Jun 27, 2022 · 1h 1m · neon-show
How He Earns 3Cr/Year At The Age of 20? Ft. Ishan Sharma, Co-Founder of MarkitUp
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In this episode of 100x Entrepreneur, 20-year-old creator and entrepreneur Ishan Sharma shares how he transformed academic setbacks into a 500k-subscriber YouTube channel and scaled his marketing agency, MarkitUp, to multi-million-rupee monthly revenues. He provides an in-depth breakdown of self-directed upskilling, college dropout decisions, team delegation, FIRE financial planning, and stoic mental models for sustainable creator longevity.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
Siddhartha as informed peer 1.6 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 0.3 Siddhartha pushing back 0.1
speaking balance: gold is Siddhartha, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 54:20 Rejecting manifestation as pseudoscience
Ishan directly dismisses the concept of manifestation when asked by the host, citing case studies to label it pseudoscience and asserting that raw execution is the only thing that produces outcomes.
Hardest push from Siddhartha ▶ 59:17 Tempering angel investing excitementWhen Ishan mentions feeling FOMO about angel investing, Siddharth pushes back immediately, emphasizing that it carries extreme risk with only one exit out of thirty investments.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 15:40 Dissecting creator audience monetization valueIshan educates the host on creator longevity and audience demographics, explaining why high-view entertaining creators often fail on business ROI compared to specialized creators with mature audiences.
Siddhartha holds their own ▶ 57:59 Siddharth outlines his venture angel strategySiddharth demonstrates his own seasoned domain expertise, explaining how he and his partner built an angel investment portfolio across companies like Plum Insurance and Neeman's rather than buying physical assets.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Siddhartha as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Siddhartha pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome to 100x Entrepreneur: Introducing Ishan Sharma | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth introduces Ishan warmly as a business partner and asks open-ended questions about his early mindset and JEE setback. Ishan provides an extensive narrative about his transition from IIT JEE preparation to BITS Goa and learning programming. | |
| The Origins of Ishan's Podcast and YouTube Channel | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks straightforward prompting questions about why Ishan started his channel. Ishan explains his motivation to improve his public speaking following a collegiate hackathon failure. | |
| Expanding Skill Sets: Coding, Marketing, and Growth at Codedamn | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth categorizes Ishan's acquired skills into psychology and marketing. Ishan explains his T-shaped learning philosophy and growth marketing stint at Codedamn. | |
| First Monetization Milestone to 100K Subscribers | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth prompts Ishan on his early milestones from his first dollar to reaching subscriber goals. Ishan reflects on parental backing and building a creator peer group. | |
| YouTube Growth Mechanics, Audience Context, and Creator Longevity | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | Ishan breaks down creator economics, contrasting high-volume youth audiences like MrBeast against mature demographic channels with higher conversion power. Siddharth listens attentively without challenging the analysis. | |
| Founding MarkitUp and Monthly Revenue Distribution | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks for specific revenue breakdowns across agency work and personal brand deals. Ishan shares exact numbers transparently, noting 12 lakhs from MarkitUp and 18 lakhs from YouTube. | |
| Sponsor Segment: Simplifying Compliance with Zoho Payroll | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | The segment features a brief mid-roll sponsor exchange followed by Ishan narrating his first brand deal with Unacademy. The dynamic is conversational and informational. | |
| Scaling Operations, Team Delegation, and Compensation Models | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Siddharth asks about targets and revenue scaling, while Ishan redirects focus away from raw vanity numbers toward building long-term products and delegating agency operations. | |
| Daily Productive Routines and the Move to Bangalore | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks about Ishan's daily workflow and relocation to Bangalore. Ishan describes his disciplined routine and practical advantages of networking in the tech hub. | |
| The Decision to Drop Out of BITS Pilani | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Ishan recounts his decision to drop out of BITS Pilani due to hostel constraints and administrative inflexibility. Siddharth prompts him supportively throughout the recollection. | |
| Navigating Parental Support, Career Placements, and Business Setup | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks about the legal structure of Ishan's entities and mentions previous payment interactions. Ishan openly discusses business structuring and his initial GST oversights. | |
| Personal Investments, Software Startups, and High-Profile Mentors | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Siddharth asks about Ishan's investment habits and new product venture. Ishan details his passive ETF strategy and interactions with angel investors like Kunal Bahl. | |
| Defining Financial Independence and the 4% FIRE Rule | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Siddharth inquires about Ishan's concept of 'enough' and target net worth. Ishan clarifies that he does not pretend to have philosophical finality but utilizes the standard 4 percent FIRE benchmark. | |
| Navigating Creator Loneliness, Mentorship, and Stoicism | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Siddharth gently checks if Ishan wanted to emulate other prominent creators. Ishan clarifies his intent to forge his own identity rather than copy role models, citing stoic principles. | |
| Managing Burnout, Daily Reflection, and Studying Market Legends | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | Ishan details his mental models around preventing hubris and quotes lessons learned from Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett. Siddharth encourages Ishan's reflections on burnout and mindfulness. | |
| Execution Versus Manifestation and Video Production Workflows | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Siddharth asks about belief in manifestation. Ishan firmly rejects manifestation as pseudoscience and emphasizes ruthless execution, outlining how he plans short-form vs long-form content. | |
| Startup Angel Investing and Staying in One's Circle of Competence | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Siddharth shares his personal startup angel investing track record and portfolio strategy, pushing back against the idea of early angel FOMO. Ishan agrees and opts to remain in his circle of competence. |
Statements from this episode (28)
Sharma: Taking a gap year for IIT-JEE is poor time utilization
“I was clear that I will not do that because that's just not the best way to utilize my age, this age that I have right now.”
