Shaadi.com founder and CEO Anupam Mittal recently revealed that he paid about $25,000 (approximately Rs 20 lakh) when he bought the company's domain in the late 1990s. In the podcast 'Finance with Sharan', Mr Mittal shared that at the time, the company had $30,000 in its account but he decided to spend big on the domain as he believed it would fetch them results in the long run. He also revealed that they had 'Sagaai.com' before 'Shaadi.com'.
"We had a company, where we provided IT solutions to other companies. So there we started Sagaai.com, which was the precursor to Shaadi.com," Mr Mittal said in the podcast. "We had saved about $30,000 in our company. We were getting Shaadi,com domain for about $25,000. $25,000 or $30,000 seemed exorbitant but I believed that without a domain that can become ubiquitous, that can become known for the category, it'll be tough and this will make our lives easier. So we used all our money," he added.
In the podcast, the Shark Tank India judge was also asked about investment in dating apps and if he missed the boat on creating a dating app. To this, Mr Mittal said that there's no money to be made in the dating app industry in India. He added that platforms like Tinder and Bumble are not making much progress.
"Their revenues are not that big and the problem is in India, it's very lopsided. Women always have too much to choose from so therefore you'll see very few guys get all the demand and all the other guys who come on these sites don't know what to say. They say the most obnoxious things and the women run away. So think there's no there's not real money to be made," he said.
Mr Mittal revealed that contrary to the popular perception that the younger generation is more inclined towards dating apps, Shaadi.com's audience is mostly millennials. "This whole thing about millennials not using matchmaking sites is not quite correct, most of our audience is millennials," he said.
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Meanwhile, earlier this year, Mr Mittal recalled starting as an entrepreneur and going from living in a small Mumbai apartment with 20 people to becoming a multimillionaire in his 20s. Mr Mittal clarified that his father had a successful business in textile but there was a time when they were not well-off.
After struggling for a few years, Mr Mittal's father became successful, following which he moved to the US for studies. However, he said he couldn't find a job there and decided not to share it with his parents as they would insist he return. Mr Mittal became a multi-millionaire in his early 20s.
