BANGALORE: Dreams, aspirations, and career paths change along the way as we grow up. Sometimes our jobs are totally different from the degree obtained. However we pursue a career that makes us happy in the end. Here are some of the alternative career paths of five e-commerce founders who would have done something totally different if their businesses had failed.

The CEO of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal had a dream of becoming a professional gamer. His friend and also co-founder of Flipkart, Binny Bansal had a similar kind of career; he wanted to make computer video games. Though this was their alternative career paths, the two friends are the proud owners of a startup company that is powering and leading the local e-commerce force. They recently took Flipkart into the billion dollar club through a fundraiser that earned them $1 billion.

Mukesh Bansal, the founder of Myntra, an online fashion retail brand, is also a well known e-commerce entrepreneur. He too had an alternative career path in case his startup failed that actually didn’t happen instead grew to be a successful brand that is now acquired by Flipkart. He said he would have turned to academics.

The CEO and Co-founder of Snapdeal, Kunal Bahl, is also a leader in the e-commerce industry. His company is backed by eBay but the man who is behind this successful online retail company had plans to be a ‘travelling food and movie critic’. Well not even close to his alternative desire, his friend and partner in the business has said, “If not for Snapdeal, then we would be running another business. The entrepreneur Keeda (worm) existed since our childhood.”

Though four out of five of the founders have a common surname, none of them are related, although all are originally from north India. When asked about their goals, these men prefer to stick to the company. Sachin and Binny said it was “to position Flipkart as a world-class Indian technology company”.   The duo Kunal and Rohit of Snapdeal wished to create “life-changing experiences for thousands of small business and millions of consumers in India using technology as a great socio-economic equalizer”, as given by business standard reports.

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