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From fintech firebrands to gadget gurus, top Indian entrepreneurs are leveraging their social media stardom, building personal brands and driving revenue streams beyond their core businesses. Ashneer Grover, former BharatPe executive, is charging premium rates for brand collaborations, boasting millions of views in a lucrative side hustle. BoAt's Aman Gupta sees social media as a route to boost his company's sales, while Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath invests heavily in high-production-value podcasts, aiming to transform educational content into a new media empire.
As these founders amass millions of followers, the lines between entrepreneurship, influencer marketing, and content creation are blurring, signaling a new era of personal brand monetization in India's burgeoning digital landscape. Grover who has over 1.4 million Instagram followers regularly engages with the travel, humour, and lifestyle-related content he posts.
In his 902 posts on the image sharing platform, he has featured a row of influencers, including Chetan Goyal, Harshita Gupta and Shubham Gaur. Occasionally, his wife Madhuri, co-founder of Grovers' new startup ZeroPe, with over 83,600 followers also makes an appearance. "After getting popular, I thought about how to use my fame constructively.
Incidentally, after getting featured in the first season of Shark Tank, I was approached by many influencers for collaborations. As that content did well, raking anywhere between five to 10 million views organically, I figured social media content was a way for me to monetize my fame," Grover said. Grover has also collaborated with Prime Video, JioHotstar and Zee5 to promote various shows.
"Since I have a higher brand value than influencers, I charge brands higher than them, but with high engagement, I deliver a good return on investment. For instance, in one of the collaborations, the views were over 16 million, essentially making the cost per view lower than 10 paise for the brand," he said. Grover settled a two-year-long legal dispute with BharatPe in 2024, forfeiting his shareholding and association with the company.
He is now working on a new fintech, ZeroPe. Leveraging authenticity Meanwhile, Gupta of consumer electronics maker BoAt, also a Shark Tank entrepreneur, sees social media content as an opportunity to boost business. "My social media popularity translates to more engagement and conversions for my brand as well.
That is one of the reasons why entrepreneurs like me actively participate in social media trends and create content to maximise traction," Gupta, who has over 1.7 million followers on his Instagram handle @boatxaman, said. Gupta said that while also creates humour and lifestyle content, he does not do paid promotions for other brands.
"When entrepreneurs like me post content on social media, we become more relatable for the audience that watches us on TV or views us as founders of big brands. Not only does social media make us one of their own, but it also fosters authenticity. When I talk about something on my social media, people instantly perceive it as genuine instead of a paid promotion, distinguishing me from creators or celebrities," he said.
Gupta received the National Creators Award in 2024 under the celebrity creator category. The award, launched by the Government of India in 2024, is presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to creators and influencers across 20 categories. BoAt's audited revenue decreased 5% to 3,122 crore in FY24 from 3,285 crore in FY23, while losses fell by 47%, according to its filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).
Anupam Mittal, chief executive officer of Shaadi.com, has close to 2 million Instagram followers. Mittal, who was also a judge on Shark Tank, has hired Clout, a professional influencer marketing agency run by Pocket Aces, to handle his social media work, brand endorsements and event presence.
Queries sent to Mittal remained unanswered. "Successful entrepreneurs have become macro-influencers themselves, attracting followers eager to learn their strategies. This influence translates into strong brand loyalty, cultural relevance, and market expansion, positioning their businesses at the forefront of the digital economy," said Amiya Swarup, partner and marketing advisory leader at consulting firm Ernst and Young (EY).
Nikhil Kamath’s podcast Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of India's largest stock broking firm Zerodha, is one such entrepreneur. His 'WTF is' podcasts feature conversations with industry experts and friends, on subjects ranging from technology and social media to philosophy and current events. Founded two years ago, the podcast's YouTube channel has nearly 1.
5 million subscribers. "When he started his investment journey, Nikhil invited domain experts for conversations to understand the growth and shift in the industries. Realizing the value of the knowledge he gained from those conversations, he wondered how to let the world know what he knew, and the solution was to just put a camera to it.
This is how the podcast started two years back," said Bilal Jaleel, director of . While podcast was initially educational and had audio glitches, WTF spent significantly to improve the production quality as it gained traction, Jaleel said, hiring designers, researchers, producers and editors, and renting top-quality equipment. WTF never tried to monetize the product or tied up with brands, Jaleel said, adding the goal was always to achieve global standards.
"It is like our team produces a movie every time an episode is shot. Despite being an entrepreneur and investor, Kamath does not hold back from dumbing down and asking basic questions that the audience might have. This is what makes the podcast relatable to the business and start-up world.
"he further expanded. Jaleel also said that they are trying to turn the success of this podcast into a business opportunity by providing podcasts as a service to their clients, and plan to incorporate a ‘new media’ company in the future. India's largest stock broking platform, Zerodha reported 8,320 crore in revenue and 4,700 crore in profit in FY24, according to Nithin Kamath, brother of Nikhil and co-founder of Zerodha.
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