After getting rejected by Harvard, IIT Madras graduate had no Plan B. Today, the Bengaluru-based CEO's networth is nearly Rs 3,000 crore

The road to success is often riddled with challenges, setbacks, failures and rejections. Instead of letting these obstacles become overwhelming, some entrepreneurs turn these challenges into their driving force. Tarun Mehta, co-founder and CEO of Ather Energy, experienced rejection from one of the presitigious education institute in the world, Harvard Business School. He was left without a Plan B, but eventually he took a different path and today his Bengaluru-based electric vehicle company has become a major player in India's EV market.

From IIT Madras to building Ather Energy

Tarun Mehta graduated from IIT Madras with a dual degree in Engineering Design. In 2012, during his final year, he was still weighing his career options. Campus placements were underway, but he was also considering pursuing a master’s degree or an MBA in the United States. The choices made by his seniors influenced his thinking. Mehta recalled that many IIT graduates who were doing well financially had chosen consulting or postgraduate studies in the US. While he was uncertain about pursuing a master’s degree, an MBA seemed like a sensible option.

“Every senior at IIT who was doing financially well seemed to have gone down the consulting route or gone to masters in the US,” he said at the Best Places to Build Podcast. He added that while he was unsure about a master’s, an MBA “seemed kind of sensible”. Mehta subsequently applied for Harvard Business School’s 2+2 programme, which allows eligible students to secure admission to the MBA programme before gaining professional work experience. He was selected for an in-person interview in Boston, but the experience did not go as he had hoped.

‘I did an absolutely pathetic, disastrous interview’

Speaking on the same podcast, Mehta recalled how the Harvard interview became a deeply disappointing experience. His parents had paid for his flight to Boston, making the setback even harder to process. “I did an absolutely pathetic, disastrous interview,” he admitted, adding that he was simply not prepared for it. Looking back, he described himself as having been “absolutely a disaster” during the interview.

The experience left him shaken. Mehta said he knew he had spent a significant amount of his parents’ money to travel for the interview and was convinced that he would not get selected. His prediction proved correct. “I knew I'm not going to get it. I didn't get it. And I didn't have a Plan B,” he recalled. The rejection was particularly difficult because he had become so invested in the idea of attending Harvard that he had not properly considered what he would do if things did not work out. He admitted that he had been so attached to the prospect of an MBA that he struggled to figure out his next move.

“I was so married to the idea of Harvard MBA life set,” he said, explaining that he did not know what to do after the rejection. He also recalled believing that he was “a damn good student”.

From a monthly salary of Rs 40,000 to entrepreneurship

Mehta’s early professional experience also gave him a clearer understanding of the realities of earning a living. On the podcast, he recalled taking home around Rs 40,000 to Rs 42,000 per month. “I was getting around 40 to 42k in hand every month,” he said. After accounting for rent, food and travel, he explained, there was not much left to send home.

The experience was a reminder that building a financially secure future would require more than following a conventional career path. Mehta eventually teamed up with his friend Swapnil Jain to establish Ather Energy in 2013, on the IIT Madras campus. The company began with an ambition to develop better batteries but gradually expanded into a broader electric mobility business. In a LinkedIn post, Mehta described how the initial idea grew into a much larger undertaking. “What started out as an attempt to build better batteries grew into a full ecosystem-level org-building exercise,” he wrote.

He added that the company developed and launched what he described as “India’s first smart electric scooter”, with the aim of transforming two-wheeler mobility in the country.

Ather Energy CEO’s stake is valued at nearly Rs 3,000 crore

More than a decade after its founding, Ather Energy has grown into a prominent electric two-wheeler manufacturer headquartered in Bengaluru. The company is listed on the BSE, and its market capitalisation has been reported at around Rs 55,000 crore. According to Trendlyne, the value of Mehta’s shareholding in Ather Energy was close to Rs 3,000 crore as of September 2026.

Tarun Mehta’s lesson on building something from scratch

Mehta also shared a broader lesson about entrepreneurship on the Best Places to Build podcast: creating value does not always require an established company, a large team or permission from someone else. “You don't need a company behind you to create value,” he said, explaining that people do not necessarily need “an army of people and a full organization” to make a meaningful contribution. He also emphasised that a person does not need a licence or permission from anyone to begin creating value.

For Mehta, the motivation behind a genuinely good idea can emerge from two very different circumstances. He suggested that people may pursue ideas when they feel desperate and see no other way forward, or when they have the freedom to do something else but choose to commit themselves to a particular pursuit.

“I think genuinely good ideas that you are really passionate about only come when you are either desperate and that's the only way out or you are completely bored and you can do anything but you decide to do that,” he said.