Forget Shark Tank, Ashneer Grover will gift a Mercedes if you stay at his new startup Third Unicorn for 5 years
Ashneer Grover, the potty-mouth entrepreneur, has started building a new startup, Third Unicorn, after being unceremoniously kicked out of his last company, BharatPe. In the latest, Grover shared a teaser for Third Unicorn on LinkedIn, looking for new hires and investors.
Check out the teaser here:
The teaser is in Ashneer Grover-language, desi-vesi edgy. The 10-slide glimpse is definitely a fun read. Here's a summary:
- Grover is not looking for foreign investors or venture capitalists like Sequoia Capital, with whom he has a thorny relationship after BharatPe drama.
This is what Grover said about Sequoia in his 'autobiographical' book Doglapan:
So, what exactly does Third Unicorn want?
- Third Unicorn only wants "desi or self-earned capital" investors to invest in the firm.
- It also wants investors with FOMO to contact Ashneer Grover directly.
- The teaser also says that there will be "No faaltu ka Board-Shoard" and asks "Uncles" to join RWAs.
- Grover says he is not building an army of people but just wants 50 people to join the new venture.
- It isn't clear what the company plans to do; that's still under wraps. But Grover does mention a pretty big figure with several zeroes as "revenue-shevenue".
- Ashneer Grover announced the birth of Third Unicorn last year, on his 40th birthday.
- The most eye-catching part: Ashneer Grover is promising employees a Mercedes car if they complete five years at the firm, saying "Gratuity to bezzati ki liye hoti hai (Gratuity is an insult)."
A little context here about cars and Ashneer Grover: Grover was in the news recently for claiming to have bought cricketer MS Dhoni's Mercedes-Benz GLS car. The used car dealer told Grover that the car belonged to Dhoni and he believed it because of the VIP registration number from Jharkhand. Grover said that the cricketer is apparently the only VIP in Jharkhand. Grover reasons that luxury cars depreciate fast; so he prefers to buy a used one at half the original price than a brand-new car.
(I'm wondering whether Ashneer Grover plans to gift his employees a second-hand luxury car for completing five years with Third Unicorn.)
The Porsche: Grover himself has a garage full of luxury cars, from a green Porsche to a Mercedes Maybach. He also didn't take it too well that the former BharatPe CEO Suhail Sameer (he also has bad blood with Sameer) owned a red BMW convertible, taking a dig at him on Twitter, asking how he could afford the car in one year of being just an employee when he as a co-founder was only settling for a second-hand Porsche.
The Porsche shone bright Green when BharatPe flung fraud and embezzlement accusations against Grover, his wife and family members, insinuating that it also must be proceeds of the alleged crime.
Shark Tank India Season 2: While Ashneer Grover is busy promoting his book Doglapan, Shark Tank India Season 2 has started without him returning as a judge.
- It isn't known why he didn't return to the show, but he has been very vocal about not being there. On The Ranveer Show Podcast, Grover claimed he made Sony a Rs 10,000 crore worth of show.
- He also unfollowed the rest of the Sharks on the show saying that he won't watch the show as it's no longer part of his life.
- He has been replaced by Amit Jain, founder-CEO of CarDekho Group.
- There's more juice to Shark Tank, as Shaadi.com's Anupam Mittal and Emcure Pharmaceuticals' Namita Thapar promised that Season 2 will not allow 'toxicity' and 'humiliation' of contestants, seeming to be a veiled dig at Ashneer Grover.
- When a Shark Tank India fan on Instagram said that the show was no fun without Grover, Mittal replied, asking him to watch Bigg Boss instead.
On the BharatPe front, Grover and his family are fighting a legal battle against the company's accusations. Delhi High Court had also asked Grover to "maintain decorum" on social media, referring to the vicious remarks against BharatPe's board.
But the warnings don't seem to be holding Grover back, as he took a dig at Suhail Sameer with a poem when he stepped down as BharatPe CEO.