How Ankur Warikoo Built a ₹17 Crore Business from Content & Education

The Jar HQ recently hosted Ankur Warikoo for a candid conversation about everything from content creation to becoming a successful entrepreneur. 

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The WebVeda founder graciously shared his words of wisdom and entrepreneurial lessons that have helped him build a successful business generating ₹17 Cr annually. 

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Warikoo's career trajectory teaches us to take calculated risks, use content creation for business growth, and challenge conventional business norms.

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Here are some tidbits and key takeaways from our JarXChange podcast with Ankur Warikoo:

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“It’s Stupid for People to Have One Job.” 

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Warikoo had a very surprising take on having more than one job. According to him, it is “dumb” to have just one job. 

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He shared that he encourages, if not mandates, the WariCrew to have more than one job; the only caveat is that their performance at WebVeda is not compromised.

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Warikoo motivates his employees to invest in their careers with different jobs for: 

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• Learning,
• Earning, and
• Networking

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The Story Behind WebVeda

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Talking about WebVeda, Warikoo shed light on the struggle he experienced when he was left with just five months of savings at the onset of COVID-19. 

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At that time, Warikoo’s primary source of income was his corporate gigs, where he gave motivational speeches on entrepreneurship. However, the pandemic put his corporate gigs on hold, which meant he needed a plan B. 

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Regardless of what life threw at him, Warikoo was ready to face challenges head-on! He began experimenting with online content creation. 

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He decided to use his corporate gig’s skill and launch online webinars using Razorpay’s “pay what you want” model. 

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The model allowed users to pay any amount of money, register for the webinar, and, after attending it, pay what they thought it was worth. 

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Warikoo’s webinars included subjects like fundraising, communication skills, and time management. 

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He shared that about 50% of his users paid ₹1, while others paid up to ₹400. These transactions led to an average revenue of ₹163 per person. 

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Due to the success of his webinars, Ankur Warikoo launched his education startup, WebVeda. 

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Today, WebVeda contributes ₹9.5 crore to Ankur Warikoo’s annual revenue. 

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Ankur Warikoo’s Talks Business Numbers & Open Salary System

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The author of "Do Epic Shit" lived up to the name of his book by openly disclosing all revenue streams, complete with numbers. He also disclosed how all employees in his company know each other’s salaries.

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He emphasised the need for transparency regarding employee salaries in his company to avoid all sorts of political conflicts and power struggles. 

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“ Because a company starts to decay as soon as there are power centres created on the basis of information, not talent or skill.”

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He further stated that different levels in a company shouldn’t exist on the basis of an individual’s knowledge about a specific subject but rather on his/her talent or skills.

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Warikoo openly shared his revenue streams and their earnings with the Jar team, proving his point of being transparent with his employees and the rest of the world. 

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According to Ankur Warikoo, his business has been profitable since day one and runs at a 32% EBITDA margin. Pretty impressive, don’t you think?

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Utilising Content Creation For Business Distribution

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Speaking about content creation, the WebVeda founder had a unique take on using it for business distribution rather than as a career option. 

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He advised creators to use social media to build business instead of chasing online fame. 

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“ The first-time founder thinks that the product wins, but the second-time founder knows that distribution wins and distribution will always be greater.”

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Warikoo rightly pointed out that having an audience is more valuable than the content itself. 

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However, Warikoo is completely secure even if he loses all his followers. He said, 

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“I’m not married to any of my social media. It can all go down tomorrow.”

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Adding further,

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“ I'm married to education, which is something that I love.”

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His backup plan is quite simple and, honestly, pretty wholesome!

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“We'll move to the mountains. We'll homeschool our kids. And we'll teach in a primary government school there.”

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Final Thoughts

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Ankur Warikoo certainly proves why he is such a successful entrepreneur. However, what caught our attention is that he is also a very genuinely kind and open person who has an undying passion for education. 

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His commitment towards encouraging individuals to be self-sufficient is inspiring, and there’s so much to learn from him!