guy’s probably at least 2324.” Yeah, man, at 20 years I got a 20-year-old.
He’s just finished his second year in college and came home to do real estate. He wants to do commercial real estate, and then he’s going to go back to college and finish up.
So yeah, that was a hard decision for him as well, because he wanted to finish, and so, “I don’t want to do commercial real estate.”
It was an internship, and the college he was at didn’t really have that many commercial buildings. It was a smaller college called Chico, California, where Sierra Nevada is from.
If you’ve ever heard of Sierra Nevada, I used to own a bar there. It’s kind of a long story, but then, there wasn’t a lot of commercial stuff there.
So he’s like, “I’d like to go to another college.” And so he’s coming back, getting his degree or his real estate license. So no backstory there.
But yeah, so my journey is not done. I mean, he’s always going to be my son, but he’s out of the house and all that kind of fun stuff.
So your journey—you’re just beginning yours.

Yeah, you have to. I mean, what do you think? What’s the biggest difference between the day before you had a child and the day after? What changed for you?

Because obviously, being an entrepreneur myself and building businesses, I understand the level of commitment that takes. Was there a moment for you—were you that crazy madman working 18 hours a day, and then suddenly thought, “I can’t keep doing this”? I mean, I know you have a team and everything, but did you scale back?

Give me a little background, because usually there’s that aha moment, where there’s a bigger purpose. Your business is your baby for so long, and then suddenly it shifts.

For me, I used to work 18-hour days all the time. But after having my son, going to his games, and being part of those moments, I hit a point where I realized—I’m going to miss all of this if I don’t make a change. I needed to be there to help shape his life. And at the end of the day, I’m not a brain surgeon. If I don’t answer 5,000 emails, no one’s going to die. It might feel like that in my own little world, but it’s not the reality.

So when was that moment for you? When did you realize, “Hey, I need to shift how I do things”?

See, that’s how I knew you were a sci-fi fan—because you’re like, “I just see two humans coming together,” which, we don’t need to go into detail, but yeah, that happened there. I think we all get that. But then it’s like—bam—a baby comes out, and you’re like, “Oh my God. This is… I did this. That was my fault.” And now I’ve got to take full responsibility for the next 80 years, because I’m here to help mold this little child—Little Bean, right? It’s crazy, man. That’s pretty nice.

So tell us a little bit about Nearby, right? I’m obviously… it’s only an India-based company, right? I mean, we don’t need a Groupon. So that’s kind of the story I want to hear about—your journey—because I’ve been following you for a while, secretly stalking you, and that’s what finally got you on the podcast. But tell us a little bit about how that transition happened, and how it all worked out, because it’s a really interesting story.

Have you been drinking? I think it’s probably—exactly, yeah. Are you on drugs?

Yeah, that’s crazy. Let me ask you a quick question about that. So was the reason you wanted to break off—was it because you had a parent company that wasn’t as agile and couldn’t move the way you wanted to? Or did you just say, “Hey, I think we should do this,” and they’re like, “We’re not going to do that”? That’s way off. Or, “Hey, you’re not giving us the support.” Or what were you? And I’m not talking bad about Groupon. But I’m just trying to figure out—at what point did you say, “This isn’t going to work”? What was the straw that broke the camel’s back where you’re like, “We need to do our own thing”?

No, that’s why I was interested in your story. Because I’m like, “He did what?” I read up on it, obviously, and I’m like, “No, this must be a misprint.” You don’t go to the parent company and say, “Hey, we want to start another country.” I mean, it’s like, think about it—Russia or wherever. Countries don’t just let go.

And the fact that you’re like, “No, we’re going to do this. That’s what’s best.” I can only imagine the kind of prodding it took for nine months to get them to finally say, “Okay, fine. Let them go.” They probably said, “Let’s not stop them. They’ll just do their own thing.” And probably, internally, they admitted it would be better if you were not a part of Groupon, just because of the lack of time and resources they were putting into India.

So it’s like, “Hey, let’s take this and run with it. Let us do what we need to do.”

And what year was that? 2015, wow. So about five years ago. Since then, you guys have gone crazy. Why don’t you explain that a little bit? So the day you guys broke off—that’s funny, it’s COVID capital—did you grab some cash? Is there any Silicon Valley in India?

Awesome. Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m in Sacramento, so I’m about an hour and a half from Silicon Valley. So I get it, I get the shrapnel from Silicon Valley every once in a while from the things that go on there. So it’s kind of fun to see.

