Rohit Gupta, co-founder and COO of education consulting platform College Vidya, has shared the story of the most difficult phase of his entrepreneurial journey — when his wife sold her wedding jewelry to help him restart his business. Gupta described his wife as his “first investor” who believed in him when no one else did.
College Vidya was started by brothers Rohit Gupta and Mayank Gupta in 2019, who were later joined by Sarthak Garg. However, the journey to success — College Vidya made $7.69 as annual revenue in the financial year ending March 2025 — was paved with difficulties.
2 failed startups
In a LinkedIn post shared on Tuesday afternoon, Gupta said that after two failed startups, his savings were gone, his father’s retirement money had been lost, and he was struggling to keep going.
“After two failed startups. And my father’s retirement money, gone. Loan agents sticking notices on our door. I was sleeping in the office because there was nowhere else left to go,” he wrote.
Before launching College Vidya, Rohit and Mayank Gupta built a computer training network with over 40 centres, but eventually had to shut it down. According to an Inc42 report, Rohit later worked as a student counsellor, where his interactions with students across India revealed the lack of proper guidance in choosing courses and colleges — a gap that led to the creation of College Vidya.
‘Nobody would fund the idea’
Gupta said he had approached every investor connection he had to fund College Vidya, but could not raise money for his idea.
“Nobody would fund the idea. Every door I knew, I had already knocked on,” he wrote.
He then turned to the one person he had not approached — his wife.
“She took off her wedding jewelry, all of it, and told me to sell it and start again. ₹17 lakh. That became the first money behind College Vidya,” Gupta said.
Gupta’s wife sold her wedding jewellery to raise ₹17 lakh — which became the capital needed to launch College Vidya.
‘She got her return many times over’
Noida-based Rohit Gupta said he was sharing the story not for sympathy, but to highlight that startup journeys often begin with belief before external investment arrives.
“I am not sharing this for sympathy. I am sharing it because people assume funding comes from investors. Mine came from someone who had faith instead,” he wrote.
Looking back at the company’s growth, Gupta said the business that started with four people has now grown into a much larger organisation.
“We began with four co-founders. Today there are close to 750 of us,” he wrote.
He added that his wife’s early sacrifice remains the moment he remembers most. “She got her return many times over. But the jewelry is the part I will never forget,” Gupta said.
