In a heartfelt post on LinkedIn, Shark Tank India judge Anupam Mittal shared a story many wouldn’t expect from someone of his stature. Years before launching one of India’s most well-known matrimonial platforms, Shaadi.com, he was laid off from his job in the United States. This was around the early 2000s, when the dot-com bubble burst. It wasn’t just a career halt. It was a moment that shook his identity.
He didn’t have a backup plan. There was no roadmap waiting. He recalls walking back from the office that day , a short walk that felt like a long fall. Not just because he had lost money, most of which had already vanished in the crash, but because he had no clue what would come next. “When I got laid off… I still remember that walk back from the office. It wasn’t long, but it felt like a free fall,” he wrote.
Initially, he did what most people do in that situation. He blamed the economy. He refreshed job sites endlessly. He cursed his luck. For weeks, he searched for answers that didn’t show up. But then something shifted. It wasn’t triggered by a motivational book or an inspiring video. He had a quiet moment of reflection. He wrote a question in his diary that changed everything: “What would I build if I had nothing left to lose?”
That question flipped the script. He stopped applying for jobs. He started building. There was no big plan. Just one website. One attempt at a time. He wasn’t sure of himself. But he was driven by a new excitement. He took small steps. Slowly, that project evolved into something bigger. A few years down the line, that tiny experiment became ‘Shaadi.com’. The platform ended up reshaping how marriages were seen and arranged in India and beyond.
More ventures followed. Makaan.com. Mauj. Each one was built with lessons learned during those uncertain times. Anupam was not trying to glorify failure. In his words, it was tough, no money, no powerful network. Just the support of a few cousins and a dial-up internet connection. There were no resources. Only grit and determination.
He said that the most powerful lesson he learned during that time still holds true today: “Action is the lead domino.” According to him, it’s easy to wait. People wait for clarity. They wait for the right moment. They wait for money or permission or perfection. But he believes waiting often leads nowhere.
He insists that momentum is undervalued. People think strategy is the key. But it’s not always about a master plan. It’s about movement. You take one step even when you’re unsure and things begin to unfold. “Clarity doesn’t come before action. It comes from action,” he said.
The journey from getting laid off in a foreign land to launching multiple successful platforms wasn’t easy. But it wasn’t luck either. It was effort. It was questions, not answers. It was working through fear, not waiting for confidence. He had lost everything, his job, his savings, his direction. But he still had something left. He had the will to try.