Curefit Founder Mukesh Bansal on Building Unicorn Companies and a Unicorn Mindset
Hacking health, startups and more
Dear community members,
One of the favorite parts of my job is hosting interesting founders, CEOs, academics, writers and policy makers on Network Capital. When former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi shared her career principles, it ended up reaching millions of students and young professionals around the world. Her masterclass empowered them to think about their careers differently. If you haven’t already checked it out, I recommend you do so now.
Today I present Curefit founder Mukesh Bansal’s story. We recorded this few hours before I flew to Delhi. In this wide ranging conversation, Mukesh shared how he built an entrepreneurial mindset by dedicating himself to early stage startups from the beginning. Most of them did not do particularly well he learned the art of building from ground up. Mukesh calls this phase of his career “the 8 year MBA”.
When he moved to India, he wanted to go after a big market and focus on something he enjoyed and was good at. Myntra turned out to be a massive success. Being acquired by Flipkart for around $300 Million set Mukesh up for life. He could have retired comfortably but he chose to get back to building right after.
The result was Curefit, the largest fitness company of India. Along the way, there were many hiccups, a challenging health issue that changed his perspective towards life and the pandemic that changed industry dynamics.
In this masterclass, Mukesh shares in-depth insights on building companies, mergers and acquisitions and tangible ways young professionals can make health a priority. He has written a fantastic new book “Hacking Health” that you may want to check out.
For now, take an hour out and learn from him.
From what I have learned so far, founders often fail when they run out of energy. Of course having the right strategy, timing and business model helps but what keeps an early stage venture going is the enthusiasm of the founder to keep it going. As Brian Armstrong says, “entrepreneurship is going from setback to setback with enthusiasm”
To play the long game, a commitment to health and fitness is essential. I hope watching Mukesh’s masterclass helps you do that while you build/work at companies that will define the next wave of disruption.
I am in Delhi for a couple of weeks. Look forward to meeting you all tomorrow at our community huddle. If you are in the city, join in.
Recommendations
What I am watching: The Playlist (Spotify’s story on Netflix)
What I am reading: The philosophy of blockchains by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin
What I am looking forward to: The Raisina Dialogue and my book launch by Penguin
Have a wonderful day ahead.
Best,
Utkarsh