Sharma started learning Python on Udemy the day IIT-JEE finished
“And I started programming right On the day when my JE Advanced exam ended, right? So I remember that day, ah, it was a very long day, and there was a lot of traffic. There was this, ah, place, TCS, TCS Ion. That's where the exam was, and then we went back to K…”
Codedamn grew from 3 to 3,000 paying customers after Sharma joined
“I was at a point at which they just had three customers, three paying customers, and right now they have, like, 3000 or something.”
Sharma generated zero ROI from a $500 viral creator sponsorship at Codedamn
“So, I was working in the influencer marketing segment in Codem. So, I thought, let me experiment with this. So, we did one integration on his channel. We got zero ROI on that. Right? We paid him, like, 500 dollars and did not get a single rupee or dollar back.”
Content creation is a temporary opportunity requiring continuous reinvention
“I also learned about how creators have a lifespan, right? Either you keep reinventing yourself, or you know that it's not exactly a career, it's an opportunity that you have as a creator. You can either go into the entrepreneurial way, you can launch your app,…”
Ishan Sharma: Showing proven channel growth eliminates sales friction for agencies
“My learning from all of that was that if you have the results, if you can actually show that, hey, here is a list of
channels that we've grown, then it's a lot easier to convince the person in front of you. They're already convinced. They just want to see how…”
Sharma's agency MarkitUp has 14 clients and 25 remote employees
“We have 14 clients, and we have 25 people working remotely”
Sharma's agency MarkitUp generated 12 lakh INR in May 2022
“MarketUp made, like, around 12 lakhs in the last month”
Sharma earned 17 to 18 lakh INR from YouTube in May 2022
“I made, like, around 17 to 18 lakhs on my YouTube channel, so that was pretty much it. It's about three lakhs on YouTube AdSense, and the rest is brand deals.”
Sharma: First Brand Integration Paid 5,000 Rupees in October 2020
“That was my first brand deal in October, twenty-twenty, ah, we are doing this carnival, and we want you to talk about it on your channel. So here you go. How much would you charge? I didn't know how much to code. I had, like, 7000 subscribers back then. So I j…”
Sharma converted channel sponsorship inquiries into agency clients for MarkitUp
“The trick that worked with the marketer was that because I was getting a lot of brands on my own YouTube channel, I used to divert them and offer them another deal saying that, yes, I'll integrate you on my, in my videos, but we can also help you grow your own…”
MarkitUp's inbound sales funnel is 100% organic through Sharma's content
“So it's completely organic, right? I make videos on my YouTube channel. I talk about what I'm doing on LinkedIn, and people just DM me saying that, hey, Shahan, I looked at what you're doing, and I'm working in this company, or I sell my own company, and then …”
Sharma pays some MarkitUp video editors 70k to 80k rupees monthly
“There are editors in MarketUp who make, like, 70 to 80,000 per month as well.”
A designer trained in Sharma's cohort landed a 15 LPA offer
“So there was this one guy who we trained in our cohort, and he got a full-time offer of, like, 15 LPA to work as a designer in Code Dam.”
Ishan Sharma: MarkitUp hires editors through weekly design contests
“So basically we do contests every single weekend in which we give them a video to edit or a thumbnail to create. And whoever creates a great thumbnail or great video, we try to offer them some sort of a collaboration, a way we can work together.”
Ishan Sharma: In-person networking accelerates career growth faster than Zoom
“In person is always way better than doing, like, Zoom calls. It works. Zoom also works. I've been doing it for the last two years, but I think this will accelerate your learning for the audience if they want to come here and accelerate their growth in their ca…”
Ishan Sharma: Early-career professionals should relocate to opportunity hubs before going remote
“So you can travel to the city that has the most opportunities, work over here in the initial part of your career, hustle, and then you can decide wherever you want to go. You can work remotely later on.”
Sharma: YouTube channel grew from 2M to 6M monthly views in early 2022
“Two months prior to that, in January, my channel had two million views. And then in March, I had six million views.”
Sharma's dropout income was 10x the highest college placement package
“Yeah, so it was actually 10 times the highest package in my own college. What I was making in that month, if you multiply that by 12.”
Ishan Sharma: I invest monthly income purely into stock market ETFs
“I just invest in ETFs. That's it. I don't have the time to think about which stock is going where. Right. It's too ticky. I used to look at the charts every single day back in 2020 and 21 as well. But then I realized that this is just not the right way to opti…”
Ishan Sharma: I take zero salary from MarkitUp
“I am not doing that. My co-founder is getting salary because of course he doesn't have any other source of income, so it makes sense for him to draw a salary.”
Ishan Sharma plans to transition from bootstrapping to venture-backed products
“So that's why I'm getting into per product, right? I love just this idea of like building something with a team and then launching that, trying to get more users, trying to get it to the next level by raising funding and all that. That game is fascinating to m…”
Sharma: Creators must be indifferent to both extreme praise and hate
“If you put too much importance on that one person who says that you're the best, then you'll also be feeling sad equally when someone says that you suck, right? So you have to be at a state of mind at which none of those affect you. And when you can do that, t…”
Sharma believes manifestation is a placebo effect; execution drives results
“Manifestation is more like a placebo effect.
There are a lot of people who say that it works.
I saw that one video by James Jani in which he was talking about how this is completely pseudoscience.
So he proved that with a lot of different case studies.
I perso…”
Ishan Sharma: Short-form video requires tight scripting to maximize viewer retention
“Script is great when you're writing a, when you're making a short. So in a short, you have a time constraint of one minute, and you have to make sure that the audience gets the most value in the least amount of time possible. The hook matters, the 1:03 seconds…”
Ahluwalia turned a 3 lakh rupee angel investment into 20 lakhs
“We made one exit, which we invested like three lakh rupees in e-by-go. That company gave us back 20 lakhs.”