Binny Bansal, one of the co founders of Flipkart, led quite an interesting life before becoming one of the most sought after entrepreneurs in India. For Binny Bansal, Flipkart came into existence not because it was his dream project, but because Google refused to give him a job!

The early life

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Back in the day, Binny Bansal’s primary love was technology and anything to do with technology. In fact, he loved the machine world so much, he even took a couple of courses on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Fresh out of IIT Delhi, Bansal realised his friends were all getting placed in various high paying jobs. While he did apply to these jobs, nothing excited him. This was when he knew he was right about the first love of his life: technology!

Taking the choice to jump from working for a MNC to working for himself was a tough choice for Binny. While there was a strong sense of comfort and satisfaction in taking home a regular package, that spark of excitement was missing. When he was introduced to Sachin Bansal, Binny realised he had finally found his calling! Despite an e commerce platform not being his first choice, Binny Bansal knew he was finally working on something he loved.

The beginning of Flipkart

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The beginning days of Flipkart were hard. Binny and his partner worked out of a one bedroom apartment, with no real help. The first challenge Binny and his partner, Sachin Bansal, faced was to convince people to invest in their idea. Out of the 40 bookstores they approached, only two people agreed. With the salary Binny had saved from his previous job, the Bansals kicked off Flipkart. Despite having a steady cash flow, getting people to find out about their business was slightly tough. The Bansals sold less than 10 books during the initial Flipkart period.

While initially starting off only as a book delivery platform, the idea of Flipkart started spreading and Binny realised the time had come to expand the company’s product range. One of the key reasons for Flipkart’s massive growth is that both the Bansals decided to never run out of cash. Only when they had enough money and bandwidth for another category, would they decide to expand their services. Through the years, Binny Bansal helped grow Flipkart so much, it started competing with the likes of established platforms like Amazon, Big Basket and Alibaba.

Even though Binny and his partner did not have the kind of technological capabilities which today’s entrepreneurs have, they were always a step ahead of their game. Every move Binny took was to better Flipkart’s overall growth. With his heart invested in finding the right kind of investors for his business, to growing it one job at a time, Binny turned Flipkart into the largest e commerce platforms not just in India all over the world as well!

When Flipkart was in talks of being acquired by Walmart, there was nothing being said about one of the founders leaving the platform. Which is why the news of the exit was such a massive shocker!

Binny Bansal and life after Flipkart

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Despite quitting Flipkart, the man who gave birth to it refused to stop being an entrepreneur. Bansal is now working on a different startup and is also helping about 10,000 startups grow and become the next Flipkarts of India!

Founded and funded by Bansal and ex McKinsey consultant Saikiran Krishnamurthy, this startup aims at targeting series B and C startups and will offer them help by giving them software tools. By helping these startups grow, Binny Bansal has made sure to use the tools he learnt during his Flipkart days for the betterment of people who are working on their own startups!

From being rejected by investors, to quitting the Company to which he gave birth and to starting out on the journey of helping other startups, Binny Bansal has lived through a lot. If you think we missed out on any other life facts about Binny Bansal, comment and let us know!