The business story
Anupam Mittal is best known today as an investor on Shark Tank India, but his more substantial record is older and quieter. He started one of India's first online matrimonial sites in 1997, years before most Indian households were online, and kept running it until the market grew into it. His career is a study in early timing, patience and the role a financial cushion plays in both.
The defining trait is persistence in a market he believed would arrive.
Before Shaadi.com
Mittal was born in Mumbai in 1971. He studied at Jai Hind College and then earned an MBA in operations and strategic management at Boston College in Massachusetts. After graduating he worked in the United States as a product manager at MicroStrategy, a business-intelligence software company.
HustleMemo's article treats this background as context rather than criticism. Mumbai college, an American graduate degree and a US software job meant he was not starting from scratch. That position did not create his company, but it made a long, uncertain bet affordable in a way it would not be for most aspiring founders.
Building Shaadi.com and the People Group
The idea came from watching a matchmaker sort through paper biodatas at his father's home. While still in the US, Mittal launched Sagaai.com in 1997 as a side project, a simple online matrimonial portal. It was later renamed Shaadi.com.
The early market was thin. Internet access was limited, online payments barely existed and many families found the idea of arranging a marriage online strange. Mittal eventually returned to India to run the business full-time, and for years it grew slowly, without any breakout moment.
Shaadi.com became the anchor of his holding company, the People Group, which expanded into Makaan.com, a property marketplace, and Mauj Mobile, a mobile services and gaming company. Mittal has since acknowledged that the group overextended. Mauj was built for a pre-smartphone market that changed under it, and Makaan.com competed in a capital-hungry category against better-funded rivals. He has spoken openly about a period when the group was stretched and money was tight.
Alongside the business, he chaired the Internet and Mobile Association of India in the mid-2000s. From 2021 he became one of the main investors on Shark Tank India, returning across several seasons and backing dozens of companies.
