Anuj Gupta is the founder-director of FoodPay, an online food delivery business.

Anuj was born and raised in Jaunpur, UP. His father owned a business of Polythene bags and disposable products. From the beginning itself, Anuj would love to work and assist at his father’s shop. He always wanted to do something of his own. Later, he also tried his hand at selling firecrackers with his own money but suffered losses as he was young.

When Anuj was just eleven years old, his father passed away which forced him and his siblings to bear the responsibility of the family. He was the youngest of the siblings. His father owned a shop in the vicinity of a doctor’s clinic and always wanted to set up a pharmacy in that shop. During that time, his father was also battling a disease and was being treated for his ailment. But he passed away and his sudden demise left the family devastated.

Anuj shares that his elder maternal uncle assisted his father in arranging for general items to be sold at his general store. But after his father’s sudden demise, he and his elder brother took it upon themselves to open the general store that his father dreamt of. They set up the general store and initially they did well, but as they were naive, little did they know how to manage the cash flow and run the shop. And soon, they had to shut the shop down as they were incurring losses.

But his entrepreneurial spirit did not die down. He picked himself up again and this time he thought of setting up a medical store which his father had initially dreamt of. He bought some medicines and started selling them at his general store itself. He says that he would stop the patients from the nearby clinic and ask them to buy medicines from his shop. But he did not even know how to read the names of the medicines mentioned in the prescription. He did not lose hope and each time he got stuck, he asked the doctor to tell him the names of the medicines. He suffered losses in this business too and had to shut it down.

Anuj shares that when things didn't work out for him in his hometown, he went to Lucknow to do a job as promised by someone. But that person turned him down and did not offer him the job as promised earlier. Then he joined a firm that worked in the share market. But there also he was accused of stealing the laptop that he worked on. He lost that job too but not the hope in life. And he came back to Jaunpur.

After coming back to his hometown, Jaunpur, he worked at different telecom companies and also sold mobile recharge coupons in his and nearby villages. Later he realized that it was very tough to work in a job and if he kept working for someone else then he would always be a servant and never an owner. He again started his own business at his father’s shop. He borrowed a computer and started selling mobile recharge coupons and downloading data on people’s mobile phones from the internet. He did really well in that business and things were getting on track for him and his family but the invention of touch screen Android phones and easy Internet connectivity in people’s own mobile devices rendered him irrelevant in that business. He started selling laptops under a scheme. He did well initially but had to shut the business down the line. After that, he went to Lucknow and started a business of gathering data like contact numbers of people, emails, etc., and later converted it into a call center. He says that by the grace of God, this business picked up well and it’s been up and running ever since its inception.

But Anuj’s never-say-die attitude and keep-exploring spirit in life made him aspire for something bigger and even better. Working in different jobs, he knew how much of an ordeal it was to get a job and work in it. And therefore, to provide employment to many more people, he conceived Food Pay - an online food ordering and delivery business. Today more than two hundred people are employed with Food Pay and it’s making its presence felt in different cities of UP, Delhi, and Jaipur, etc.

Anuj thinks that education is a weapon that empowers the less privileged. He shares that Food Pay is committed to donating five percent of its income for the education of underprivileged children.

Anuj advises people to never wait for the right day and opportunity. He says whatever you want to do, do it today itself and if you keep working on it then soon you will grow bigger and better. Besides, don’t ever pay heed to what people have to say about you.

Anuj is of the opinion that education is important in life as it enables you to gain experience, but it’s your experience and zeal to do something different that makes things happen for you. Besides, he says that the sole purpose of getting an education should not be to get a good job at a good company, rather it should be to make one an independent person. Furthermore, he advises that whatever you do in life, have an aim to be the best in that field and to create your own identity.

To aspiring and budding entrepreneurs, Anuj shares his manifold business lessons. He says that you should never fear doing something that you want to do. There’s nothing to lose but the whole sky is there to conquer. You will fail many times but one who keeps trying surely gets success one day.