Rashmi Bansal


Rashmi Bansal is an Indian non-fiction writer, entrepreneur and a youth expert. As of 2019, she is the author of nine books on entrepreneurship. Her first book, Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, traced the progress of 25 MBA entrepreneurs and sold over 500,000 copies, a record for books published in India.Her books are published by Westland.

Early life and education

Bansal grew up at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in South Mumbai where her father was an astrophysicist. After attending St Joseph's High School in Colaba, she studied at Sophia College for Women before earning an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.

Career in Journalism

On graduating from IIM, she first worked as a brand manager for the Times of India. After developing a youth page for The Independent, she went on to found JAM, a youth magazine in collaboration with her husband Yatin Bansal. She is currently a visiting professor at Ashoka university.

Career as an Author

She was inspired to write Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rakesh Basant, a professor at IIM Ahmedabad who suggested she should cover the experiences of 25 entrepreneurs from the school. It turned out to be so successful that 100,000 copies were sold in the first 10 months, eventually recording sales of over 350,000. Her next book, Connect the Dots, traced the progress of entrepreneurs without the MBA qualification. It also proved to be a best seller. Her I Have a Dream focused on social entrepreneurs, introducing an interesting mix of English and Hindi, popularly known as Hinglish, in an attempt to add a more realistic account of her personalities.
In an interview with Heather Timmons of the New York Times, Bansal explained she decided to use Hinglish as it provides a more direct representation of people's voices and "makes them more real". More recently, Bansal has written another four bestsellers on entrepreneurs: Poor Little Rich Slum, Follow Every Rainbow, Take Me Home and Arise Awake. All are concerned with entrepreneurship with advice on how to succeed. She frequently illustrates her ideas with accounts of those who have risen to unexpected heights.

Publications