But tell us a little bit about Nearby today. I mean, obviously, the last five years, there’s been quite a lot of growth, right? I mean, you guys have done some really cool things. I’d like to get a little intel on that.

Awesome. So at that point, you guys were the platform, right? So then now it’s like, “We’ll bring the people, you figure out when you want to turn it on and turn it off,” and you guys can do your own deals. And it’s a lot more control in that situation.

Man, that’s awesome. So that’s cool. That was obviously the right move, right? Saying, ‘Hey, listen…’ Because Groupon was obviously big in the US, and I was always looking at that business model in the sense that it had very aggressive commissions, right? I mean, I think they were giving up 50%, and a lot of times, even restaurants would have these Groupon customers come in and didn’t know how to retain any of them. They didn’t know how. There was no plan. Some people went with Groupon at that time just because they didn’t know other ways to pull people in.

But there was no—if I was Groupon, I would have had some kind of strategy to retain these people, maybe caring for the merchant a little more, right? Nothing against Groupon; I’m not talking bad about them. But that’s where you’ve got to take care of your bread and butter. I think what happened was they grew so fast, and they were so aggressive—‘We can drive the traffic, we can bring the people, and then you can’t live without us,’ right? And you start building your business off a Groupon coupon, which is usually a last resort for a lot of businesses I’ve seen. They’re like, ‘Let’s just try this because nothing else is working.’ Not always, and I’m not saying that’s everybody’s experience, but I think it’s awesome that you guys were more customer- or merchant-centric, saying, ‘Hey, we think this is a good model. Let them have the control, let them do what they need to do, because they know better than you guys.

Say I’d take a massage and some paneer right now. I’d lose my mind. I think I have about three pounds of that in my stomach right now. Not to get into personal details, but I’m just trying to double my weight in the next four days. That’s the plan. I’ll let you know how that works out, but I understand that culturally. The food is like, you’ve got to be kidding me. So I think that’s a natural fit to go after the food side of things in that regard.

So what were some of the other challenges you guys had with Nearby? I mean, obviously there was changing the business model, and there was some rebranding, right? What were some other big challenges you guys had? Obviously, it’s kind of hard to sum that up in an hour podcast, but were there any big things? Did you have any issues with the government, or anything else you had to deal with? We can talk about government or UFOs or stuff like that. I’m probably going to have a black vehicle follow me around after this interview—no big deal. This is my last interview, and I had a good time, so if I don’t make it from here on out, you’ll know why.

You know what? I can actually relate to that, because when my wife met me, she was like, This is too good to be true. She said, No, there’s got to be a catch. And I was like, No, baby, this is it. This is all me. And she’s like, No, I just feel like this is too good to be true. I’m like, No, this is the full path. I don’t know if it gets better than this—which might be 100% facetious, because my wife probably just turned the podcast off. We just lost our one listener we had. She’s like, He doesn’t remember my birthday, now he’s talking about how good he is, for God’s sake. No, but I get that.

So it’s a trust thing, and that’s interesting, because that’s what we tell people, right? If it looks like it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true. And you guys are looking at this going, Okay, we’re offering 50% off the Hilton. What are we missing here? What seems to be the problem? How did you guys take care of that? Is that more like, Hey, you have tons of testimonials, and people say, Oh my god, I went on this great vacation. At what point do you build that trust with your audience, other than obviously when they buy something? Because once they see the price, how do you convince them to come on and start feeling comfortable, telling their friends, Oh my god, this is real. I just stayed at the Hilton for 50%. How did you build that?

Thank you for the dungeon, Johnny.

Got the foot in the door, right? I mean, the idea is right, and that’s interesting. So if I’m going to go for a coupon, I’m looking for a restaurant that I’ve never been to. Like, for me, it’s the opposite. I don’t need a McDonald’s. I don’t care about any of that. I want to go explore, right? But that’s me. I love to go explore. So I want to go, like, up my wife, I’ll go and I’ll say, Okay, let’s go get $10 off something. Let’s go try something we’ve never tried. And so I enjoy that side of it. I would, you know, once again. But I obviously understand the platform and have used it quite a bit, so that’s interesting.

So let’s talk about this a little bit, because I know we’ve got, what, only about 15 more, 20 more minutes. Tell us a little bit, because I know you’d also done some angel investing too—Nearby. And also, I want to, we probably should in this, the Nearby story with you. Just left this, the company, as the CEO, right? I mean, obviously looks like you’re going to be on to some other stuff.

