'Shark Tank India': Anupam Mittal confesses his ego was hurt when Ashneer Grover said ‘he built 1 brand, I built 3’

Anupam Mittal, who is the founder of Shaadi.com, confessed that his ego was hurt when Ashneer Grover undermined the CEO in one of the episodes of ‘Shark Tank India.’ Ashneer is the co-founder and managing director of BharatPe.

For the unversed, Ashneer tried to convince a contestant to choose him over Anupam as he is more experienced. In the episode, Ashneer said, “Isne ek brand banaya, maine do brand banaye. Maine BharatPe bhi banaya, maine PostPe bhi banaya, pehle maine Grofers bhi banaya, toh brand ki toh baat mat karo mere se (He built just one brand, whereas I built BharatPe, PostPe and before that, I built Grofers. So don’t try to teach me about building a brand).”

While speaking about the same during an interview with Siddharth Kannan, Anupam confessed that his ego was hurt. On being asked, he said, he will be lying if he says that his ego was not hurt when Ashneer said that. He mentioned that ‘Ego is the part of your normal reaction.’

“If someone says something to you, you are bound to react. How you act on your reaction depends on you. You might feel, ‘How could he say this?’ But you need to understand if it is your ego, intellect, emotion or conditioning speaking. These four are very different things. Over time, I have learnt that. I analyse carefully,” he said.

He further said that he understood the difference between building a brand and advertising after a minute. He added, “I told him on the show, ‘Anyone can spend on advertising. When your brand is known in every home for 15-20 years, that is an achievement. Talk to me once you build that.’ I said it on the show, I am not saying it behind his back. When you tell yourself that, you understand, ‘People will tell you anything to feel better, it doesn’t mean…’ You can only be put down if you allow yourself to be put down. I don’t give anybody that privilege.”