Success often comes to those who persevere, and IIT Kanpur graduate Ankush Sachdeva is a perfect example. Despite holding a degree in computer science, Ankush did not join a major corporate firm. Instead, he faced 17 consecutive failures over several years, working on ideas ranging from e-commerce to utility services—all of which failed. Yet, he never gave up. These setbacks eventually led him to a major opportunity that the tech world had largely ignored.
In 2015, Ankush, along with his IIT Kanpur friends Fareed Ahsan and Bhanu Singh, started exploring opportunities for India’s underserved internet users. They noticed that people in smaller towns and villages were increasingly going online, but there were no apps in their local languages. Mainstream platforms failed to engage them. This became their ‘eureka moment.’
They launched ShareChat, initially in Hindi, and later expanded to 15 Indian languages including Malayalam, Gujarati, Bengali, and Punjabi. ShareChat was not just a translation of an English app—it was a platform featuring humor, local news, and content reflecting the daily lives of non-metro India.
The app took off rapidly, connecting a Punjabi farmer with an Assamese poet and a homemaker in Madhya Pradesh to viral recipe channels. By 2021, ShareChat had over 160 million active users. By 2022, the company’s valuation reached an impressive ₹40,000 crore.
Today, Ankush Sachdeva is a celebrated name in the startup ecosystem. Yet, the most inspiring part of his journey is not the valuation but the resilience shown through 17 failures. His story teaches that setbacks are not the end—they are stepping stones to new beginnings, and success comes brick by brick, one lesson at a time.
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