Yeah. So have you thought about getting a tattoo? Says, who does that? I mean, I would. I actually would pay for it. Not that I think you need to be reminded, but I’m just, I feel like, I think that’s interesting, because you’re like, man, things are going too good. Or, you know what? I think I’m gonna make go to the left or go to the right. But I think I love that because, I mean, the mentality of that is, you’re just gonna do what you want to do, right? Yeah, right. Which is awesome, because most people don’t, especially in the Indian culture. It’s kind of like, you know, this is—you’re supposed to be doing this, but like, you got to go this way. Don’t go right or left. Like, I’ve kind of, this is your dad did this, your grandfather did this. This is you got to kind of keep it going. Don’t mess up, you know, got the family’s watching you, and you’re kind of like, well, you know, I guess that makes sense, and I’d love you guys, and things are good, but I kind of want to do this.

And hey, things are going great with the company, because you guys also didn’t Nearby get bought out too. You guys also got a—wasn’t there, like, a merger or something?

There we go, see, I mean, that’s—and so you do you and you kind of feel like, Hey, your work’s done here, right? Like, not that it can’t get bigger, but is it kind of like, or is it just, you want the new adventure?

That’s awesome. You should probably start building that spaceship to get to Mars. You won the first one there, right? I’m just—I’m just what I would recommend. I mean, you got a little bit of competition, but I think you could do it, bud. I mean, that’s—that’s, don’t let anybody stop you.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Man, that’s—and maybe that’s where you get your tattoo on Mars. Be the first one to go there and get a tattoo on Mars. Now we’re talking, now we’re cooking.

See, now, now we’re on fire, like before there was a little bit of gas. Now I think, see this is, there’s some synergy here. I think I’d be willing to, I’ll buy the—the guns for the tattoo or whatever we need to do. We’ll figure out the details later. But I think we really have a little, a little little business baby here. I think where this thing’s really coming together quickly and only 40 minutes. I mean, who knew it was going to be this quick?

So tell us a little bit. Because obviously, I think I remember reading about that. You also do some angel investing as well. And pretty you like to be a little risky. And I don’t know what that meant. I just saw that you’d like to be a little risky. I didn’t want to dig too much deeper until we jumped on the podcast. But tell us a little bit about that, like you’re an angel investor, like what companies have you invested in, and why did you invest some money in them?

Yeah, I love that. Whether it’s sweat equity or whether it’s capital, I’ve done some of the same stuff. I think I just enjoy the journey, right? For me, when I saw you left in November, I got it inside—I didn’t even have to read the rest of the article. I knew it had nothing to do with the company. It had to do with, I’ve done what I can do here. There’s only so much time on this planet Earth and Mars, obviously, as well. You’ve got to figure out that next step. Most people say, Everything was perfect, why would you do that? I say, Why would I not do that? I get this opportunity to work with other people on projects that could change the world, especially when you have that synergy.

It’s kind of like a very small example, but people ask why I started my podcast. There’s no real reason other than I like talking to people. They ask, Don’t you want to make money from it? And I say, Not really—unless you’re a sponsor, then yes, please reach out. But truly, the goal is just that I enjoy chatting and meeting new people. The podcast gives me a platform to talk for an hour with someone I might not otherwise get that time with. I enjoy it. It’s fascinating. It’s only an hour, but you can build great relationships through that. So I feel fortunate about it.

How many startups do you work with right now? Is there a certain amount, or is it more like consulting? Maybe it depends on how involved you are.

Yeah, well, because it should be high impact, right? If I’m taking my time, don’t ask me to look at a deck. You can ask anybody to look at a deck, but that’s not what I’m looking for. My time is going to be very limited, so let’s make a huge impact. Just looking at your deck probably isn’t going to change anything, for the most part. So I get that. I get that.

So I have a question for you. You said you’re in your late 30s—39, 39, yeah, 30… nights. Are you coming up on 40? Huh? I’m 44, so I just want to let you know that it’s really glorious on this side when you’re 40. I’m not even kidding—when I was in Mumbai for a keynote speech with the India Times, I went out dancing. I’m not talking five hours. It was like 15 minutes, and my knee popped. I didn’t fall, but it pretty much told me it hated me. I wasn’t breakdancing or spinning on my knee; maybe I was dancing like I was a little younger than I am. But I just want to let you know, when you hit those 40s, bro, it’s lovely. Everything is just super, super epic.

But I have a question for you. You’re 39 right now—what would you tell your 19-year-old self if you could go back in time? Other than don’t go to Michigan State—just kidding—maybe you’d change direction, not the college. But what would you tell yourself? What would be that epic thing you’d say, Hey man, watch out for this or do this? Is there anything you would tell yourself?

