After minister's nudge at 'Start-up Mahakumbh', Shark Tank's Aman Gupta vows to aim higher

Aman Gupta, the co-founder of boAt, stated that the Union Minister was not critical of start-up founders but was nudging them to aim higher and achieve bigger. Taking to X, Gupta mentioned that India is already the third largest start-up ecosystem in the world and the fastest growing major economy. “Benchmarking against China, the US, or anyone else isn’t a weakness. It’s a smart strategy,” he stated.

The raging debate was ignited by the Commerce and Industry minister’s inaugural speech at the ‘Start-up Mahakumbh,’ where he asked entrepreneurs and investors to self-introspect and focus on value-driven businesses rather than experimenting with the idea of fancy ice creams. In a pointed reference to the Shark Tank judge, he said, “Aman Gupta, change your perspective in the Shark Tank.”

Reacting to Piyush Goyal’s remarks, the start-up founder noted that it's not every day that the government asks founders to dream bigger and added that the time has come for India to be a leading force. “I was there. I heard the full speech. The Union Minister isn’t against the founders. He believes in us. His point was simple - India has come far, but to lead the world… we need to aim higher,” he wrote.

Gupta emphasized, “If we want to be No. 1, we need to also go deep into AI, deep tech, climate, mobility, infra. We need LLMs and innovation stacks that compete on global standards. And to make that happen, we also need scientific risk, more patient capital, founder–policymaker collaboration and a long-term national vision.”

In closing, he remarked, “What we’ve built is incredible. But what we can build… is far greater.”