Snapdeal co-founder's hack to get a hotel room upgrade

Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal (Screengrab from The BarberShop with Shantanu/Youtube)

"My honeymoon was the first time I travelled with my own money. I was telling my wife also that we were this close to my dad funding my honeymoon," Rohit Bansal, co-founder of Snapdeal, revealed recently.

He was talking about the hurdles he had faced as a new entrepreneur during a chat show with Bombay Shaving Company CEO Shantanu Deshpande.

Sharing the hacks Bansal and his family used during the early days of struggle, he said, "While travelling, we noticed that if my wife Parul wears her chooda and mehendi, people assumed that we are a newly-married couple and they upgrade us. So, she started wearing them wherever we went."

"It got a little difficult after we had kids though," Rohit Bansal added with a laugh.

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A post shared by The BarberShop with Shantanu (@thebarbershopwithshantanu)

He also said that since he came from a middle-class family, he does not like spending, especially on "flashy things".

"A few things that I have learned on this journey include that just buying things doesn't give me happiness. There was a brief period of about six to eight months when I bought a few things... I read it elsewhere that buying things does not give you happiness but that's something I also experienced," he said.

When asked about the most expensive product he bought recently, Bansal replied: "A pair of jeans worth Rs 10,000."

"Many times I don't even fly business class... I feel like for five hours if I pay Rs 50,000 more, it's equivalent to paying Rs 10,000 more for each hour," he added.

The Snapdeal co-founder then shared what money did buy him -- freedom.

"For me, freedom is very important, I should be able to choose what I want to do, and having a certain amount of money... is a good ticket to do that," he said.

Read more: Snapdeal to shelve $152 million IPO amid tech stocks rout