But how do you—let’s break that down a little bit. When you talk about awareness, I guess it’s more that you’re making the decision instead of somebody else making the decision for you.

It’s funny—I have a little story for you. We talked about hanging out with people who aren’t just yes people, and the reason I’m laughing is something happened the other night in Mumbai at my speaking event. After the event, we had some food—more Indian food, because I’m shoveling it down while I’m here—and I was having a cocktail. There was this lady looking at me from across the room. I assumed she recognized me as one of the speakers.

She comes up to me and goes, I’ve been following you for a long time, I like your material, but I have to tell you, I think your speech was just average.

I almost spit out my beer. I was like, Oh, okay. Everyone around us was shocked, like, Oh my god, I can’t believe she said that. They were probably thinking, How’s he gonna handle this? And I said, You know what, I absolutely love your candor. I love that you have the courage to tell me that, because everyone else was telling me they loved the presentation. Then she clarified, It’s not that I didn’t like it. You presented well, but your content wasn’t phenomenal from what I’ve seen.

And I said, I’ll have to agree. I only had 25 minutes to talk about digital marketing in the past, present, and future, which meant I had about eight minutes to cover 10 years of history. That’s never going to blow anyone away—especially not the CMOs or directors of huge companies here in India. Then she said, Now is your opportunity to blow me away. I was like, Wow, she’s giving me permission here. Let me stretch out and make sure I don’t pull a hammy before I drop some knowledge on you, sister.

We ended up having a great 20-minute conversation. The reason I’m bringing this up is she wasn’t a yes person. Everybody else gave me their card and said, Great job. She just came up and blasted me—and I loved it. It was so cool that she was honest. Most people aren’t that direct, but I talked with her the most because I knew she’d tell me if I was great or not and what I needed to improve on. It was a really good conversation.

Yeah, it was awesome. It was a good time, for sure. So, well, cool man. Hey, we’re at the end of this thing. See, when the interviews get all fun like this, and you start talking about businesses and Mars and tattoos and aliens and stuff, it’s just an hour. It’s just not enough time. But I do have—I actually have—one thing I wanted to tell you that I thought was awesome. I read in an article that you have a list of all the things you failed at.

Yeah, your failure resume. I was looking at that and, man, you really failed. I want to tell you, yeah, your failures, dude. I think that was awesome. I was reading it, and I thought, Man, that’s really cool, because a lot of people are scared of failure. That’s their big thing, you know? For me, I always talk about: What can I do to be successful? And I say, fail 1,000 times, fail a million times, and just keep doing it, right? I think it’s awesome you keep that in the forefront—like, Hey, this is it, and it’s okay, right? These are things that didn’t happen, or I wanted to do this, or I didn’t do that, because you’re always going to fail, and you should always fail. As long as you get some kind of experience or something from it.

So I want to give you kudos on that, because I actually printed it out. I wanted to look at all your failures—super awesome. Now my last question for you: If three people—living, alive, or dead—that you would want to have dinner with or wine with or a drink with… Who would it be? Because I think, for you, with your mindset, you’re not going to pick typical people. So who would you pick? Who would be the people you could have dinner with, a drink with, or hang out with for an hour or two? Who’s on your list?

Really?

You can’t go wrong with that. I thought for sure my money was on Tupac. I don’t know why I feel like you’d be a big Tupac fan. I just saw a documentary on Tupac, so he’s on my mind right now. But that’s awesome, man. That’s a nice little list of folks you’d have together. And Jesus—if you see him, tell him I said hi. That’d be awesome. I haven’t talked to him; he knows you already. Yeah, he probably says, “Nobody.” He’s probably the one who’s like, “Hey, get off that dance floor.” He’s the one who blew my knee out, like, “Bud, you shouldn’t be out there dancing. You’re gonna hurt yourself, and you’re white, so do not do that. You’re aggressively going to hurt yourself.”

Well, once again, man, this is so awesome, and I appreciate you taking the time and jumping on the podcast today. As I said, we’ll let you know when we get all the fun stuff, all the propaganda, out to you when the podcast comes out. If anybody wants to get in contact with you, do you want to give out any details? A website, anything fun?

That’s awesome. And obviously, you said the cool part is you’re giving out free money, right, when it comes to startups—just kidding. No, there’s nothing for you, but that’s awesome, man. Well, congratulations on all your success, bud. And if you’re listening to this podcast and you like what you hear, make sure to subscribe. Once again, Ankur, thank you so much for being a guest, and we’ll be talking with you soon, bud.