How Ashneer Grover Helped This College Boy To Become An Entrepreneur?

In a world where taking risks is often considered foolish, there are those who dare to dream big and chase their passions. Dev Taneja, co-founder of Anime Devta, is one of those daring individuals. 

Inspired by the savage and witty remarks of Ashneer Grover, co-founder of BharatPe and Shark Tank star, Dev decided to take a leap of faith and pursue his dream of starting an anime merchandise brand. Against all odds, he and his co-founder, Himangshu Goswami, launched Anime Devta in 2022 and have since taken the Indian market by storm. 

Dev recently took to LinkedIn to share how Ashneer's words of encouragement helped him overcome his fears and take his business to the next level. Today, Anime Devta stands as a shining example of how passion and determination can turn a simple idea into a profitable business. Let's delve into the startup story of Dev Taneja!

Grateful to Ashneer Grover

Dev Taneja, co-founder of Anime Devta, a merchandise brand, highlights how Ashneer Grover’s comments helped him take the risk.

Anime Devta is one of India’s youngest anime merchandise brands. Any guesses that why a young engineering student decided to give up on the security of a salaried job and take a game changing risk of starting a ‘phodu’ business.

It was Ashneer Grover, a man more famous for his savage and witty remarks on reality show Shark Tank than co-founding fintech company BharatPe, who motivated Dev Taneja and Higmanshu Goswami to sell anime merchandise to the youth at affordable prices.

The duo started their business back in 2022. A year later, Dev reveals his story on Linked-in that how Ashneer’s ferocious remarks during an event in IIT Roorkee on March 10, 2022, pushed him to convert his ‘phodu idea’ into a profitable business.

Anime Devta, a Jaipur based company, sells products across categories such as clothing, posters, stickers, among others. The company has a unique tag line “Devta for a Reason” and it vouches to bring back the forgotten India culture, history and knowledge of real super heroes through its products in a cool way.

“Bhai tune phod diya”

Dev, through a LinkedIn post, shares "When Ashneer Grover Sir said 'Bhai, tune phod dia hai' that was all I needed to make another risky step towards my dream."

The entrepreneur recalls his IIT Roorkee days and says “…I had to steal mic from one of the volunteers, who had already prepared questions for the guest (Ashneer Grover) and were not encouraging any actual questions from the attendees. I openly asked him to join us on board to help revive India's forgotten roots.”

Ashneer, who very recently was again in the news for allowing the media to write anything about him as long as they use his latest picture of him after losing 15 kilograms of weight, told Dev "Bhai on campus itti sale kari hai, to bhai tune phod dia hai".

It is recognition that entrepreneurs die for

Dev acknowledges the fact that recognition is one of the key things what all entrepreneurs are dying for.

“It was a long long time since I actually got motivated by a positive remark. We had already taken so many risks, and doubled our sales and other stuff in this year 2023. This remark just made me go all out and evolve once more. With a new idea and a new strategy here we go! India's Biggest Anime Merchandise sale starts from 15th March to 31st March on Animekami.xyz & Animedevta.com Let's go DEVTAS!” Dev says.

The company has received a funding of Rs 15 lakh from investor Rahul Narvekar, Founder and CEO, The India Network through Runway Incubator in 2022.

Dev Taneja is pursuing Electronics and Communication Engineering from UPES University and his co-founder Himangshu Goswami is pursuing Graphic and Communication Design from UPES.